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  • Faust
    kitsch killer
    • Sep 2006
    • 37852

    New York Gets Its Own Men's Fashion Week

    But will anybody come?

    This will be the first-ever dedicated New York Fashion Week: Men’s and follows the much-ballyhooed success (as well as the name) of the London Collections: Men, which started in 2012.


    A week before the autumn-winter 2015 women’s wear collections are due to kick off in New York, the Council of Fashion Designers of America finally confirmed the rumors that have been floating around and announced that it is creating a standalone men’s wear week, to take place from July 13 to 16.

    (O.K., that’s not actually a week, but apparently it counts as one in fashion math.)

    “There are many reasons the C.F.D.A. is launching New York Fashion Week: Men’s,” Steven Kolb, chief executive of the council, said on the group’s blog. “It gives the designers a business platform to show during their market dates, and is an opportunity to demonstrate the collective talent of an important segment of our industry.”

    This will be the first-ever dedicated New York Fashion Week: Men’s and follows the much-ballyhooed success (as well as the name) of London Collections: Men, introduced in 2012.

    It also follows every other men’s fashion week on the schedule (London, June 12-15; Milan, June 20-23; Paris, June 24-28) as well as couture (July 5-10), making the men’s wear season almost as demanding and time-consuming as women’s wear, and eating well into everyone’s summer.

    And, I dare say, it may well revive the old accusations oft-lobbied at women’s wear designers who showed during New York Fashion Week in the old days (for those of us who remember), when it used to take place after the European shows: that they were copying what they had seen overseas. In part to prove them wrong, New York jumped to the head of the pack in 1998.

    Perhaps understandably, not all New York brands are yet committed to the idea — Ralph Lauren is still mulling apparently, and Calvin Klein and Thom Browne, both of which normally show in Milan, are hedging their bets by sticking to their European shows while also committing to hold unspecified events during New York: Men’s.

    “We don’t imagine everyone can participate this first season,” Mr. Kolb wrote in an email this morning while on his way to a spin class. “Some are already contracted elsewhere or have commitments otherwise. Some I imagine will wait and see and want to make sure it is well done. It will be.”

    The brands that show their men’s collections as part of New York’s women’s wear schedule, such as Public School and Duckie Brown, are, understandably, psyched.

    However, this smacks a bit of me-too-ism to me (London is getting so much positive press! We should get some too!). I know men’s wear is supposed to be the future of fashion, and yadda yadda yadda, but at the same time, the whole concept of shows reeks of the past.

    The industry keeps talking about what’s next. Is the answer really more of the same?

    Plus, it is asking a lot financially and personally for international media and buyers to take an extra American trip in July — at least when London was added, everyone was already planning to be in Europe for the other men’s wear shows. That is not the case with the United States. (Unless a trip to the Hamptons was already on their itinerary for the summer.)

    Admittedly, next season, which falls in February 2016, this will be less of an issue: The men’s shows will simply move to the week before the women’s shows, so people will be on their way over anyway. That does mean we will have almost a continuous two and a half months of shows from January to March 2016, between men’s, couture and women’s. But hey, who’s counting?

    (Besides whiny old me.)

    In any case, Mr. Kolb and the C.F.D.A. are managing expectations. “This first season is not being built with the notion that we will attract European press and buyers, although we have plans to bring a very few key people to New York,” he said. “Season one is about building a solid foundation on which we can grow to be more international. I feel the success of what we are creating will attract them in the future.”

    Now the onus is on the council to make the inaugural New York Fashion Week: Men’s really something.

    On the plus side, Amazon, which has long been trying to get into the high-fashion game, sponsoring the Met Ball in 2012, will be the presentation sponsor. (Meanwhile, Yahoo is the main sponsor of the Met Ball this year; interesting, no?) Amazon has deep coffers, a willingness to spend and — more importantly, perhaps — an aura of connectivity.

    Let the men’s wear push begin.
    Fashion is a form of ugliness so intolerable that we have to alter it every six months - Oscar Wilde

    StyleZeitgeist Magazine
  • applecrisp
    Senior Member
    • Jun 2013
    • 104

    #2
    I've been to plenty of mens fashion shows in NYC (and have been involved with quite a few behind the scenes as well) and at the time when I was moving up through the NYC fashion industry I would've loved a Mens Fashion week. It always bummed me out that mens was mixed in and were a cab ride away from each other in Soho or Tribeca or the Village or Chinatown or wherever someone had found an empty room for the week.

    But now, yeah, who cares? NYC fashion is so commercial. Most of the European shows are as well, but NYC is so uninteresting. Most of the brands showing in NYC would do just as well with a lookbook and a linesheet for their buyers and could skip the catwalk. It's all one big egotrip, who needs to see Michael Kors on the runway? Or Rag & Bone for that matter.

    It's good for the smaller designers I suppose, but is it? Or is it just another way to hemorrhage money from a company that likely has very little liquid capital to work with? This is why so few interesting designers are left in NYC, they can't compete with giant companies pumping out boring work under the reign of even larger corporate backers, they just can't spend enough to make enough people aware of their work. And the fact that Amazon is the major sponsor, a company that has absolutely nothing to do with moving design forward in any way other than monetary gain, makes it look even worse. At least Mercedes has some connection to creating well-designed product for their customer.

    I'm curious to see the final schedule. It's interesting that another article I read said that Calvin Klein was showing in NYC but this article says CK is having an "unspecified event" during the week. Seems very iffy and half-assed at this point.

    Comment

    • zamb
      Senior Member
      • Nov 2006
      • 5834

      #3
      YeaHHHHHHHHHHHH

      I personally am very happy and exited to see this and i shall participate in this venture

      it takes A LOT of energy and effort to plan everything to go overseas and do markets and having a dedicate NY fashion week is very good for the increasing mens market in new york!

      I will always and still go to paris, but a local base for ones work is never a bad thing!

      I am Happy!
      “You know,” he says, with a resilient smile, “it is a hard world for poets.”
      .................................................. .......................


      Zam Barrett Spring 2017 Now in stock

      Comment

      • applecrisp
        Senior Member
        • Jun 2013
        • 104

        #4
        I was hoping you'd chime in on this Zam.

        Do you think buyers for the stores you and your peers sell at meet with designers during NYC fashion week? I know they go to all the parties and shake hands/exchange kisses, but I am curious if you think your business will pick up because of it? I feel like most of their buying money has been allocated by the time Paris Mens is over.

        You've also mentioned that your studio is making things for other designers now, do you think you'll be able to create a lot of new business on that side of things?

        Comment

        • zamb
          Senior Member
          • Nov 2006
          • 5834

          #5
          Originally posted by applecrisp View Post
          I was hoping you'd chime in on this Zam.

          Do you think buyers for the stores you and your peers sell at meet with designers during NYC fashion week? I know they go to all the parties and shake hands/exchange kisses, but I am curious if you think your business will pick up because of it? I feel like most of their buying money has been allocated by the time Paris Mens is over.

          You've also mentioned that your studio is making things for other designers now, do you think you'll be able to create a lot of new business on that side of things?
          Some buyers do not come to New York, but before now there was never a reason. I surely don't expect it to be spectacular the first few seasons. but as a NY based Designer I see every reason to support it and be a part of its growth.
          Our business had done tremendously well overseas in Europe and Japan, but we are ways behind in the US Market so doing something in NY can only help to create visibility for the company and give the stores that come an opportunity to see us in NY where it may be less hectic than Paris.
          Stores budget are never closed to a designer doing good work and I don't worry about that, we have a healthy global customer base that we take care of directly so I don't freak out with regards to the wholesale side of things......a mans gift will always make room for him.

          As for Zfactorie productions, we are doing well, not as good as i would like but good enough to be please with the results. the issues we have are internal. It takes time to find people, to train the and to get them to a efficient level where they can do what such a venture demands, which is highly skilled, efficient output......we just hired a new person today, young, from Russia and very good so we are slowly building or team.

          there is no shortage of designers who wants us to do work for them from a production standpoint, but right now we have limited it to two because we want to get everything right first.
          “You know,” he says, with a resilient smile, “it is a hard world for poets.”
          .................................................. .......................


          Zam Barrett Spring 2017 Now in stock

          Comment

          • lupus
            Junior Member
            • Nov 2013
            • 11

            #6
            I feel that the work of the handful of US based designers worth paying any attention to, like Jona or Zam still feel more at home presenting in Paris. All of the other crap that shows in NY kind of overshadows the studios that really push. Though, I really want more out of NY( or the US for that matter). This is a very good thing- the American consumer, if only so very slightly and cautiously, appears to be moving out of the safe-and-cheap heritage inspired realm of menswear that seems to dominate American fashion. I believe for the first few years designers will embrace the NY mens week while still presenting in Paris. The strong accounts that really support the studios that are discussed on this forum are still primarily over seas. Until the American consumer creates more of a demand for good design we are left with rag and bone and more boring heritage.

            But more importantly - Zam, hiring? ;)

            Comment

            • Quiet
              Banned
              • Nov 2014
              • 46

              #7
              this isnt as a surprise as nyfw is slowing down and people have less and less to travel all the way to the states to goto a week of shows. i hope the mens shows breathes life back into the shows here. talking to a few people nyfw only has a few more years left with how things are forcasted. here's to change!

              Comment

              • Blackman
                Member
                • Feb 2011
                • 63

                #8
                I can See Brands like Alexander Wang, StampedLA, En Noir, etc becoming the face of this

                Comment

                • Faust
                  kitsch killer
                  • Sep 2006
                  • 37852

                  #9
                  Originally posted by Quiet View Post
                  this isnt as a surprise as nyfw is slowing down and people have less and less to travel all the way to the states to goto a week of shows. i hope the mens shows breathes life back into the shows here. talking to a few people nyfw only has a few more years left with how things are forcasted. here's to change!
                  Did you read the article? Nobody wants to come here in the first place, let alone two times more a year. And I don't know what this quieting down is - it's busier than ever.
                  Fashion is a form of ugliness so intolerable that we have to alter it every six months - Oscar Wilde

                  StyleZeitgeist Magazine

                  Comment

                  • zamb
                    Senior Member
                    • Nov 2006
                    • 5834

                    #10
                    Originally posted by Faust View Post
                    Did you read the article? Nobody wants to come here in the first place, let alone two times more a year. And I don't know what this quieting down is - it's busier than ever.
                    Dont worry, I think they will have a reason to come
                    “You know,” he says, with a resilient smile, “it is a hard world for poets.”
                    .................................................. .......................


                    Zam Barrett Spring 2017 Now in stock

                    Comment

                    • NOHSAD
                      Senior Member
                      • Nov 2014
                      • 240

                      #11
                      Originally posted by Blackman View Post
                      I can See Brands like Alexander Wang, StampedLA, En Noir, etc becoming the face of this
                      Wang, eh, I can kind of see participating in this. En Noir and especially StampdLA , have no reason to be doing runway presentations as their clothes are fine as it is for look books (choosing the former would be a waste of money depending on who you're asking). If for some reason one of the two decides to partake, it'll just be a marketing move in my opinion.
                      "Instead of feeling alone in a group, it's better to have real solitude all by yourself"

                      ShopDDavis.etsy.com

                      IG: @D.__Dvais

                      Comment

                      • BrokenBoards
                        Senior Member
                        • Jan 2014
                        • 132

                        #12
                        Even VICE is trying to push NYFW back into prominence....

                        Why New York Fashion Week Matters
                        "I would use lard if it came in a pretty bottle."

                        Comment

                        • Faust
                          kitsch killer
                          • Sep 2006
                          • 37852

                          #13
                          Eeeewww...
                          Fashion is a form of ugliness so intolerable that we have to alter it every six months - Oscar Wilde

                          StyleZeitgeist Magazine

                          Comment

                          • Quiet
                            Banned
                            • Nov 2014
                            • 46

                            #14
                            That vice article made me cringe. Maybe they're somehow invested in made fw and with the Mercedes Benz purchase they stand to have something to gain. Hipster bs

                            Comment

                            • maxfrankfort
                              Junior Member
                              • Feb 2015
                              • 1

                              #15
                              I'll check it out if I'm around but it is nothing I am going to drop what im doing and go to

                              Comment

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