Color-field painters are having a moment during fashion month: After an Ellsworth Kelly hung front-and-center at Loewe on Friday, Albert Kriemler on Sunday displayed a supersized replica of a Leon Polk Smith folding-screen work, signaling the inspiration for his spring Akris collection.

Kriemler discovered and acquired the work after seeing it at a 2023 Zurich exhibition devoted to minimalism, and was captivated by how Polk Smith bifurcated his paintings with all kinds of lines — from curvy to angular — and then filled in the two sides with contrasting colors.

“I also give a line to a fabric, which is interesting,” Kriemler mused during a preview.

Kriemler had dedicated his entire fall 2025 collection to navy and its variations, so to play with a vaster palette “was a pure playground fo

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