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The Autumn/Winter 2024 New York Fashion Week shows start tomorrow, 9 February, with a new home base, a Parisian party crasher and an earlier send-off thanks to Thom Browne, who’s anchoring NYFW for the first time with a 5pm show on 14 February — ensuring attendees can make Valentine’s Day plans that evening (or, more realistically, prepare to catch flights to London Fashion Week).
With 97 brands showing, the NYFW schedule is packed full from its kick-off at 12pm eastern on Friday, when Peter Do will show his sophomore collection for Helmut Lang, up to Browne’s finale. The designer and Council of Fashion Designers of America (CFDA) chairman skipped September fashion week, opting to show during Paris Couture Week in July. Of those 97 brands, 49 are hosting runway shows, while 23 will hold presentations. Seventeen designers are showing by appointment only, and seven are on the calendar but releasing their collections digitally.
Unofficially, NYFW started an entire week early on 2 February, when Marc Jacobs returned to the Park Avenue Armory for an intimate, off-calendar show celebrating the designer’s 40 years in the industry. In her show review, Vogue Runway’s global director Nicole Phelps called Jacobs “New York’s most reliable source of fashion highs”. He hasn’t shown on the official calendar in years. The city has shed some of its most recognisable names: Tom Ford has retired; Ralph Lauren dips in and out and shows where he wants. Calvin Klein fell off the calendar in 2018.
This leaves space for more emerging designers to leave their mark, says Steven Kolb, CEO of the CFDA. “I believe in this incubator of new talent as an opportunity for designers to represent American fashion. New York is a network of independent designers.” He notes that beyond Tapestry — which owns Coach, Kate Spade, Stuart Weitzman and soon Michael Kors, Jimmy Choo and Versace once its Capri acquisition is finalised — the fashion industry in New York is not ruled by a dominating conglomerate.
Some New York names are simply more understated in their significance. Kolb notes veterans including Tory Burch, Gabriela Hearst (now focusing solely on her namesake brand), Ulla Johnson, Jason Wu and Proenza Schouler as local powerhouses that have built strong US-based businesses. Tommy Hilfiger will also return to the New York calendar after years of city-hopping, with a new show model. Meanwhile, Phillip Lim is getting creative, with an installation in place of a show that will be made accessible to consumers following the initial Friday opening.
Fashion week has shifted from industry event to massive marketing op, says Kim Fasting Berg, EVP of marketing at WME Fashion. This, she says, is key for the emerging talents that show — and part of the impetus for introducing more consumer-focused elements this season. “Fashion week has changed,” she says. “What once was an industry-only event has now, due to social media and the presence of influencers and celebrities in the front rows, evolved.”
Many insiders have mourned this shift over past seasons, but IMG is leaning in. In Soho, consumers can access a dedicated space for Fashion Week-focused talks and experiences, including a styling studio, model scouting and live show streaming. Tickets for talks sold out in hours, Fasting Berg says. Fashion insiders might not be sold, but clearly, consumers are keen. And if you can’t make it to 21 Greene Street, you can get in on the action by heading to a Bluestone Lane coffee shop for a NYFW-branded latte.
New and notable
There are 10 debut designers on the schedule, including Jane Wade, Colleen Allen, Bishme Cromartie, Meruert Tolegen and Câllas Milano, helmed by veteran Derek Lam (the brand was co-founded by his partner Jan-Hendrik Schlottmann).
Other brands to watch include CFDA Menswear Designer of the Year Award winner Willy Chavarria, whose September show was one of the buzziest. Luar, who closed out the week last season, is also one to watch — his last show drew comparisons to that of early McQueen. Ludovic de Saint Sernin is dropping in from Paris, in a bid to reach the brand’s most prominent direct-to-consumer audience: the US makes up 32 per cent of Ludovic de Saint Sernan’s DTC consumer base. Lafayette, Delpozo and Monse are all back on the cal, too.
With roughly half of this season’s brands holding a runway show, alternative formats that keep names on the schedule are rising to the forefront. “Not everything has to be a runway show,” Fasting Berg says. “It’s very important for designers to create moments that work for them.”
Part of the equation is who’s sitting in the audience. The CFDA’s travel fund, with brand support, is back for a fourth season to help fund the attendance of international editors during fashion weeks. Whether this can make up the difference is another story. “Media budgets have been cut, so it’s hard,” Fasting Berg says. As global retailers and e-commerce platforms face a reckoning, some worry as many buyers won’t be in attendance in New York. Rachel Scott of Diotima, a CFDA/Vogue Fashion Fund finalist, hosted appointments in Paris ahead of her New York presentation to garner as much visibility as possible.
IMG is focusing on its live-stream offering in hope of reaching those who don’t make it to New York. Shows including Thom Browne, Helmut Lang, Diotima and Theophilio will live on the official NYFW website. “Understanding financial issues, this will provide a home where [editors and buyers] can go to see what they need to see,” Fasting Berg says.
For its part, the CFDA serves as a sounding board for young designers navigating whether or not it’s the right time for the runway. “We often discourage them, if they’re not ready. There’s more licence in the by-appointment format.”
Getting there
New to AW24 is the loosely held NYFW home base organised by IMG, which has moved from Spring Studios in Soho to the Starrett-Lehigh Building in West Chelsea on the island’s edge. It’s a near 20-minute walk from the closest subway station, and its location adds to the echoing refrain that New York Fashion Week has become too difficult to navigate efficiently from show to show.
Organisers are doing what they can. IMG’s second venue, Chelsea gallery High Line Nine, where Diotima and Agbobly will present, is a short walk from Starrett-Lehigh Building. The Proenza show is next door at the Chelsea Factory. “We wanted to keep some things together, which is more convenient, obviously for people who run back and forth between venues,” says Dominic Kaffka, SVP and managing director of IMG Focus, which produces many of the shows. But with the likes of Chavarria and Jason Wu out in Greenpoint, convenience is a luxury NYFW-goers simply do not have.
As has come to be par for the course in New York, attendees will have to work the circuit of city sidewalks, the MTA subway system and — as a last resort — Uber Blacks in order to make each appointment. Shows and presentations are sprawled across Manhattan, with six held in Brooklyn. Editors and buyers will need to skip some shows if they wish to make it to the next.
Kolb says that the CFDA under chairman Thom Browne moved to ensure that no designers shared the same time slot. Or at least, that’s the goal. Kolb notes that in general, the schedule is put together with the information the CFDA has — and not all designers have their venue secured by the time the schedule goes out, which makes it prone to inevitable change. Wu, for example, pivoted to Sunday’s 3pm time slot, clashing with Area.
To bring more consistency, Kaffka has also been encouraging clients to show in the same venues as prior seasons, just like Proenza Schouler. “It’s a little more sustainable and it’s what a lot of Europeans do,” he says. “You don’t need to have a new location every season.”
The CFDA, in the role of “air traffic control”, according to Kolb, does what it can but is up against a complex network of moving pieces. He says those who complain should, frankly, chill. “You’re going from fashion show to fashion show. You’re not out in the cold digging ditches. At the end of the day, it’s still a beautiful and rare opportunity. I think we do a phenomenal job with what we have,” Kolb says. “Fashion week is more than just the clothes — it’s the economics. We forget that sometimes.”
Correction: NYFW’s partnership is with Bluestone Lane, not Blue Bottle Coffee.
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