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New York Fashion Week officially kicks off today, though — typical to NYFW — it’s already begun. Ralph Lauren brought show-goers out to the Hamptons last night for a star-studded, off-calendar extravaganza set on a runway structured inside Khalily Stables in Bridgehampton. Also true to NYFW, it was a logistical nightmare, with those driving in from Manhattan clocking 5-hour journeys, delaying the show. Let’s hope that’s not an omen for the rest of the week.
Ralph Lauren packs star power into NYFW, but the brand is among headliners that have proven hard to wrangle for consistent seasons. Ralph now dips in and out; the same as last season’s anchor, Council of Fashion Designers of America (CFDA) chairman Thom Browne, who won’t be showing this time around. Proenza Schouler also preempted the calendar with a small show on 4 September.
But with 98 designers on the calendar, there’s no shortage of talent in New York this season, from notable debuts (Presley Oldham) to international guests (Alaïa) and the constants that have continued to drive momentum (Khaite). This season is also bookended by new anchors: Area, celebrating its 10th anniversary this season, opens the official calendar with a 1pm runway show on Friday. The 2023 CFDA/Vogue Fashion Fund winner Melitta Baumeister, making her runway debut, will close out the shows at 5pm on Wednesday, 11 September. Each day in between is packed with presentations and catwalks.
Each NYFW edition is a reminder of just how hard designers have to work to plant their flag and keep going, and this time is no different. Some won’t be showing this season: Altuzarra and Helmut Lang aren’t on the calendar, while Interior shuttered its label in August ahead of this season, citing the volatility of the industry.
That volatility is always a conversation when NYFW rolls around. A new report by the Partnership for New York City, released on Wednesday, dissects New York’s fashion industry (just in time for this season’s shows) and writes that NYFW has “become less prominent” as fewer designers and fashion school graduates remain in the city. It needs reinvigorating, the report reads, with “increased promotion and showcasing more emerging designers”.
Still, the vibes are good and the energy going into this week is high. Julie Gilhart, former fashion director at Barneys and president and founder of consultancy Gilhart Co, says she feels a shift this season. “September is going to be a benchmark month. It’s a great time to be in New York,” she says.
What everyone’s talking about
New York, often chided for not being Milan or Paris, has become a popular destination for designers from those cities to drop in, reinforcing the importance of the American market to international brands. This season, Pieter Mulier for Alaïa, Ib Kamara for Off-White and Ronald van der Kemp will bring their Euro sensibilities to New York City, along with Swedish label Toteme and Budapest-based Nanushka. (In recent seasons, Ludovic de Saint Sernin and Marni have also made pilgrimages.)
These visitors always bring the buzz, but there’s just as much to say about the mainstays who are building their businesses in New York — and therefore defining the city’s fashion landscape. Willy Chavarria, Luar and Khaite may not be old-school New York names, but they’re becoming headliners that offer more context for what American fashion looks like alongside the region’s heritage houses such as Coach. 3.1 Phillip Lim will celebrate 15 years, while Theophilio will return to NYFW after a three-season hiatus.
It wouldn’t be NYFW without the if-you-know-you-know shows that happen both on and off the official calendar: Vogue Runway’s José Criales-Unzueta says that this season, he’s watching Women’s History Museum, Zane Li and Colleen Allen, the latter of whom held her debut presentation last season and is this time showing by appointment only in her showroom, demonstrating that being a part of NYFW doesn’t require shelling out for a runway show — or a slot on the calendar.
That’s always a question that the city’s emerging designers are faced with: to show or not to show? It’s become the norm for designers to go on and off of the schedule, yet a no-show usually comes with some industry murmurs about the potential health of a business.
“It’s a tough year,” says CFDA chief executive Steven Kolb, referencing the Matches shutdown and Saks’s acquisition of Neiman Marcus. “There is some worry for brands, in terms of how they sell. American design does not have an LVMH or Kering. We have a scrappy, focused network of designers. We love that scrappiness and we are also forgiving and give licence to people who may be better off not showing and spending the money elsewhere to invest in fabric or pay a vendor.”
Gilhart says she thinks the stigma around showing one season and taking off the next has lessened, giving more leeway to designers who feel that the two-season calendar is simply too demanding. “There’s not one answer for any designer to deal with the challenges,” she says. “Best-case scenario, you have a few retail advocates and you navigate that tough time together. We weren’t perfect at Barneys, but we tried to be partners.”
At least for a season, the beloved Barneys is a partner again. With Hourglass Cosmetics, the department store is popping up with a space in SoHo during NYFW to showcase all-American design talent. Here, brands including Presley Oldham and Christopher John Rogers will take centre stage. “I’ve been talking with designers who are really struggling with retail in New York, and online. The business isn’t so easy right now, so this is another place to show things. If Barneys existed now, what would be in store?” says Gilhart.
NYFW: The logistics
This time around, there’s no ‘NYFW: The Shows’ home base for designers, a concept previously managed by IMG. After years of setting up at SoHo’s Spring Studios, IMG’s centralised venue last season moved to the Starrett-Lehigh building in Chelsea, for what ended up being a one-time stint. Focus, IMG’s in-house production agency, is putting on several shows throughout NYFW, several in partnership with Hudson Yards. “We’ve seen big shifts in how designers show their collections,” says Kim Fasting Berg, EVP of marketing at WME Fashion, which shares a parent company, Endeavor, with IMG. “Brands wanted our help creating bespoke events and experiences, versus putting a logo on something.”
With a full calendar, and without any centralised venue, the CFDA has made some adjustments to this season to make it easier on attendees who find themselves running up and down the island of Manhattan and over to Brooklyn with little reprieve to catch the next show. No show will start after 8pm to make for earlier nights, and efforts have been made to space out as much as possible. Many brands that typically show in Brooklyn (Willy Chavarria, Luar) are also showing in Manhattan this year. Yet there’s still no getting around the fact that brands will show where they want (looking at Ralph Lauren), or where they may be able to score a deal to help with costs.
Enter: the bus. Last season, Vogue Business editor-at-large Christina Binkley wrote that New York Fashion Week needed a mom. The logistical hurdles of getting to and from shows had taken a toll on attendees, and can disadvantage designers caught in the lurch. This piece gets some credit for the CFDA’s efforts to offer a sponsored bus service that can ferry editors, buyers and other attendees around the show circuit, says Kolb. It wasn’t easy — in July, it was still without a sponsor. But Shop with Google came through as a partner, and the bus will go from show to show with both power outlets and wifi.
“Everything we do at the CFDA requires support from partners — we’re a non-profit, and we’re in this for the long haul. We don’t look at profit and loss. We don’t have any choice. It’s an honour to coordinate fashion week,” says Kolb. “To the extent that there’s more space for us to take more ownership, we’ve stepped up this season.”
Promotion has also stepped up. For the first time, the CFDA has partnered with Rockefeller Center to stream this season’s NYFW shows (in real time, if possible, or in a later broadcast) on a screen taking over the skating rink space. The goal, says Kolb, is to bring the energy of the runways beyond the show slots. “When Thom [Browne] became chairman, he was very interested in the value fashion week brings to New York,” he says. “Fashion week can be a bit inaccessible, outside of maybe social media. This is a front row, live experience.”
Today, the shows are preceded by another public display: the CFDA partnered with Vogue on the Fashion For Our Future march, inviting the fashion industry to come together and encourage voter registration ahead of November’s presidential election.
Does Kolb see the election playing a role in the week’s runways? If past election years prove anything, it will be felt. The CFDA is providing members with a toolkit that has advice on navigating the moment. “One thing in my opinion that separates American fashion from our global counterparts, is this integration of activism and social responsibility into their work,” Kolb says.
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