Fashion Week Breakdown for the Uninitiated

As one of the world’s most famous fashion events, New York Fashion Week (NYFW) draws a lot of interest from fashion lovers and casual enjoyers alike.  

The other fashion weeks you may have heard of are held in Milan, Paris, and London. As the fashion capitols of the world, it makes sense that they would house the most popular weeks. In the four biggest fashion cities, there are typically two main fashion weeks annually, showcasing fashion house’s spring and summer collections in early autumn, and the autumn and winter collections in early spring. New York Fashion Week for spring and summer collections started on Sept. 6. 

Sometimes brands have more than just the two collections yearly, with pre-fall collections before the autumn and winter weeks, resort collections between the spring/summer and autumn/winter collections, and pre-spring collections before the spring and summer weeks. These exist to keep customers engaged in what a fashion house is creating and generate more excitement for the main collections.  

There are also shows for haute couture, which is an extremely regulated and respected type of design only created in Paris. Haute couture is shown in January and July, in Paris, of course.  

While there are over a hundred fashion weeks worldwide, the main four are the most prevalent and draw the most attention. Each of the “Big Four” has its own aesthetic and draws slightly different groups of people in fashion.  

Paris Fashion Week has mostly mainstream labels that practically anyone could recognize, like Christian Louboutin. Milan is similar, also hosting large mainstream brands, but is a bit more daring, with a more maximalist and Italian perspective on fashion, which often includes brands like Versace. London has the most experimental and up-and-coming brands that may not be well known yet. New York usually reflects the cultural diversity you find all over the city. In New York, there is a melting pot of fashion and culture displayed through a mix of distinguished and newer designers and fashion houses.  

As a Floridian girly, one of my favorite fashion weeks is Miami Swim Week. The Miami Fashion Week is mostly focused on swimwear and resort collections. The shows are very different from a traditional runway and usually allow the models more room to show personality and confidence. That being said, fashion weeks are not all about the runway. Many newer designers without the funding of a large fashion house may choose to put on a presentation rather than spend the money on a full runway show.  

Presentations can be done in a few ways, one of the most popular being having stationary models wear the clothes in a walk-through display. Walk-through presentations are not always done for financial reasons, and some designers choose to do them for artistic expression since they may believe the clothes speak for themselves and are better represented in a format where the audience can take more time to look at the pieces.  

It’s also important to mention the impact social media has had on Fashion Week. Since fashion houses are directly available to their clientele via the internet nowadays, many brands are deciding to avoid the traditional route of doing in-person shows at the specified week and instead hold them at a time most convenient for them.  

Fashion is always evolving and changing, and I’m sure 10 years from now fashion week will look totally different. That’s the fun part of fashion! Now that you’re knowledgeable in a huge facet of fashion, take a look at some of the designs being presented over the next week and pick some favorites!

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