PUBLIC SERV-CE NYFW Fall/Winter 2026 Collection Review: Sound in the Absence of Light

For attendees of PUBLIC SERV-CE’s New York Fashion Week runway, Valentine's Day was filled with live music, an intimate venue, and a fabulous men's outerwear collection. Raphael Young, the founder and creative director of PUBLIC SERV-CE, designed “DARK MATTER” as an ode to the unseen, which can instead be “be felt and heard.”

Grammy-award winning rapper-songwriter KayCyy Pluto sound-designed the event, premiering 16 new songs. The show began with an almost romantic violin solo, before being interrupted by a driving mix of high-energy, pulsating backing tracks that created a high-fashion atmosphere with an experimental and electronic twist. For the last few looks, jazz artist Meka Maraschino joined the band, riffing and vocalizing to end the show.

Young masterfully dressed models ranging from NFL players Miles Sanders, Terrion Arnold, Khadarel Hodge, and Joshua Kaindoh to music artists Lekan, DC The Don, and BDifferent with his new collection.

The “DARK MATTER” name can be seen in the sheer lack of white, a stark difference from his collection last season, which featured the color prominently. Instead, the pieces were primarily a bright red and often a shade of black. Many were made of leather, which was the perfect fabric to playfully manipulate the light, which was in turn composed of several glaring spotlights. While outerwear pieces certainly made a statement on their own, the wide range of sunglasses from red and angular to thicker, bug-like frames elevated several of the looks. Moreover, Young contrasted several of his more amorphous and monochrome looks with slightly textured and colored pops through a singular glove on one hand — sometimes lace, sometimes white, and once red. As an extension of these accessories, one of the models even sported a translucent, black cloth that fully obscured their face.

Although several of the pieces may have looked simple, Young incorporated clever movement in each of his looks from tasteful fringes — a highlight of his designs — to ruching and pleating on most of his sleeve and coat styles. As he often stuck to a confined color palette or texture profile within a piece, when a piece integrated a more matte, waterproof material or fur-lined hood with his signature leather, it provided a nice contrast.

Young also experimented consistently with the silhouette of outerwear, producing a baggier, more amorphous fit more often than not, but still including more structured looks into the collection, from a cinched red trench coat to a few comparatively tighter pants. The pieces were typically floor-length and full-coverage, with a few pairs of shorts that were quite long and paired with tights underneath. There was a pair of leather pants with cuts at the knees and many variations in pocket design from cargoesque styles to flatter, more diagonal pockets.

A few garments — especially coats — were almost comically long, extending far past the arms and legs of the models, while others emphasized exaggerated shoulders defined by pronounced structure. A tailored jacket offered a more striking look, however, reaching calf-length past the waistband of the trousers. It was paired with the typical, baggier leather pants seen in several of the designs, which in this case had a slightly different, shinier finish than the jacket.

Although several pieces were relatively free of graphics, many included branding in a small font, usually centered on the high chest area. Some outfits were styled more casually with a graphic tee. Others included more intricate visuals or larger logos. Many of these graphics were quite well-done, either perfectly situated or rightly taking the spotlight.

When looks lacked a graphic, a fantastic array of collar styles were featured instead. Some of the lapels were extremely large with others more upright or in a mockneck style. A few of the exaggerated collars were a bit bulky, but they provided some distinction to an otherwise plain coat. There were several monochrome red leather two-piece sets that had slight deviations, but were all quite oversized.

The stand-out look featured a large jacket that blended into the pants adorned with swaying yellow fringe. The entry broke apart the otherwise repetitive bombardment of the looks that came before it, which were otherwise entirely red.

PUBLIC SERV-CE’s runway was certainly something to love this past Valentine's Day, blending experimental sounds with experimental designs, accentuating simplicity with both striking and subtle adornments.

—Staff Writer Maia M. Abed can be reached at [email protected].