New York Fashion Week this season has put
“click and buy” on the map, revolutionizing the antiquated global fashion
calendar with clothes that now can be ordered straight from the catwalk.
For more than 100 years, the world of high fashion has been divided up
into
four seasons — spring/summer, autumn/winter.
Designers debut their collections at fashion week, fashion magazines
write
them up and go to print a few months before the clothes are available to buy
in boutiques — six months after they first grace the runway.
But gone are the days when only magazine editors, socialites and the
in-crowd grace a fashion show. The rise of Instagram, Snapchat, live feeds
and
bloggers now zaps images from the catwalk across the Internet in real time.
That means that high-end clients no longer want to burn thousands of
dollars on an outfit that has been plastered all over the Internet for six
months. She’s bored, she wants something new.
“The younger customer does not want to wait any longer, they want to
see it
and wear it that day or the next day. So we’re going to change the rules,”
American designer Tommy Hilfiger told AFP at his Chelsea studios.
In September, Hilfiger customers will be able to buy his collection
straight from the catwalk in what he calls “click and buy.”
This season New York designer Rebecca Minkoff led the way, launching
#SEEBUYWEAR that offered 70 percent of the items featured in her runway show
for immediate purchase.
While the vast majority of New York runway shows have focused on
fall/winter 2016, Minkoff’s collection was immediate — spring/summer 2016
—
which provided the snow stops falling id just weeks around the corner.
Others sticking a toe in the water are Tory Burch, Diane von Furstenberg
and LaQuan Smith, who offered items from their collections for immediate
sale.
As with Hilfiger, British luxury label Burberry and Tom Ford are
scheduled
to follow suit in September.
The Council of Fashion Designers of America has hired consultants to
suggest changes and is to release its findings in March, but already
considers
the current model redundant and confusing.
“We’re entering a society where people to be able to click on what
they see
and buy it,” said Marshal Cohen, a retail industry analyst at The NPD Group.
“It is all about fast fashion, speed to market, convenience to the
consumer.”
But Cohen said it would be tough to enact change.
“It’s going to be a difficult challenge… because some of these people
design these things a year and half, two years in advance. It takes eight
months to make a pattern. They’re going to have to learn how to speed it
up.”
So great is the lag that high street giants can beat high-end
designers to
it. For example, Swedish fast fashion giants H&M can spot something on the
runway, make a copy and have it in stores in two months, Cohen said.
“We think it will only accelerate over time,” Minkoff told AFP. Until now
the timetable has been “easy and safe and comfortable,” she said. “We like
to
take risks and we’re not afraid of taking risks.”
The effect on sales remains to be seen but Uri Minkoff, CEO of his
sister’s
label, said sales were up 10 percent from wholesale partners in the last
month.
“They’re so excited. Right now, the stores can act on all this big press
and excitement,” he said.
But American designer Zac Posen expressed reservations about
sustainability.
“Fast fashion is gonna destroy the world, it’s going to pollute the
oceans,” he told AFP backstage at his fashion show. In last few years, the
amount of clothing being thrown out had tripled and quadrupled, he said.
“It’s great that there’s accessible style items, but just like you saw…
in the food industry, where we went into people understanding sustainability
and sourcing of where things come, the same will happen in fashion,” he
said. (AFP)