Twice every year, all eyes in the fashion industry turn to the four major fashion capitals of the world, New York, London, Milan and Paris. It's in these four cities that during September/October with spring, and February/March with fall fashions that you can find dozens of celebrities sitting front row , editors and buyers checking out the latest trends , and fashion bloggers reporting on anything and everything they hear or see.
The September/October spring ready-to-wear schedule for the "Big 4" went something like this:
The September schedule above is one that industry professionals and enthusiasts alike could always rely on. However, that all changed around October of last year in which the fashion month of September and its subsequent scheduling got messy.
It all began right after the conclusion of the Spring 2012 Ready-to-Wear Collections when reports started to surface that regular fashion week schedule conflicts were causing problems for designers and models at both London and Milan Fashion weeks. Sure enough a week later the Italian Chamber of Fashion put forth the newly decided upon Spring 2013 Fashion Week dates:
- NYFW will run September 13-20
- LFW will run September 21-25
- With MFW landing right in the middle of it all, running September 19-25.
Obviously conflicting heavily on the London and New York dates, industry madness ensued almost immediately.
Criticism on both sides including harsh words and ultimatums were tossed around with Conde Nast, one of the top magazine publishing companies in the world stating that its editors would skip Milan's runway offerings if the Chamber would not reevaluate their dates.
With that gauntlet thrown down, it became similar to what could only be described as a power struggle between the CFDA, BFC (the organizers of New York and London Fashion Week) and the Italian Chamber of Fashion in Milan.
“Let the best one win,” Mario Boselli, head of the Chamber, told WWD. “Italian designers unanimously agreed on the schedule, from the smallest brand to the biggest. They showed great solidarity and Italian pride.”
With little to no hope of negotiation, it came down simply to who would fold first. The organizers of both New York and London, who had been firm in their refusal to alter the show calendar were ultimately the ones, who in the end conceded by having the New York shows start a week early.There seems to be a temporary fix to the problem, yet while New York and London councisl folded on this round, there's no saying that the same arguments won't arise again.
The problem nor the solution is simple, but two points to the issue at hand are:
- Buyers and editors should not have to choose between attending shows, leading only to the angering of the fashion communities in all the cities involved.
- Negotiations and compromise for a permanent fix is a must as an overlapping of these fashion weeks is destructive not only to the balance of the 'Big 4" but to the industry itself.
At this point, I guess we'll have to see what's to come in the long term but hopefully remembering CFDA President Steven Kolb's words along the way "We need to begin to look at the fashion season not as individual fashion weeks, but very much as a global business "
What do you think about the temporary fix? Do you think this will affect the mood of the Fall 2012 season starting this week?
