New York – Several months ago, it was announced that the CFDA was in talks with the
Boston Consulting Group to discuss the possibility of shifting the New York
Fashion Week calendar to a consumer focused model. This morning, CFDA
released the results of the study, which involved over 50 formal interviews
with industry insiders, including designers, retailers, buyers, members of
the press, influencers, and corporations who are regularly involved with
Fashion Week.
Rather than laying out provisions for action, the study expanded the
conversation that has been going on around the bi-yearly format of Fashion
Week. The results of the study highlighted challenges in the fashion
industry, such as in-season relevancy, newness perceived by consumers, and
creative burnout among designers.
The study did provide some models for designers, both new and more
established ones, to follow such as doing intimate presentations four to
six months before a collection’s delivery, bi-annual, in-season activations
geared towards consumers, and offering capsule collections immediately
available after runway shows. Other suggestions such as merging main and
pre-season collections and adopting the time of the pre-collection calendar
were offered.
For the moment being, it looks like the see now, buy now approach that many
traditionalists in the industry were worried the CFDA would take isn’t
happening. However, that doesn’t mean that there won’t be any designers who
take that approach. Rebecca Minkoff adopted the see now, buy now approach
for her recent Fashion Week presentation. Over in London, where they also
seemed more hospitable to the idea of a see now, buy now model, Burberry
held an in-season show during London Fashion Week.
The association also called for a necessary dialogue between brands and
retailers, in hopes of better aligning delivery dates to match with the
seasons.
Numerous industry figures voiced their opinions for the study including
Bergdorf Goodman’s Linda Fargo, Neiman Marcus’s Ken Downing, Saks Fifth
Avenue’s Marc Metrick, and Michael Kors just to name a few.
While it doesn’t look like there will be a major overhaul to the fashion
calendar anytime soon, at least designers now have a comprehensive study of
options they can take towards doing what is best for them in terms of
Fashion Week and the retail schedule. This survey certainly isn’t the
be-all, end-all to this discussion, and designers will have to keep
reevaluating their approach with the ever changing state of fashion. A
concluding statement to the study said “Ultimately, it is up to the brands
to decide what works best for them, and the CFDA will support designers as
they experiment and define what is right for their collections.”
photo:hypebeast.com