On Monday, the CFDA dropped
a huge bomb: It will start working with an outside consulting firm in order to
reevaluate — and possibly overhaul — the existing format of the biannual New
York Fashion Week.
CFDA Chairman Diane von
Furstenberg suggested Fashion Week may one day be more of a consumer-focused
event — perhaps showing collections just as they're hitting sales floors, as
opposed to six months before. Many members of the industry believe that the
current system of showing collections so far in advance is not only irrelevant,
but also confusing and frustrating to consumers, who want to purchase pieces
they see online and on social media right away. A handful of designers have
either already begun to rebel against the format as it stands, or have made an
effort to include their customers as a crucial part of their Fashion Week
audience.
The CFDA has plans to
meet with designers, editors, buyers and the like over the next several weeks
to review ideas for overhauling Fashion Week. Since we have plenty of thoughts
(and questions) of our own, we decided to do the same — under the assumption
that the other fashion capitals will stick with their existing schedules. You
can read both sides below, and we invite you to share your ideas in the
comments.
PROS
New York Fashion Week
is desperately in need over an overhaul. Imagine, for a moment, if the film
industry behaved like the fashion industry — letting all of the spoilers and
reviews of a film go public, and then not releasing it until six months later.
I bet you ticket sales would go down in a big way, and it would be incredibly
challenging to have to build momentum for these films twice, as the fashion
industry is forced to do now. Thus, I'm very much in favor of switching the
show schedule — i.e. showing spring collections in February, and fall
collections in September. Buyers and press could easily see the collections six
months in advance, and critics could have their reviews embargoed until the
show date. Some are skeptical that the embargoes could be kept, but it works for
the film industry. —Lauren Indvik
It would encourage
impulse buying. So often, we see something on the runway and want it
desperately, but by the time it has run in half a dozen editorials and hits
stores six months later, we're bored. And it's not just editors who feel that
way — images of fashion collections are dispersed so widely and immediately
now, dedicated fashion consumers are feeling it, too. Revealing collections to
the public just before they hit stores is a sound way to encourage those purchases,
especially of a collection's most recognizable pieces. Just look at how well it
worked for Balmain and H&M.
It will make it easier
to market the collections. As I mentioned before, the industry is forced to
divide the marketing of a collection into two parts – once when it's shown, and
once again when it hits stores. Wouldn't it be simpler, and far more effective,
to build up momentum in a single timeframe? Again, H&M and its design
collaborators really have it figured out here.
It will make it harder
for the copyists. In WWD, Diane von Furstenberg argued that fast fashion brands
are the ones who benefit most from the fashion calendar as it stands: they can
see a look or trend on the runway, and are able to reproduce it and get it on
sales floors before the designer versions hit stores in six months. Changing
the schedule would make it much harder for the Forever 21s and Jeffrey
Campbells of the world to plan their inventories. Even those who own their own
factories and can churn out a garment in two weeks, like Zara, would be forced
to overhaul their manufacturing schedules. However, it's unlikely that
fast-fashion machine will disappear completely.
CONS
While I certainly see
some positive aspects to the CFDA's reimagined Fashion Week — on the sales side,
specifically — I can't help but fixate on the dozens of questions it brings up,
too. In the interest of conciseness (and playing a bit of devil’s advocate),
I’ve listed three points that make me wonder if abandoning the industry-centric
Fashion Week we know would really be the best solution. —Alyssa Vingan Klein
Everyone already
complains the fashion calendar is too packed — this could make it worse. The
word on everyone’s lips in 2015 when it came to the breakneck pace of the
fashion industry was "burnout," and the unrelenting schedule seemed
to be the number one complaint across the board. However, this reimagined
system wouldn’t do much to alleviate the problem: Editors would still have to
see and review collections six months in advance, while at the same time
covering the new consumer-facing shows; buyers still need to place orders six
months in advance and travel for market each season; and designers would still
be required to maintain the established design schedule and, in addition, plan
a blowout runway event for consumers that would hopefully drive them to
immediately shop their collections. Putting on the show could become a job for
the marketing team, but I don’t see designers relinquishing control of their
visions that easily. Just thinking about it is exhausting — and to me, pretty
confusing.
Designers may show
watered-down, more commercial collections. Obviously, the fashion industry is
first and foremost a business, and it won’t survive if designers and stores
aren’t bringing in sales. But if Fashion Week shows become purely a marketing
tool, it’s difficult to imagine the clothing wouldn’t start to veer towards the
commercial, too. In addition, it could lead designers to spend more time and
money on buzzy gimmicks to bring the most consumer attention to their shows
than they do on creating the collections. Part of the allure of the fashion
industry is the bit of fantasy designers indulge in during their seasonal
shows, as well as the mystery about what goes on behind the scenes. If the “magic”
is gone a few years down the line, consequences could be dire.
Consumers may not pay
attention to shows that aren't celebrity/Kardashian/supermodel affiliated.
Balmain for H&M, the Victoria's Secret Fashion Show, Kanye West for Adidas
and Givenchy’s public New York debut in September were the fashion events that
dominated the social media conversation this year, and they all had one thing
in common: the celebrity stamp of approval. It doesn’t seem likely that
lesser-known (or less-funded) designers would be able to garner the public’s
attention in the same way, begging the question of whether they should put on a
show at all. Sure, there are other viable options like an Insta-show or a short
film, but there’s no way of guaranteeing they will go viral. Moschino and
H&M also saw great retail success this year in releasing collections online
and in-store shortly after their runway shows, but they were relatively
affordable, topping out at $500 or so. Can this sort of shopping fervor extend
to luxury labels like Marc Jacobs or Oscar de la Renta outside of their core
customer base? I’m inclined to say no.
LAUREN INDVIK AND
ALYSSA VINGAN KLEIN
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