New York Fashion Week starts on Friday, but despite the best, most creative efforts of those involved, interest in what was once one of the industry’s shiniest spectacles is waning. And unlike other cyclical fashion trends, a comeback is unlikely — at least according to Vox.
“This February’s New York Fashion Week will likely look the same as it has in recent years,” the story said, ”which is to say, with fewer and fewer people paying attention.” And that’s because, as the exhaustively researched piece posits, NYFW “has zero relevance to the way modern shoppers buy stuff,” which is a theory that holds a whole bunch of water.
Between the immediacy and access of social media — what was once an exclusive event for the most elite tastemakers is now snackable content for pretty much anyone with a smartphone – and the rise of “drop culture,” which has found success by “creating scarcity, building buzz and dropping limited collections… whenever [a brand wants],” the standard six-month wait between presentation and availability seems arbitrary if not absurd.
And, “as fashion week and the nitty-gritty cycles of high fashion in general have less relevance to consumers’ shopping habits,” the story said, “it isn’t surprising that readers aren’t as interested in hearing about them.”
So it’s “not that the organizers and participants of fashion week haven’t been trying hard to keep it alive,” the story said. “Price points aside, high fashion is as democratized as it’s ever been.” It’s just that consumer culture seems to be moving on.
You can read more about it at Vox.
