Why NYFW: Men’s Didn’t Last As A Standalone Event

Amid fashion calendar turmoil, New York Fashion Week: Men’s has changed its strategy to adjust to designers’ changing priorities. For five seasons, the standalone men’s week event hosted about 65 designers during the months of January and July, including legacy brands like Tommy Hilfiger and Perry Ellis, as well as a crew of emerging designer names. But, less than three years after the first NYFW: Men’s premiered in 2015, the January event has been moved to join the main New York Fashion Week schedule. The now 10-day NYFW started on Monday, February 5 with three days of menswear shows. The women’s and coed shows will start on February 8. The July event, however, will remain a separate platform from New York Fashion Week in September. The original goal of a men’s fashion week in January was to bring the designers onto the international men’s schedule, during the stretch of weeks where Paris, London and Milan shows take place, and the major menswear trade show, Pitti Uomo, happens as well. This move aligned the men’s shows with the schedule of the buyers, who were making investments in collections before the main fashion weeks started in February. Having a men’s week in January was supposed to put unknown designers in front of the buyers as they were making their decisions, but it was difficult to convince buyers to make the trip to New York for the event during an already busy season. Read more at Digiday.