When the New York City Ballet introduces its fall season at tonight's gala, there will be more than jetés and pirouettes on display: The company has collaborated with a foursome of designers to create original costumes for brand-new choreography. Rosie Assoulin paired with Annabelle Lopez Ochoa, Dries Van Noten with Justin Peck, Jason Wu with Peter Walker, and Narciso Rodriguez with Lauren Lovette (Lopez Ochoa is a visiting choreographer and Peck the company's resident dance-maker; Lovette and Walker are both current dancers).

youtubeView full post on Youtube

With that kind of access to design talent, the costuming becomes an integral part of crafting a new work.

"The costuming and the deconstructing of the costuming is the theme of the ballet," Lopez Ochoa explained about her piece, "Unframed." "At the start, everybody's in a man's suit and that relates a little bit to women trying to be empowered by being equal."

Walker relied on Wu's contribution to help structure his piece, finding order in the neon colors he suggested. "The cool thing about collaboration is that you're able to work off of other people's ideas. Once we got the color scheme, it was so clear to me that this movement would be these colors and this movement would be these colors."

The high-fashion connection is nothing new for the troupe—this is the fifth year of the "fall fashion gala"—and the highly collaborative nature of the wardrobing has resulted in what might be the world's most perfect marriage of form and function. While both designer and dancer are line-focused, the conversation always includes the performer providing feedback about what allows them to tackle the choreography.