How Many Times Will New York Fashion Week Be Declared Dead?

“Fashion week is dead and we need to bring back gatekeeping,” declared digital creator and model, Taylor Hawkins. In another viral TikTok that received over 7.9 million views, content creator @nomoredanny echoed a similar attitude over SS24, “Fashion week was a disaster,” citing the protestors crashing the Coach runway, influencers poorly walking the runway such as Paige Niemann, an Ariana Grande lookalike, and overall bad event etiquette (a la screaming matches outside of event venues over admittance between influencers and PR). The concept of NYFW’s death is not new and seems to gain traction every fashion season. But why? —Is the influencer economy to blame? The never-ending demand of neoliberal capitalism? Prestige fashion houses? Or is it that there is more public accessibility than ever before to attend?

For SS24, many prestige legacy brands and fashion houses decided not to show in New York, instead opting to show across the pond in Paris, London, or Milan. Many are saying it’s oversaturated—no longer an exclusive glitterati affair that blurs business and pleasure for industry insiders. Instead, seemingly becoming a landfill of forgettable social media clickbait. One show burying another for air time, scheduled so closely together in a chic vacuum.

“The integrity is lost. Fashion week is technically a trade show,” says Ebony Brown, a celebrity fashion stylist and union costume designer. Historically, fashion week began as “Press Week” in 1943 by Eleanor Lambert, fashion’s renowned publicist, clustered shows within a week to spotlight American designers and detract attention from French fashion during World War II. The origin of NYFW is to promote fashion collections to buyers, the press, and to have it make waves in the general public. It’s hard to imagine, but NYFW used to be a quiet liaison for buyers to place orders of the latest collections for department stores, a time before having a personal stylist was a crucial job in the world of celebrity promotion. A time before anyone could microdose on fame.

According to a 2020 Forbes article, NYFW brings in 900 million in revenue to the city. Surely, these profit margins have increased since then, but this likens NYFW closer to a tourist attraction parallel to Disney World. For fashion fanatics, NYFW is a monolithic cultural event, and its changing tides aren’t necessarily welcome.

In the SS24 season, there were over 70 official shows with over 230,000 guests to watch the runway in its glory. This doesn’t count the increasing trend of designers opting for off-calendar showings, presentations or private sponsored events such as dinners—invite only and not open to the public. “When non-industry professionals made a fuss about not being able to attend NYFW, the industry subtly started to create a sub culture that’s “inclusive” while the major fashion houses are either showing in Paris or having very exclusive off-calendar events,” says Brown. This makes the public feel included, especially if they open their wallets, while a lot of industry insiders experience fashion week elsewhere at private events.

Last year, it went viral on TikTok on how to scam your way into NYFW. While critics are calling viral runway moments a “gimmick”, referencing performative theatrics that gain traction online. Though, fashion writer Kristen Bateman notes the viral fashion show is nothing new. Social media coverage is democratizing NYFW to anyone who has working internet access. Of course, influencers are an easy target to condemn for the excessive inundation of online coverage.

Or maybe not. “At the heavy-hitter shows, such as Tory Burch or Michael Kors or Proenza Schouler [influencers], they were nowhere to be found,” writes Rachel Tashjian in a review of the latest season. Tashjian declares that for SS24, being offline is the ultimate luxury. So why is so much of NYFW still a virtual experience for everyone who's not invited? And what does it say about the industry to lay a tombstone when mostly European, prestige legacy brands decide to not show in New York?

“A lot of people who say that NYFW is dead sound the same as old dudes claiming that rock is dead. Rock isn’t dead, fashion isn’t dead, it just looks different,” says fashion content creator and actor, Kelley Heyer. The industry has changed drastically within the last 10 years, especially with branding, the direct-to-consumer model, and the necessity of a social media presence. There’s also financial and environmental concerns to consider, especially with the accelerated trend cycle. “I don’t think people realize just how expensive it is for designers, especially newer ones, to put out a full collection two times a year,” says Heyer.

In other ways, NYFW has expanded, particularly in its pursuit of emerging designers. This year, Black in Fashion Council and Folklore held annual showrooms highlighting black designers specifically, and showcased 10 brands including Tia Adeola, Tejahn Burnett, and Khoi to name a few.

This year, technology has also been integrated into NYFW, with Nolcha Shows providing an immersive fashion-tech event at the iconic Mercedes-Benz venue and calling it “fashionology”. The metaverse is now a player in NYFW with digital wear, interactive fashion gaming, and the nature of augmented reality (AR), and virtual reality (VR). Designer Hillary Taymour of Collina Strada, even utilized AI for her SS24 collection and turned it into a collaboration between her and the machine. Maison Meta, the AI creative studio, founded by Cyril Foiret launched an AI Fashion week back in April. All of this is just the tip of the fashion-tech-meet-cute iceberg.

On average it costs $500,000 to put on a runway show, and $100,000 for a showroom presentation. The cost of putting on two runway shows per year has caused some brands to offput showing, so they can focus on creating one solid collection or look for more sponsored-funding. The young designer Elena Velez is known for her transparency around facing bankruptcy as her designs have captured the attention of the press, and big name celebrities. “We’re not saying NYFW is dead, but we don’t know how to support each other and give each other space to survive and for designers to enjoy their moment,” says Lindsey Solomen, founder and CEO of Lindsey Media.

Maybe instead of death, NYFW has grown too big as it tries to rewrite itself into the future and ask for repentance for where it lacks from in the past. The rate at which NYFW is attempting to be everything for everyone in a limited time frame is causing a collective clastrophobic burnout. Not necessarily because it’s open to the public, or that there’s influencers, or viral runway moments, but because the demand is high with little returns. There isn’t enough space to celebrate each designer, an event in its own right—-people are too busy—leaving for the next show, posting their next Instagram story, and catching up on what they have missed from the events they didn’t attend. “Ultimately, we are siphoning off resources from each other for this need of everyone needing to show,” says Solomen. NYFW needs time and space to breathe, otherwise it’s a body buried alive.