Whitman-like, no one seemed to better get New York’s dynamic energy, its crosscurrents of culture, its major themes — even its place in a globalizing world — and turn it into art, commentary, and theater. Of course, Adrover is a fashion designer; he makes clothes. But somehow, at a certain moment in time everything came together and transcended mere garments on bodies, partly because the garments themselves were so transcendent, telling stories of street and style, politics and class, life and survival. There was something almost novelistic about a Miguel Adrover runway show that could stir your soul — a rare day in fashion. If McQueen was fashion’s visionary, Adrover was its bard.
     His return, now, is sure to create some fresh excitement. But there will be those, too, who wonder why.
     Although widely considered to be the most important New York designer of that period, he left the city something of a fallen hero, having failed to sustain his business. His rise was meteoric but his fall came quickly. It was one of the more interesting story arcs in fashion in the last decade. It’s been covered at length, so I won’t go into it here, but it all hinged on three main things. Bad attitude: Adrover’s work celebrated fashion but also fiercely critiqued the industry, and some people took offense to both his artistic and public statements. Bad timing: His “Utopia” collection, which continued an exploration of Middle Eastern themes, showed just two days before 9/11, resulting in mumblings of “Taliban” and “terrorist” fashion, stigmatizing Adrover in Patriot-Act America as a pariah. Bad business: His deal with Pegasus was suspect.