The most interesting new venture to surface at New York Fashion Week isn’t a label — it’s a machine for building them. Vanderbilt & Seewald Global Studio, launched by Consuelo Vanderbilt Costin and Michaela Seewald, made its debut with a runway show at Grand Central Terminal’s Vanderbilt Hall, and its business model deserves a closer look.
The proposition is direct: bring investment, strategic guidance, media, technology and direct-to-consumer commerce together in a single operation, then aim that operation at international designers trying to crack the American market — and the global one. The twist that should get founders’ attention: designers keep their ownership, their creative control and their brand identity.
The founders’ résumés explain the ambition. Vanderbilt Costin is the founder and CEO of House of Vanderbilt and a co-founder of SohoMuse; Seewald founded and leads V24 Media as CEO. Between them, they cover heritage branding, media and technology — the three levers that move product in modern fashion.
The debut was staged to impress the money in the room. Mario Lopez emceed for a packed audience at Vanderbilt Hall, and the runway featured three designers who illustrate the venture’s global thesis: Mexico’s Lorena Saravia, fusing Mexican craftsmanship with modern luxury; Stockholm-based Dustin Glickman of DSTN and his “dark cowboy” aesthetic; and Paris couturier Nabil Hayari of Hayari Paris.
The production values told their own story. A color guard representing the U.S. Army and the U.S. Navy added ceremony as America approaches its 250th anniversary; Leslie Ann Lopez gave a special musical performance; and AEXA Technology staged the evening’s coup de théâtre — holograms of Cornelius Vanderbilt, Alva Vanderbilt, Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney and Consuelo Vanderbilt Balsan, appearing in the landmark the family helped shape more than a century ago.
Under the spectacle sits a serious commercial engine. Livestream e-commerce and Click-to-Buy connected the Grand Central runway to consumers everywhere, collapsing the distance between front row and checkout to a single tap.
The designer lineup doubled as a proof of concept. Lorena Saravia’s Mexican craftsmanship-meets-modern-luxury, Dustin Glickman’s Stockholm-bred “dark cowboy” take via DSTN, and Nabil Hayari’s Parisian couture each represent exactly the kind of international talent the studio wants to scale — distinctive, rooted, and ready for bigger markets.
Whether the model scales is the question to watch. But as debuts go — packed house, historic venue, working commerce tech on the night — V&S Global Studio could hardly have asked for a stronger opening statement.
Even the scheduling sent a message: the show started on time, breaking a longstanding NYFW tradition — the kind of operational discipline investors like to see. More at vsglobalstudio.com.
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