Is this how New York Fashion Week was last season?
Well, a new report says rising costs, a shrinking style sector and low enrollment at local design schools are threatening to topple Gotham as a global fashion hub.
Published Wednesday, two days before NYFW’s opening day, the study from the nonprofit Partnership for New York City details the struggles plaguing the city’s apparel industry, which saw a loss of more than 50,000 jobs — a 30% drop. – during the last decade. , and declares that 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 NYFW 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 founder of PR shop People’s Revolution. “Sometimes it’s up, sometimes it’s down.”
“Pray for Seventh Avenue,” she added.
High 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 out by rising costs. of doing business, shelling. from $125,000 to $300,000 to appear at Fashion Week.
Plus, NYFW has no centralized location—gone are the days of editors huddled in the front row at the Tetrat in Bryant Park or even the Mercedes-Benz-sponsored house at Lincoln Center. The events are now spread across the metropolis. While this 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 knew it was Fashion Week in New York,” Fern Mallis, former head of the Council of Fashion Designers of America, told The Post. “You couldn’t go anywhere and not know that Fashion Week was happening. The energy and excitement, the banners in the streets everywhere – it was palpable.”
“I doubt now that many people in New York have any idea it’s Fashion Week,” she said.
The study also blames the spread of fast fashion and the popularity of e-commerce: Manufacturing does not take place in cities, and online retailers encroach on brick-and-mortar market share. Department stores like Barneys, which closed its doors for good in 2020, put new creators in the spotlight. Their closure has further limited the opportunities for designers to be discovered.
“Who knew Barneys was so important,” Partnership for New York City president Kathryn Wylde told The City.
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’re in the fashion business and they’re influencers because they’re, I don’t know, wearing Maybelline mascara,” said Cutrone, who carefully controls the influencers she allows on the show, if any. . . “Well, what do you know about fashion?”
Mallis said the invention of the iPhone and social media have “changed the name of the game” so “shows are now 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 everyone has already seen it.”
Best foot forward
But, the show goes on. This season — which officially kicks off Friday with a runway show from Area — has shows on the docket as far away as the Hamptons, with Ralph Lauren in September. 5. Meanwhile, Tory Burch’s Sept. 9 The catwalk will be staged at the Domino Sugar factory across the East River in Brooklyn, and the Tommy Hilfiger show on Sunday evening is aboard the decommissioned ferry MV John F. Kennedy, docked at Pier 17 in the Seaport.
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 runway shows at the 30 Rock rink, “giving New Yorkers and visitors a front-row seat to the creativity and innovation of American fashion,” Steven Kolb, CEO of the council. said in a statement.
The shows, which are usually invitation-only and closed to the general public, will be made available to watch via live stream. EB Kelly, senior managing director of Tishman Speyer and head of Rockefeller Center, called the broadcast “the global epicenter of New York Fashion Week.”
However, the Partnership’s study suggested a complete overhaul of NYFW—like hosting the event in the same location, incorporating the city’s rich history and expanding access to a wider reach.
“Most people from the industry still believe in New York and believe that we are the center of innovation in fashion,” Wylde said. “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 stacked lineup this season, with Beyoncé-loved Loire, innovator Christian Cowan and legacy NYC brands like Coach on the docks.
Amidst a New York crowd, Proenza Schouler made an early presentation Wednesday of its spring 2025 ready-to-wear collection, which is filled with stripes, bold buttons and fringe. Several fashion houses are traveling from abroad to show 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 Beyoncé. , 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 fan re-creations “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, after a successful rooftop show last year, socialite Anna Delvey – under the umbrella of her firm Outlaw Agency, co-founded with Cutrone to help emerging designers – will produce a three-show line-up in Chelsea now that puts her under house arrest have been released, allowing her to travel outside the confines of her home.
This year, instead of an unsafe Lower East Side terrace, Pornhub-sponsored shows for brands Privacy Policy, Untitled Co. and Shao 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