New York Fashion Week to be shortened
New York Fashion Week, which usually spans seven to eight days in September, will be shortened to just five days, according to a new plan proposed by the Council of Fashion Designers of America (CFDA).
The idea to streamline the annual event into five days and five nights was proposed by the CFDA’s new chairman Tom Ford, who is taking over from Diane von Furstenberg in June.
Ford, who has already proposed the idea so it will be approved in time for the spring/summer 2020 season, is suggesting the change in an effort to keep NYFW relevant, according to WWD.
“There’s a choice,” Ford told WWD. “All of New York Fashion Week moving toward irrelevance or changing the schedule, trying to reinvigorate it and trying to be as accommodating as possible.”
The new schedule would see NYFW begin on Friday, 6 September and run through Wednesday, 11 September.
According to Ford, the week would involve focusing on the major designers and scheduling other shows around them - which would make it easier for international press and retailers to plan trips and attend.
Shortening the calendar would also mean cutting some designers out altogether - a choice the CFDA is making with help from “people from retail and editorial”.
“We’re not just asking American editors and buyers, but also the internationals,” said Steven Kolb, CFDA’s chief executive officer. “So we’re not sitting here, making this decision ourselves.”
Currently, NYFW runs longer than Fashion Week in London, Paris and Milan.
