NEW YORK:

Don’t misunderstand. The average skateboarder kid likely can’t afford these clothes. Ragazzi sells track jackets in the zone of $500 and little dresses for $600 and more. A few tiny dresses were sculpted in leather this season. But don’t call them luxury.

“I don’t consider myself luxury,” he said. “I think I’m creating, like, a desire. This is what interests me the most, you know. I’m trying to make my product look expensive, but I don’t consider myself luxury.”

Ragazzi does consider himself driven by his celebrity fans. Before decamping Milan for New York, Ragazzi hoped New York would drop a few A-listers onto his front row. He got French Montana, the rapper Gunna – he smoked throughout the show – and a giddy Alexander Wang. “When I design a collection, I always think about a celebrity and a celebrity wearing the piece, so when it winds up on a celebrity, I’m happy,” Ragazzi said.

Also: The Museum at the Fashion Institute of Technology has culled through its voluminous archives of clothing and accessories for a 50th anniversary retrospective, just in time for New York Fashion Week.

The show, “Exhibitionism”, includes highlights from 33 of the museum’s more popular and influential exhibits.

They include red riding hoods and glass slippers from “Fairy Tale Fashion”, a 2016 show that illustrated 15 well-known fairy tales, and a mannequin stepping out of a coffin wearing Thierry Mugler’s vampire dress, from the 2009 show “Gothic: Dark Glamour”. (AP)