When the Trump administration’s global tariffs went into effect on 7 August, after months of deliberation and delay, New York Fashion Week was exactly five weeks out. For designers preparing to host runway shows, these new duties presented another hurdle to the already precarious balancing act of running an indie fashion upstart.
Jacques Agbobly, founder and creative director of his eponymous label that specialises in artisanal Togolese-inspired designs, says he had to cut looks from his show after some textiles became too expensive. Agbobly says the brand sources materials from New York’s Garment District, which imports most of its materials from Asia. Agbobly’s satin-faced organza, for example, went up thanks to South Korea’s 15 per cent tariff. American tariffs are more extreme on other Asian countries, with China at a 35 per cent rate and India at a 50 per cent rate, versus EU countries at 15 per cent.
Designer Grace Ling says she’s had to be more strategic with her fabric orders this season, using a smaller variety than usual to keep costs in check. For brands that didn’t have to make adjustments on their materials this season, they expect tariffs might impact the next.
Tariffs have disrupted fashion this year as brands scramble to respond to changing rates. While established blue-chip brands with diversified supply chains have been able to mitigate costs, independent designer brands have a tougher time pivoting strategies, especially as tariff rates and timelines have shifted throughout the year. The pressures of collection deliveries aligned with the fashion week calendar have forced some to rethink pricing and wholesale relationships.
Tariffs are most significantly impacting how successfully fashion brands can price their collections without losing money. When a designer sells to a retailer, they cannot retroactively increase agreed-upon prices even if, thanks to tariffs, materials were more expensive than planned.
This happened to designer Jane Wade, who says she made a wool gown using five yards of a fabric from China, originally priced at $50 per yard. Tariffs later doubled the cost to $100 per yard, but the order price was locked in. “We just totally lost money,” Wade says.
Sergio Hudson co-founder and CFO Inga Beckham says the brand also saw slimmer margins for its Autumn/Winter 2025 collection that’s going into stores now. “There were pieces still being made that got hit with additional tariffs because yarns came from China,” she says. As for this season, “We have [this] uncertainty that samples and what we paid for fabric, manufacturing, etc, won’t change.”
It helps if a designer is using fabrics from US mills, most known for cotton and denim weaves, but that’s not a realistic choice for many luxury brands who use textiles that are almost exclusively made elsewhere, like silk. Swapping out fabrics central to their brand ethos seems non-negotiable right now, many say. Ling says she refuses to compromise on quality, and Beckham says she doesn’t see the brand pivoting away from silk linings to something cheaper like polyester.
“I’ve made a lot of products in the US throughout my career, and unfortunately, I think there are just fewer opportunities to do that these days,” Fforme CEO Joey Laurenti says. “Brands manufacture overseas, in Europe and in Asia, because the infrastructure exists there. Trained, skilled and talented workers and factories and companies have built up this infrastructure over a period of [decades].” Under creative director Frances Howie, Fforme had already been planning to lower prices at retail, meaning customers shouldn’t see an increase due to tariffs at checkout. But achieving that — a price cut while tariffs are increasing production costs — is now the challenge at hand.
A lack of funds
Designers say that a lack of sponsorship dollars is putting stress on showing this season. While this has been an ongoing trend in New York, brands say the tariff turbulence this year has exaggerated this issue. Beckham says sponsor dollars are down significantly from last season.
“It’s the climate. No one really knows what’s going on. There’s just so much conversation and so many cutbacks and rollbacks that I feel like the large corporations are scared now,” Beckham says. Ling agrees there’s an overall cautious sentiment from brands that are increasingly reluctant to put money into the US. “People have been pivoting their budgets to Europe. People keep asking me, ‘Can we do [an activation in] Paris?’”
Especially for emerging and indie brands, these partnerships are crucial. “For young designers, we can’t do everything on our own. We can’t meet the demands of the industry on our own. A good way for us to meet those demands is by working with another company or another brand,” Agbobly says. Though he secured a show sponsorship with Nike this season, the 2024 LVMH Prize semi-finalist also noticed financial sponsorships were generally harder to find.
Designer Wade says that targeting less common fashion week sponsors has made all the difference, especially when sponsor dollars are diluted as more fashion brands chase the same companies. She partnered with Docusign for her AW25 show that riffed on corporate office codes.
Amid all of this, buyers are still showing up at New York Fashion Week, but they’re already choosy based on price, so garments costing higher due to tariffs might lead to a reduction in buy size. It’s too early to tell for many, so designers are proactively doing what they can to minimise costs and therefore prices. Some are considering investing more into direct-to-consumer (DTC) channels, but that doesn’t negate how important major retailers are for platforming indie brands. Either way, labels are anticipating turbulence as major American retailers face internal challenges after the late-2024 Saks merger and while the economy remains unsteady.
“The industry was positive on the outlook for American luxury spend at the start of 2025, especially given the strong holiday spend at the end of last year. However, this did not materialise,” says Ashley Wallace, managing director and consumer discretionary analyst at Bank of America Merrill Lynch.
“All of us designers are trying to keep the city alive,” Ling says ahead of NYFW. “Tariffs definitely make it harder, and our lives are difficult enough.”
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