Overview
Public School New York was founded in 2008 by Dao-Yi Chow and Maxwell Osborne as a menswear label shaped by the experience of dressing in New York. Launched through Barneys New York and produced locally, the early collections joined narrow tailoring, protective outerwear and athletic garments into a dark, layered wardrobe that the designers described as a convergence of the street and the atelier.
Institutional support accelerated the label’s development. Public School entered the inaugural CFDA Fashion Incubator, won the CFDA/Vogue Fashion Fund and major CFDA and Woolmark prizes, and introduced womenswear on its first runway in 2014. Recurring Jordan Brand projects extended the house’s construction-led sportswear into footwear, while Chow and Osborne’s 2015–2016 creative direction of DKNY placed their independent practice alongside a larger New York fashion business.
Public School withdrew from the regular runway and wholesale cycle after 2017 without a clearly documented legal closure. Chow and Osborne returned in February 2026 with Everything Is Now, their first full ready-to-wear show in seven years, rebuilding the label around direct sales, a smaller founder-led structure and a renewed emphasis on menswear, New York production and long-term control.
Philosophy
Public School treats the New York uniform as a working system rather than a fixed look. Its collections combine tailored jackets, broad trousers, parkas, sweats, denim and technical footwear, often using layered construction, restrained colour and garments that shift between formal and athletic categories. The result is pragmatic clothing with altered proportions, concealed functions and enough tension between polish and wear to register on a runway without losing its connection to daily use.
Chow and Osborne design jointly, drawing on public-school competition, hip-hop, downtown dressing, sneaker culture and the city’s mixed social codes. Fabrics from Italian, Japanese and American mills sit alongside an enduring commitment to New York manufacturing. Womenswear, collaborative footwear and the current Seven Seeds system remain parts of the same wardrobe logic rather than separate aesthetic identities.
Timeline
Disclaimer
Creative timeline
Button TextPublic School resumed full collection activity in February 2026 with a direct-to-consumer structure, relaunched e-commerce and a temporary retail programme at High Line Nine. The founders rebuilt the studio around tighter control of product, production, delivery and the brand’s public narrative.
Public School announced its withdrawal from the New York Fashion Week schedule in December 2017 while planning organisational and direct-to-consumer changes. Full ready-to-wear collections then stopped for seven years, a period the founders describe as a pause rather than a clearly documented legal closure.
In 2016, Public School combined menswear and womenswear into two annual off-calendar runway blocks named Collection 1 and Collection 2. The change aligned design and delivery more closely with menswear and pre-collection schedules while reducing the number of separate seasonal shows.
Maxwell Osborne has co-directed Public School New York with Dao-Yi Chow since its 2008 foundation. His emphasis on fit, proportion, footwear and wardrobe function remains central to the label’s joint design process and its 2026 reconstruction.
Dao-Yi Chow has co-directed Public School New York with Maxwell Osborne since its 2008 foundation. He combines garment design with the conceptual framing of the label’s New York uniform, and resumed full collection activity with the founder-led 2026 return.
Public School New York divisions and related structures
The label operates as one house, with menswear at its centre and related categories held inside the main line.
Main line
- Menswear
- Core ready-to-wear division
- Tailoring, outerwear, knitwear and hybrid sportswear have formed the label’s principal collection since 2008.
- Womenswear
- Integrated ready-to-wear division
- Introduced on the Fall 2014 runway, womenswear adapts the same layered tailoring and urban utility to different proportions rather than operating as a diffusion line.
- Accessories
- Main-line product category
- Headwear, bags and small goods extend the house’s uniform system and appear alongside the ready-to-wear.
Current product structure
- Seven Seeds™
- Foundational wardrobe system
- A current group of elevated staples used to organise the rebuilt direct-to-consumer offer; it remains part of Public School New York rather than a separate label.
Public School New York collaborations
Collaborations are most significant when they carry the house’s New York uniform into another product system.
Footwear
- Jordan Brand and Nike
- Recurring footwear collaboration
- Air Jordan 12 and Air Jordan 15 projects, followed by new AJ15 and Air Max Goadome designs for the 2026 return, connected Public School’s tailoring and streetwear language to performance-footwear construction and sneaker culture.
