Sander Lak Brings Genderless Label Sanderlak Onto the CFDA's New York Fashion Week Calendar
Sander Lak's label Sanderlak has joined the official New York Fashion Week calendar, taking an evening slot on 11 September for a reshowing of its latest collection. The slot places Lak — a CFDA member since 2018 and the designer behind the now-closed label Sies Marjan — back on a schedule he first appeared on for Fall-Winter 2016. The CFDA, the trade body that organises the NYFW calendar, listed 70 runway shows and presentations across its preliminary September 2026 schedule, with further collections shown by appointment. WWD
Sanderlak's presentation was held at Lak's pop-up store in Chinatown, with garments shown on models and an interactive component for attendees. The event also displayed the label's first two collections: one inspired by Los Angeles by day, the other by the same city at night. The newest collection, the reason for the calendar slot, draws on Lak's teenage years in Holland — pairing the deep blues of stormy Dutch skies with the pinks and purples of tulip fields. WWD
Sanderlak is a genderless venture developed by Lak with backing from angel investors — private individuals who fund early-stage companies. Lak describes it as a New York-based brand, though he has also held showroom appointments in Paris during men's week, the menswear segment of the fashion calendar organised by the Fédération de la Haute Couture et de la Mode, the body that governs French fashion weeks. WWD
The Chinatown store opened in May through a retail residency at 2 East Broadway that ran to 11 June, according to the CFDA. Lak has since extended the lease, hoping to make the space permanent. CFDA
Lak is a familiar figure in American fashion. He was nominated for the CFDA Swarovski Award for emerging talent in 2017 and won it in 2018, the same year his Sies Marjan collections were drawing attention from the CFDA's own NYFW coverage for their inventive use of colour. Sies Marjan showed on the NYFW calendar through Spring-Summer 2020 before the label ceased operations. More recently, Lak was among the guests at a CFDA and WWD dinner at Le Rock marking the close of a New York Fashion Week in February 2026. Business of Fashion | CFDA | CFDA
For a designer whose previous label was known for its colour work, the Holland-inspired palette of the new collection — stormy blues against tulip-bright pinks and purples — reads as a return to that instinct on his own terms, under a structure he controls.
