New York Fashion Week is easily the most important week of fashion month, but it may also be the most hated. Fashionista reports:
And it seems that rethinking should start with fashion week’s official home, Lincoln Center. In Wilson’s opinion, the move from Bryant Park to Lincoln Center has “been a failure.” Not only are residents in the area suing the city to try to get the week-long commercial event booted, but designers have also expressed dissatisfaction. Apparently “many designers who showed there complained that the environment was beginning to resemble an airport terminal or a trade show, with overwhelming crowds and displays of sponsorships. ”
“The next show comes in and they’re hauling you away like a wedding caterer,” said Vera Wang.
“The thing that’s going to happen is Festival de Cannes,” [Garance] Doré said. “There’ll be barriers to keep the photographers back and branding boards. It’s already on the way.”
This is precisely the reason why, last week, Oscar de la Renta announced he’d be drastically scaling back his show guest list.
“When you do megashows, it loses the reason of why we’re showing,” he said. “It’s important for [certain industry professionals] to look at the clothes and see them. They shouldn’t have to go through 30,000 people, and 10,000 who are trying to take pictures of all of those people who are totally unrelated to the clothes.”
More than all these logistical issues, though, is the fact that many industry vets question whether, in the age of near-instantaneous runway images and livestreams, fashion week even makes sense anymore.
What do you think? Does NYFW need to be rethought?
