Fashion Week has changed for good, and the last week and a half was a brilliant display of just how much. Between the many lackluster collections, chaotic crowds, and the seemingly endless amount of venues all over New York City, the event was more like a whirlwind of clout and sweat (and confusion) rather than a display of clothes for Spring 2024.
The questions that came from it were existential and questioned the future of fashion weeks to come. Is a parade of influencers and content creators ruining what was meant to be an industry trade event? Are celebrities sitting in the front row more important to a brand than a buyer who will sell their clothing or a journalist who will write stories about it? And is the scene louder and more important than the clothing?
Probably yes to all of the above. The fashion circus has usurped clothing, and now, in order to move forward, we need to look at what that actually means.
Let’s start with the good. For every industry veteran who (understandably) begrudged the changing tides, someone was finding easier access to an event that historically would have shut them out. One of the fashion shows I attended this week was on a New York City street, and the best part of it was the crowds of people clamoring to catch a glimpse. They were dancing and clapping, making what is usually a quiet event feel more like a party. That’s what fashion is all about, after all - shared connection through clothing.
So what’s lost? When we take the clothing out of fashion week and make it about being seen, we lose so much of what went into actually making and displaying the collections. The models who work devastatingly long hours going from show to show, the designers who put hundreds of hours into a three-minute display, and, of course, the people who worked tirelessly on every hem and stitch. When the loudest and most famous-person-filled room is more important than the most thoughtful garment, it begs the question of what it’s all for. Why have this big, wasteful week of hundreds of garments when all we care about are personal views?
With every moment of disruption, though, there is an opportunity. If we are looking beyond collections but prioritizing the power of voices, it’s a great time to highlight the labor and environmental movement in the industry. This season, Remake hosted an event with Mara Hoffman to announce the reintroduction of the FABRIC Act, a federal anti-wage theft bill that would be a game-changer for garment workers in the United States. The Model Alliance stood outside Spring Studios to urge people to support the Fashion Workers Act, a New York bill that would protect models from predatory management and agency practices. And the Fashion Act, legislation that would tackle environmental issues brought about by fashion, was also reintroduced with a celebration that included lawmakers and advocates.
Fashion is in a crisis, and if the prioritization of followers is taking the charm out of fashion week, why not use it to change the meaning entirely? A recent report from Cornell University’s Global Labor Institute and Schroders highlighted that flooding and extreme heat as a result of climate change could slow down the industry’s growth by nearly 22% between now and 2033. This could be catastrophic for business and, of course, for workers making clothing. Let’s talk about it when millions of eyes are tuned in to Fashion Week from the feeds of their favorite influencers. They could be the voices pushing brands and government for change in an industry we all participate in.
Perhaps it is some fanciful optimism on my part, but fashion doesn’t have to be what it is now. I don’t want to give in to the idea that the crisis is influencers sitting in the front row, not the harmful and opaque supply chain. I saw so many incredible pieces of clothing on the runways and in presentations this week. There were dozens of designers (Bach Mai, Zankov, Eckhaus Latta, to name a few) who thought about the impact their clothing has and used that to make a statement about the future of fashion.
There really is no going back to what fashion week was in the heyday of supermodels and top editors having the final say. Maybe that’s OK. Utilizing the shift to shine a light on the changes that still need to come might be a way for us to return to the reason we do this in the first place.