Is this how New York Fashion Week was last season?
Well, according to a new report, rising costs, a shrinking style sector and low enrollment at local design schools are threatening to topple Gotham as a global fashion hub.
Released Wednesday just days before NYFW, the study by the nonprofit Partnership for New York City detailed the struggles plaguing the city’s apparel industry, which saw a loss of more than 50,000 jobs — a 30% drop — over the decade. recently and declared the Big Apple “has lost a bit of its fashion sheen”.
“The fashion industry has been in decline for years, but it’s an important industry to keep in New York City,” media executive Eric Gertler, who previously worked in economic development in New York City, told The City. both city and state levels.
“It’s not just about nostalgia. It’s part of the fabric of the city, for gaming purposes, and it adds to the dynamism of New York.”
Fashion insiders have indeed expressed concern that the luster has faded. GQ declared it dead while Vogue said those who believe “it’s over just aren’t going to the right shows”.
“NYFW is not dead; it’s just experiencing a welcome change of atmosphere,” Teen Vogue reported last year.
Legendary fashion publicist Kelly Cutrone told The Post that NYFW isn’t dead or dying, but just like styles do, fashion week moves in cycles.
“It’s a really wavy business, the fashion business,” said the People’s Revolution founder. “Sometimes it’s up, sometimes it’s down.”
“Pray for Seventh Avenue,” she added.
Haute Mess
The new study noted that students pursuing fashion degrees at Parsons School of Design, Pratt Institute and the Fashion Institute of Technology decreased by nearly a third from 2016 to 2022, and emerging designers have been pushed back by the rising cost of doing business. $125,000 to $300,000 to show at fashion week.
Plus, NYFW doesn’t have a centralized location—gone are the days of editors huddled in the front row of the Tents at Bryant Park or even the Mercedes-Benz-sponsored house at Lincoln Center—and now it’s scattered all over the place. the metropolis. While it allows labels with big budgets to get creative about where and how their work is presented, it’s a logistical hurdle for young designers who rely on the participation of buyers, editors and investors.
“During my reign, everybody in New York knew it was fashion week,” Fern Mallis, former head of the Council of Fashion Designers of America, told The Post. “You couldn’t go anywhere and not know fashion week was happening. The energy and excitement, the banners in the streets everywhere, was palpable.”
“I doubt now that many people in New York have any idea it’s fashion week.”
The study also blames the spread of fast fashion and the popularity of e-commerce, as production is pushed elsewhere and online retailers encroach on market share. Department stores like Barney’s New York, which closed its doors for good in 2020, brought new designers into the spotlight, but the closure of these “specialty stores” has created limited opportunities for designers to be discovered.
“Who knew Barney’s was so important,” Wylde added.
Then there’s the matter of extra troops — in addition to A-listers getting VIP treatment, social media influencers are now vying for front-row seats.
“You have a whole bunch of kids who think they work in the fashion business and are influencers because they, I don’t know, wear Maybelline mascara,” said Cutrone, who carefully controls the influencers she allows on the show, if at all. “Well, what do you know about fashion?”
Mallis said the invention of the iPhone and, subsequently, social media “changed the name of the game”, with “shows now being for influencers”.
“Now everyone is just doing a show for a moment on Instagram,” she said. “So no one really cares what the big editors and reporters say about a collection, because they’ve all already seen it.”
Best foot forward
But, the show goes on. This season — which officially kicks off Friday with a runway show by Area — has shows on docks as far away as the Hamptons with Ralph Lauren in September. 5. Meanwhile, Tory Burch’s Sept. The 9th runway will be hosted at the Domino Sugar Factory across the East River in Brooklyn, and the Tommy Hilfiger show Sunday evening on the decommissioned ferry MV John F. Kennedy docked at Pier 17.
The CFDA, which owns and operates NYFW, has claimed the biennial event is a “cultural cornerstone of the city.”
This year, the CFDA partnered with Rockefeller Center to broadcast 40 of the week’s 30 Rock’s runway shows, “giving New Yorkers and visitors a front-row seat to the creativity and innovation of American fashion,” CEO Steven Kolb said in a statement.
The shows, which are generally invitation-only and closed to the general public, will be made available for viewing via live stream, which EB Kelly, senior managing director of Tishman Speyer and head of Rockefeller Center, called it the “global epicenter”. of New York Fashion Week.”
However, the study suggested a complete overhaul of NYFW – such as hosting the event in the same location, incorporating the city’s rich history and expanding access to a wider reach.
“Most people in the industry still believe in New York and believe that we are the center of innovation in fashion,” Partnership president and CEO Kathryn Wylde told The City. “The question is how to keep it that way.”
What to see
Despite the report’s warnings of a declining fashion hub, the CFDA has a packed schedule this season, with Beyonce-beloved Loire, innovator Christian Cowan and longtime NYC brands like Coach on the docks.
Among a New York crowd, Proenza Schouler on Wednesday unveiled a spring 2025 ready-to-wear collection filled with stripes, bold buttons and fringes just two days early, as several fashion houses are traveling abroad to appeared in the Big Apple for the first time.
This season is the first for Off-White, which is holding a New York runway show three years after the death of the Milan-based brand’s founder, Virgil Abloh. This, creative director Ib Kamara told Vogue, “has been on the cards for so long.”
“Now is the right time to show up,” he said. “It feels natural to grow and show where so much community is around the brand. I think it’s going to be fantastic and it’s going to feel good to have Off-White in town for the first time.”
Meanwhile, FROLOV, the brand to watch this season, will also present a collection at NYFW on Sunday for the first time.
“New York is the right place to present our collection, to present our brand and to build this bridge between Ukraine at war and all the people of the world,” said Kiev-based creative director Ivan Frolov, who has created ensembles for Beyonce. , Kylie Minogue and Jennifer Lopez told The Post.
His designs recently became a viral spectacle thanks to pop sensation Sabrina Carpenter, who he says “was like magic” to work with. Her concert corsets – with a heart cut out in the center of the body – have become her signature style, inspiring superfans to make the outfit themselves.
“I think every great designer has something. For example, Yves Saint Laurent, his famous dress, or the little black dress from Chanel,” he said, calling the recreations “inspiring” and “the next level of brand identity.”
“[I’m] proud that people love this dress so much they decided to make a copy.”
And, following a successful rooftop show last year, socialite Anna Delvey – under the umbrella of her firm The Outlaw Agency, co-founded by Cutrone to help emerging designers – will produce a three-show line-up in Chelsea now that her house arrest has been released, allowing her to travel outside the confines of her home.
This year, instead of a precarious LES terrace, Pornhub-sponsored shows for POLICY PRIVATE New York, Untitled&Co and SHAO New York will be hosted at the Altman Building to close out fashion week in September. 11.
And while Cutrone doesn’t see NYFW as “the most important fashion week in the world” — that would be Paris, she noted — the Big Apple’s presentations still deserve a world stage.
“It’s been a city of energy,” she said, “and of expression.”
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Image Source : nypost.com