Before COVID-19 plagued the world and threw a wrench in our lives, Fashion Month proceeded as usual. There was the usual run of shows, the celebratory after-parties, and a nearly endless pool of social media content. New York Fashion Weeklong had the honour of kicking off the inaugural Fashion Month, but attendees complained about the lacklustre in the years before COVID-19.
The loss of Mercedes-Benz as a sponsor and the constant shifting of New York Fashion Week venues from Skylight Moynihan to Skylight Clarkson and Spring Studios grew to frustrate editors, buyers, and stylists who had been attending the event for years.
New York Fashion Week sees big names return to the calendar
With many things after COVID-19, there was a great reset. The first New York Fashion Week post-COVID-19 saw more intimate shows, more selective guest lists, and more quality shows. The era of packing hundreds of people into one space was over. Publicists got more selective about who received invitations, and there was a dip from international editors as fewer people were travelling.
The guests at the shows had returned to what New York Fashion Week once was in the ‘90s; trade show style presentations for industry members with a splattering of a few celebrity clients and big names. While the energy and atmosphere of NYFW were changing, many big-name designers, like Ralph Lauren and Tommy Hilfiger, were missing from the Fashion Calendar.
As NYFW September 2022 nips at the heels of the industry, the fashion calendar looks more impressive than ever. International luxury brands, including Fendi and Marni, are showing, and marquee designers, including Tommy Hilfiger, are planning on staging major shows. After all these seasons, New York Fashion Week is getting what many see as a much-needed reboot.
It’s said with every decade, things must be remade, which is the current approach to New York Fashion Week. With fewer editors than they used to be, brands have turned to influencers to help their collections reach. The new generation of social media influencers is also rising, with TikTok fashion and lifestyle influencers taking over the front rows. This is helping the event appeal to a new generation of future consumers.
In addition to Fendi, Marni, and Tommy Hilfiger, NYFW is also set to see shows from Michael Kors, Tom Ford, Coach, and Carolina Herrera. These brands will surely bring a slate of A-list celebrities to New York Fashion Week as they always, adding to the event’s exposure.
While some are hoping for a New York Fashion Week venue, one of the editors’ complaints about Spring Studios is the inconvenience of waiting for the elevators to take them up to the show spaces. However, with a more select crowd, shuffling attendees in and out has been more manageable.
This is the closest New York Fashion Week is looking to its glory days; longtime attendees discuss when the event was at Bryant Park. Albeit, it is a new generation and approach to things, it’s safe to call it a comeback.
