The traditional structure of Fashion Week, particularly in New York, has been shifting for the past few seasons — and September’s shows felt like a turning point of sorts. This season, a number of designers are shaking up their show formats. Others are rejiggering their geographical logistics of where they're showing. Some are heavily utilizing social media to innovatively share their fall 2016 collections. And a few are taking a hiatus from staging a runway or presentation altogether.
Inclusivity was a big conversation at the spring 2016 shows, particularly concerning Givenchy's NYFW showing: Creative director Riccardo Tisci staged a massive show, in New York instead of Paris, for an audience that included the general public. Beyond Givenchy's one-off jaunt to NYC, we're seeing the fashion industry really consider how to make the Fashion Week experience more accessible, whether via social media or a markedly more diverse show audience. And while we don't quite have a Givenchy-level moment this season, Kanye West did offer up tickets to his Madison Square Garden fashion show-slash-album-release spectacle (mostly for concert-level prices).
This season, there's a heightened focus on consumers instead of the insular crowd that’s historically partaken in the fashion show experience: editors, buyers, stylists, and, more recently, bloggers (plus a few celebrities to populate the front row). It’s arguably a savvy business move, and since collection images crop up instantaneously on social media, it means the six-month lag from show to selling floor just doesn’t really make sense these days. Showing clothing that can immediately be purchased is a win for a wider consumer audience, though an added lift for print editors and store buyers who are still figuring out how to adapt to this lack of lead time.
Ahead, here are 21 noteworthy shuffles to the NYFW experience this season, and some insights into what it all means for the fall '16 collections (and you).
Rebecca Minkoff, An Early-Adopter Of Showing Clothes Available Right Now
Rebecca Minkoff is among the designers banking on a total upheaval of the Fashion Week format. On Saturday, she’ll present her spring 2016 collection again instead of fall clothing — the same looks she showed back in September will hit the selling floor either immediately post-show or within the following month-and-a-half. The consumer-friendly move enables shoppers to “see now, buy now” instead of waiting the traditional six-month span between a collection’s reveal and its availability.
The show will also have an unconventional — and more inclusive — audience, since 30 to 50% of the crowd will be comprised of retailers that stock Minkoff’s line, and those retailers’ top customers. “What this model aims to do is get the consumer excited about retail again, while letting our media, retail, and influencer partners become heroes to their consumers and followers by breaking down the barriers and allowing them to be a part of the conversation,” Minkoff said in a press release.
Though Minkoff is basically trying to be an early adopter of showing current-season wares, she isn’t completely leaving editors and buyers in the dark about what she’s whipping up for fall ’16: Industry folks will be invited to private one-on-one appointments to “afford them the most respect,” per the release.
Another motivation for showing more readily available items is all about the bottom line: Designers might be able to sell greater volumes, at full price, by making stuff shoppable right away. “Retail may still be behind schedule, but Rebecca Minkoff is, and forever will be, pro-consumer,” Uri Minkoff, the brand’s CEO and cofounder (and Rebecca’s brother) said in the release. “Fashion week should be our collective victory lap — a celebration of full price retail that has an emotional connection with our customer that she can access with immediacy.”
Photo: Edward James/Getty Images.
Banana Republic Adds An Element Of Immediacy To (Some Of) Its Fall Showing
Banana Republic is also tinkering with the availability factor this season. Although the retailer will show a fall collection on Saturday (thus adhering to the typical half-dozen months of lead time), not a spring collection, there's a small appeal to want-it-now consumers in the mix.
Six limited-edition pieces will be available online right away as a new direct-to-consumer program. These items will be priced a bit more steeply than your typical BR garb: approximately $100 to $300 each. A release explained that "each item will be offered in a quantity of 100, and labeled with a special limited-edition hangtag showcasing the number of units created for the collection." Here, Banana hits the exclusivity plus immediacy sweet spot.
It’s also the first collection in roughly a year-and-a-half that was designed sans a creative director, following the October departure of Marissa Webb, though she’s still involved with the brand as an advisor. (BR’s parent company, Gap Inc., has retained its minority stake in Webb’s eponymous line, which she's showing again this season.)
This is only the second season that Banana Republic has had a proper NYFW presence — historically it presented to editors. It’s an interesting move for a brand that only joined the NYFW fray recently. Perhaps it'll bring an entirely “available now” collection next time around…
Photo: Gary Gershoff/Getty Images.
Rachel Antonoff Stages A Fall '16 Performance
Rachel Antonoff has never been one for conventional presentations: She's hosted a high school prom, a garden wedding, and — for her big New York Fashion Week homecoming last season — a summer camp at the Plaza. So, how do you top that?
"I have always loved the idea of doing a big musical number as a show," Antonoff tells Refinery29, explaining that her theme for fall '16 meshes well with that idea. While not much can be revealed before curtain, the designer says we can expect a "classic Broadway song-and-dance number," featuring a cast of actual performers from the Great White Way.
As far as what she sees changing in how designers approach traditional presentations, Antonoff explains: "[They're] our twice-a-year chance to show people where the collection lives in our heads, so doing something special and interesting is so important to us!"
Photo: WWD/REX/Shutterstock.
Kanye's Hybrid Yeezy Season 3 Presentation/ The Life Of Pablo Listening Event
Kanye West disrupts the New York Fashion Week ecosystem in a way that's mostly just stressful to publicists and editors: Instead of showing as part of the official calendar, he's announced the dates of both his Yeezy Season 2 show in September and his Season 3 presentation on his own (and last-minute) making other designers work around it or scramble to reschedule.
Details about what Kanye has planned for Yeezy this time have come in piecemeal — and mostly from the man himself — via Twitter. We know he will debut his new album, The Life of Pablo (previously Swish, Waves, and T.L.O.P.) and his collection simultaneously in an event at Madison Square Garden on the first day of Fashion Week.
Tickets made available to the public promptly sold out, but the show will also be broadcast to movie theaters worldwide, as well as live-streamed on Tidal (and, probably, live-documented on all forms of social media by those in attendance). As far as what we can expect from the clothes, we've seen snippets of knits, heels, and beads that all appear to be quite a departure from last season's neutral-heavy, athleisure-meets-shapewear vibe.
Photo: Randy Brooke/Getty Images.
Tom Ford Announces NYFW Show, Promptly Is Like "LOL, JK"
New Yorkers were excited to have Tom Ford on the schedule this season, after years in London, a season in L.A., and an epic dance party music video for spring '16. But, earlier this month, the designer announced he, too, would be switching his presentation schedule to a consumer-facing one, meaning fall '16 will wait until September. “We have been living with a fashion calendar and system that is from another era," Ford said of the change.
Photo: BFA.com/REX/Shutterstock.
The Row's New York Homecoming
We lost the CFDA Award-winning designers to Paris for one season, but Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen are bringing The Row back to New York. It's shaping up to be a big year for the 10-year-old brand: it just introduced shoes for pre-fall, and signed a lease uptown for an East Coast flagship. The Olsen twins also have a lot of exciting things in the pipeline for their other label, Elizabeth and James.
Photo: Jamie McCarthy/Getty Images.
Where's Thakoon?
In December, it was announced that investor Vivian Chou had acquired a majority stake in Thakoon and that the brand would experiment with a “show now, see now, buy now, wear now” business model. An exact timeline wasn't made clear at the time, but the designer was notably absent from the official New York Fashion Week calendar.
A representative for the brand confirmed that Thakoon would not be showing this season, but had no updates about when we might see an upcoming collection. Considering we've already seen his spring '16 line, odds are we may have to wait until September for new looks that are available in real time.
Photo: Michael Stewart/Getty Images.
Proenza Schouler To Release Ready-To-Shop Fall Capsule
Similar to Banana Republic's partial foray into see-now-buy-now, Proenza Schouler will release 14 items — 10 pieces of apparel and four bags — from its fall '16 collection the morning after they make their runway debut. Titled "The Early Edition," this special capsule will be sold at the brand's brick-and-mortar location in downtown Manhattan (and the bags stocked online) for a limited time.
“We wanted to shorten that time frame, make some pieces, and see how [consumers] would react,"Jack McCollough, one half of the design duo, told Business of Fashion. Don't expect PS to totally flip the script on the market timeline. The capsule items were designed more than four months ago so they could go into production. "We don’t want to make any rash decisions or a huge change just yet, McCollough explained. "It’s an experiment.”
Photo: JP Yim/Getty Images.
Tibi Lets Fans In On The Pre-Show Fun
Tibi is approaching Fashion Week inclusivity in a slightly different way: The brand will host a pop-up shop at its actual show venue on Friday, the day before its scheduled runway time.
There, fans can shop Tibi's spring '16 collection, meet its stylists, and get a look at the space before the mayhem. Because the venue features floor-to-ceiling windows that face 10th Avenue and 14th Street, a representative for Tibi explains passersby will be able to watch the show unfold from the street on Saturday.
Photo: Daniel C Sims/Getty Images.
Kendall & Kylie Jenner Fête Their First (Already Shoppable) Collection
At this point, the Jenners (or Kardashians, or any celebrities, really) are familiar faces at Fashion Month. Kendall's a regular on the runway, her extended family cheering her on from the front row. But the sisters took on a different role this time around as designers. They debuted their first real, independent, non-collaboration line of clothing and accessories the Monday before New York Fashion Week.
There was no presentation, no runway spectacle. It was just a party — a consumer-facing one at that, since they were fêting the spring '16 range, which was already shoppable at retailers like Nordstrom, Shopbop, and Saks. The inventory has, surprisingly, not totally sold out yet. But starting out with a see-now, shop-now strategy, it seems the Jenners have a forward-thinking approach to this whole Fashion Week thing.
Photo: BFA/REX/Shutterstock.
Katie Gallagher Opts Out Of Presenting, Hosts Appointments Instead
"We wanted to try something different this season and host appointments for press and buyers during the day with a really fun party to kick off New York Fashion Week in the evening," Katie Gallagher told Refinery29.
The designer has been hosting shows and presentations for years, but decided to switch things up and give people a more intimate look at her collection (and put the focus back on the clothes). Of her 14th season — her first time opting out of a traditional runway show or presentation, her second all-black collection — Gallagher said: "It was really great to be able to show the details and textures up close and personal with everyone."
Photo: Courtesy of Katie Gallagher/Rachel Scroggins.
Rebecca Taylor Continues To Opt Out Of NYFW Mayhem In Favor Of Something More Intimate
Rebecca Taylor's last runway show was for spring '15, in September 2014, and it seems there's no turning back. Since then, the designer has hosted private one-on-one appointments for editors and buyers to see her new collections.
Taylor also screened a film in her showroom this year for spring 2016 and has started posting the official lookbook on Instagram and her blog.
Photo: MCV.
Wes Gordon Uses Timeslot To Premiere Insta-Show
Wes Gordon has a spot on the official New York Fashion Week calendar, but the designer has decided to make a different use of his allotted time. "This season, I decided to present my collection in a different format: I traded the runway for Instagram," Gordon told Refinery29. At 10 a.m. on Friday, Gordon's fall '16 collection will debut on Instagram through a series of short videos.
What's more, each image will be accompanied by a link to pre-order the collection on Moda Operandi. “It's not a replacement for seeing the garments in person but it is an opportunity to experience the collection in a poetic and hopefully easy way," he told Business of Fashion.
Photo: Victor Virgile/Getty Images.
A.P.C. Will Have Its First-Ever NYC Showing
It's been 23 years since A.P.C. opened its first NYC location. But somehow, the cult-adored French brand revered for its jeans has never showed in the Big Apple.
That's about to change on Tuesday, when the brand founded by Jean Touitou puts on a West Village presentation, replete with an athleisure collaboration we're very excited to check out.
Photo: Foc Kan/Getty Images.
Rachel Comey Skips The NYFW (Dinner) Party, Heads To Cali
Much to the delight of editors and other stylish types lucky enough to be on Rachel Comey's invite list, the designer has already defected from the typical harried runway show format for the past two-and-a-half years. Instead, she's created an experiential (not to mention delicious) dinner party, accompanied by a presentation of her latest collection.
This time around, Comey is taking a break from the NYFW schedule and will instead show in late March in Los Angeles. (She will, however, be doing private appointments in New York during NYFW for editors and buyers, and a fall '16 lookbook will be released before the L.A. showing.)
The bicoastal move is happening because of Comey's westward expansion on the retail front: She's opening her first West Coast store location (and second brick-and-mortar location anywhere, with the first and sole Comey outpost located in NYC).
"Shows are 10 minutes and really what are you learning about the brand?" Comey asked Business of Fashion. "The collaborative effort between the environment and the music and models and the chef feels very honest for us and what we are trying to do."
The L.A. presentation is expected to be in a similar "dinner and a show" concept that Comey fangirls have grown accustomed to, according to BoF. The designer is also altering what she's showing, not just where (and when): it'll be a mix of currently available and fall '16 items.
Photo: Fernando Leon/Getty Images.
Tommy Hilfiger Embraces Social Media's Role At Fashion Shows
Tommy Hilfiger will have an “InstaPit” where prominent bloggers will be placed at his show on Monday in order to get the best, most Like-able shots. The space will “complement the traditional media riser,” according to a press release, and is intended to “reflect the brand’s ongoing vision to further democratize the show experience.”
Hilfiger may be pioneering this conceit, but he probably won’t be the last: We’re bound to see more designers tailoring the Fashion Week experience to accommodate social media coverage as it becomes increasingly more prevalent (and important to their success).
He’s also giving a somewhat select faction of his audience — those donning Apple Watches — a very VIP experience this season. Hilfiger will be the first designer to have a dedicated “fast lane” for Apple Watch-wearers to check in, using the newly launched, Apple Watch-specific app for GPS Radar (the program used by designers and PR companies to digitally send and track show confirmations).
Photo: Catwalking/Getty Images.
Tracy Reese Made A Film — & She's Skipping The Catwalk
Tracy Reese, who has typically done runway shows, is sort of overshadowing — but not completely ditching — a NYFW presence this season. She’s aiming to create a more “immersive fashion show experience by showing a short film about her hometown of Detroit," Alyssa Jones, Reese's director of communications, told Refinery29.
"The film captures the Detroit Tracy grew up in, the hard times of the city, and the rebirth it's currently going through," Jones added. "With our departure from runway and Detroit's metaphorical rise from the ashes, it's very timely." The film will debut on Sunday afternoon, concurrent with an intimate presentation the designer will be holding at NYFW.
“We’re looking to the future. Are we going to be going direct-to-consumer soon?” Reese suggests in a WWD interview “We’re not sure. But we’re all feeling a little bit of runway fatigue.”
For a designer who’s very reliably held classic catwalk showings from season to season, it’s a subtle but notable shift. And since Reese certainly isn’t the only designer who’s feeling that sense of fatigue, there will likely be other designers experimenting with meaningful multimedia add-ons in coming seasons.
Photo: Brian Ach/Getty Images.
Misha Nonoo Ditches NYFW Altogether
Last season, Misha Nonoo tried out this concept with an "Insta-show" inspired by a conversation with Sheryl Sandberg. Nonoo showed her designs with lookbook-like shots on an Instagram account created just for the collection, @mishanonoo_show. Though that was just a few months ago, the concept felt progressive, relevant, and more inclusive of the wider public that doesn't get access to NYFW.
This time around, Nonoo is sitting out NYFW entirely. Why? "This decision is something that I had been thinking about for a long time. I am always thinking about my woman and how I can make her life easier," Nonoo told Refinery29. "The 'Insta-show' validated that my customer shops online. This project was the first step towards me making this shift in my business."
Will other brands that make the bulk of their sales via e-comm follow suit?
Photo: Courtesy of Misha Nonoo/Matthew Kristal.
Rihanna Will Definitely Be At NYFW — As A Designer
This season, RiRi is presenting her Puma collaboration, entitled Fenty x Puma, with a full-on runway show in the Financial District. The frequent front-row presence has been women's creative director for Puma since December 2014.
She announced the news with a tweet (as one does these days) providing a link to a Diamond Ball auction item on Paddle8 for a pair of front-row seats to her show, with a starting bid of $15K.
One thing's for sure: The pieces are very likely to sell out, as evidenced by those creepers from Rihanna's first collab with the sportswear brand.
Photo: Courtesy of Puma.
Ralph Rucci Is Staging A Comeback
A year-and-a-half after abruptly leaving his namesake company, Ralph Rucci is back on the NYFW schedule with a brand new line, entitled RR331.
“I want it to be a surprise because of the nature of what I’m doing," Rucci told WWD back in December.
The new collection, clearly still shrouded in mystery, will be revealed at a presentation on Tuesday. How will his couture (and couture-level) craftsmanship translate to a wider price range? Stay tuned...
Photo: Slaven Vlasic/Getty Images.
The Fresh Faces To Watch
More designers may be opting out of the calendar, but there are still new names popping up each season that keep things exciting. Some have been around for a few seasons, others for a few years — either way, fall '16 marks a big milestone in their histories.
Chris Leba founded R13 Denim in 2009, but the brand only made its New York Fashion Week debut on Wednesday night. Canadian design duo (and sisters) Parris and Chloe Gordon are bringing their Lady Gaga-vetted brand Beaufille stateside for the first time. Other names to watch out for: Ev Bessar, Anna K, Lyz Olko, and many more.
Photo: Courtesy of Beaufille.Like what you see? How about some more R29 goodness, right here?
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