Fashion is a major industry that has seen many fluctuations in the last century. From the great depression and World War II to globalization, fashion can be divided into functional and luxury markets. The latter market grew exponentially over the past few years with brands like Gucci, Chanel, Yves Saint Laurent achieving high levels of success while still maintaining exclusivity
Fashion Week is an annual series of international fashion exhibitions, also known as catwalks. This week has been dubbed “The Billion Dollar Fashion Week” because it’s expected to be the biggest yet with over $1 billion in projected sales. What are some ways brands can increase their sales?Bloomberg’s Bloomberg’s Billion Dollar Fashion Week 2017 is a global event that has been taking place in New York City for the past 12 years. The show features five days of runway shows, workshops and events from some of the world’s biggest fashion brands by showcasing what will be hot next season.
The “fashion week 2021” is a fashion event that has been present for a while. It was first held in the year of 2008 and it has been going on ever since.
If you follow fashion, you’ll know that we’re in the midst of the season and that Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week in New York ended last week (we’re still in the thick of it in London).
If you’re interested in New York City’s economy, you presumably already knew that. Why is fashion week so important to so many people? There are many reasons, ranging from the obvious, such as beauty, class, status, and culture, to the one factor that, for some, may be the only thing that keeps them interested—money.
We’re talking about a significant sum of money here.
It’s close to a billion bucks. The Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week Spring/Summer 2015 in New York (considered one of the four most significant fashion weeks, alongside Milan, Paris, and London) is expected to bring in an estimated 850 million dollars for the city this year. According to The Wire, tourist expenditures total $532 million.
This includes hotel stays, restaurant reservations, and venue reservations—you name it, folks are out to be entertained and enjoy the city’s pleasures during their fashion week stay.
The fashion sector as a whole has a significant effect on the city, employing over two hundred thousand people, or 5.7 percent of the entire workforce.
How it all started:
Eleanor Lambert, the inaugural fashion week’s organizer in 1943.
How did New York Fashion Week become into the flourishing economic bonanza that it is today? Eleanor Lambert, a fashion industry mover and shaker, determined in 1943 that the United States needed to raise its game when it came to the clothing business. She saw how fashion houses in Paris grabbed press and attention, putting them on the map.
She organized the precursor to what is now known as “Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week” (or #NYFW if you’re on Twitter) to bring this business model to America: it was called “Fashion Press Week,” and it got the designers, fashion houses, and models out there, showing the clothes, creativity, and viewpoint that New York had to offer the world. Since then, they’ve been doing it every year. Lambert also founded the Council of Design Designers of America, or CFDA, which has served as a guiding voice for New York’s fashion industry ever since.
What does the DNC have to do with New York Fashion Week?
Let’s travel back to 1992 for the fashion week episode of the age-old story of money and politics. Fashion week was dubbed “New York is Fashion” back then, and it now had a younger sister: “Restaurant Week.”
This was mainly owing to the fact that in 1992, New York City was showcasing its best goods to the delegates of the Democratic National Convention, according to the Huffington Post. Hosting the Democratic National Convention, like the Olympics and other high-profile events when the world is watching and first impressions count, becomes a reflection and promotion of the host city in certain ways.
Fern Mallis is widely credited for inventing the current New York Fashion Week.
With Fern Mallis, then the Executive Director of the CFDA, at the lead, NYC rose to the occasion and burst the fashion industry at the moment. She made the presentations invite-only and moved them to Bryant Park in glitzy, ethereal white tents, ushering in what many consider to be New York’s golden era of fashion week and laying the groundwork for future extremely profitable fashion weeks.
Low salary for high fashion
So it’s all about the money if you’re involved, right? No, not at all. The questionable treatment of the women and men who walk the runways is the dark side of the fashion week narrative. It’s tough out there for a model, with everything from hazardous, nearly unreachable beauty standards to exploitation of the young.
Governor Cuomo of New York recently signed laws to safeguard child models, including provisions for obligatory supervision of models under the age of 16 and time set aside for schoolwork. Furthermore, contrary to the opulent wealthy model image associated with the opulent settings, new study indicates that the models in these situations get very little of their share of the money—the average model pay is about $33,000 per year.
These problems have prompted some of the industry’s most well-known figures to speak out and establish The Model Alliance, ensuring that individuals who work as models are aware that just though they are technically considered independent contractors, they still have worker’s rights.
“Dreams, entrepreneurship, and creativity,” she says.
Michael Kors presented his Spring/Summer 2015 collection at New York Fashion Week.
Mayor Deblasio, like his predecessor Mayor Bloomberg, understands the significance of wooing the fashion sector in his hometown. The following statement is an excerpt from his speech to fashion’s bigwigs (including current Council of Fashion Designers of America President Diane Von Furstenberg) at a luncheon held for them on the eve of fashion week this year at Gracie Mansion. He went on to add that fashion week is “quintessentially New York,” and that it maintains the city’s renowned image.
Which leads us to a different perspective on how New York Fashion Week impacts the economy. Tastemakers are in attendance, and they’re paying attention. What editors and reviewers of fashion magazines, style sections, and blogs have to say has a direct impact on what consumers desire to wear and, by extension, purchase. Buyers from big department shops, as well as celebrities and journalists, pack the seats during fashion week presentations. What these individuals write after the performances may make or destroy a business.
“Through these pieces, they, more or less, tell people what to dress, who is promising, and who isn’t,” says Alex Abad-Santos. That, in my opinion, is a big task for any week.
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- new york fashion week
- paris fashion week 2020
