Is New York Fashion Week over already?
A new report says rising costs, a shrinking fashion industry and low enrollments at local design schools threaten to cause Gotham to lose its place as a global fashion capital.
It was released on Wednesday, just a few days before NYFW. Nonprofit research Partnership with New York City The mayor detailed the struggles facing New York City's garment industry, which has lost more than 50,000 jobs over the last decade (a 30 percent decline), and declared that the Big Apple has “lost some of its fashion luster.”
“The fashion industry has been in decline for years, but it's an important industry to maintain in New York City,” said Eric Gertler, a media executive who previously worked in economic development for both the city and state. City.
“It's not just nostalgia. It's part of the fabric of the city and contributes to New York's dynamism.”
Fashion industry insiders are certainly concerned that the luster is fading. GQ declared it dead meanwhile Vogue said Those who believe it's “over” are simply not going to the right shows.
“NYFW isn't dead, it's just undergoing a predictable change in tone.” Teen Vogue last year.
Legendary fashion publicist Kelly Cutrone told The Post that NYFW isn't over or declining, but that fashion weeks, like style, move in cycles.
“The fashion industry is a really volatile business,” the People's Revolution founder said. “Sometimes it's up, sometimes it's down.”
“Please pray for Seventh Avenue,” she added.
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A new study finds that the number of students pursuing fashion degrees at Parsons School of Design, Pratt Institute and the Fashion Institute of Technology will fall by nearly a third between 2016 and 2022, and budding designers are being pushed out by rising costs of doing business, which can cost anywhere from $125,000 to $300,000 to show at fashion week.
Additionally, NYFW has no centralized location; gone are the days when editors huddled in a tent in Bryant Park or the front row of a Mercedes-Benz sponsorship home at Lincoln Center. Now, they're spread out across major cities. While NYFW has given bigger-budget brands the opportunity to get creative with where and how they show their work, it has also created logistical obstacles for newer designers who rely on buyers, editors, and investors to show up.
“When I was in office, everybody knew there was fashion week in New York,” Fern Mallis, a former president of the Council of Fashion Designers of America, told The Post. “There was nobody who didn't know there was fashion week going on. The energy and the excitement, the banners all over the city, it was palpable.”
“I don't think a lot of people in New York know that it's fashion week.”
The study also blames the proliferation of fast fashion and e-commerce, as production is shifted elsewhere and online retailers eat into brick-and-mortar market share. Department stores like Barneys New York, which closed permanently in 2020, had put up-and-coming creatives in the spotlight, but the closure of these “specialty stores” has limited the opportunities for designers to be discovered.
“Who knew Barneys was so important,” Wilde added.
Then there's the issue of excess manpower, with A-listers receiving VIP treatment and social media influencers now vying for front-row seats.
“There are a lot of kids out there who think they work in fashion. They're influencers because they wear Maybelline mascara,” said Cutrone, who carefully vets who she allows into her shows. “What do you know about fashion?”
Maris said that with the invention of the iPhone and the subsequent rise of social media, “the name of the game changed” and “the show is now for influencers.”
“Everyone is doing shows just for Instagram now,” she says, “so no one cares what the big editors and reporters have to say about the collection because everyone has already seen it.”
Do your best
But the shows go on. The season officially kicks off on Friday with area runway shows, with shows planned in places as far away as the Hamptons. Ralph Lauren September 5th. Meanwhile, Tory Burch fashion show on September 9th It was held at the Domino Sugar Factory across the East River in Brooklyn. Tommy Hilfiger show Aboard the decommissioned ferry, the MV John F. Kennedy, docked at Pier 17 on Sunday evening.
The CFDA, which owns and produces NYFW, claims the biennial event is a “cultural cornerstone of New York City.”
This year, the CFDA has partnered with Rockefeller Center to stream 40 of the week's fashion shows at the rink on 30 Rock, “giving New York residents and visitors a front-row seat to the creativity and innovation of American fashion,” CEO Steven Kolb said in a statement.
The shows, normally invitation-only and closed to the public, will be available via livestream at what EB Kelly, senior managing director at Tishman Speyer and head of Rockefeller Center, called “the global epicenter of New York Fashion Week.”
But the study recommended an overhaul of New York Fashion Week, including co-locating the events, incorporating the city's rich history and expanding it to be more accessible.
“Most industry insiders still believe that New York is the epicenter of fashion innovation,” Catherine Wilde, president and CEO of the partnership, told The City. “The question is, how do we keep it that way?”
What to see
The report warned of the city's decline as a fashion capital, but the CFDA said this season: Beyonce's favorite lureinnovator Christian Cowan, and established New York brands like Coach. It's in the minutes.
Among our New York friends: Proenza Schouler On Wednesday, the brand showed its spring 2025 ready-to-wear collections, full of stripes, bold buttons and fringe, just two days ahead of schedule, while some fashion houses came to New York from abroad to show for the first time.
This season marks Off-White's first to hold a New York catwalk three years after the death of the Milan-based label's founder, Virgil Abloh. Creative director Yves Kamara said: Popular“That was expected a long time ago.”
“We feel like now is the right time to show,” he said. “It feels natural to grow and show in a place where there is such a large community around the brand. It's fantastic and an amazing feeling for Off-White to show in this city for the first time.”
Meanwhile, FROLOV, a brand to watch this season, is also set to present its collection at NYFW for the first time on Sunday.
“New York is the right place to present our collection, present our brand and build a bridge between war-torn Ukraine and people around the world,” Ivan Frolov, the Kiev-based creative director who has designed costumes for Beyoncé, Kylie Minogue and Jennifer Lopez, told the Post.
His designs recently made waves thanks to pop sensation Sabrina Carpenter, who he says was “magical” to work with, and whose concert corsets with a heart cutout down the center of the bodice became her trademark look. Encouraging enthusiasts to DIY their own clothing.
“I think every big designer has something, like Yves Saint Laurent's famous dress or Chanel's little black dress,” he said. Recreation “Inspirational” and “next level brand identity.”
“[I’m] I'm proud that people loved this dress so much that they decided to make a copy.”
And after last year's hit rooftop show, socialite Anna Delvey will produce a lineup of three shows in Chelsea under the umbrella of her company, Outlaw Agency, which Cutrone co-founded to support emerging designers. Her house arrest was eased.she is now able to travel outside of her home.
This year, instead of the precarious LES Terrace, the Pornhub-sponsored Private Policy New York, Untitled & Co. and Xiao New York shows will take place in the Altman Building, concluding fashion week on September 11th.
Though Cutrone doesn't consider NYFW “the most important fashion week in the world” (that's Paris, she noted), she says the Big Apple presentations still deserve to be on the world stage.
“This was a city of energy and expression,” she said.
