Is the fashion show dead? It’s the question that the industry has been wriggling with all week as brands have scrambled over each other to deliver their goods to market straight off the catwalk. “See now buy now”, “runway to retail” and “ready to go” are just some of the slogans that have been coined to conjure the new fashion order. They come in the wake of announcements this month, from Burberry and Tom Ford, that from September the brands will sell their collections straight after their shows. It’s had a domino effect in New York, where Michael Kors, Tommy Hilfiger, Coach and DVF offered a select few items for sale straight after their AW16 shows in New York this week.
But what do these seasonal tags even mean any more? And what will the model mean for manufacturers. More pertinent for me, what role does the fashion critic have to play in all this?
The effort has been inspired, largely, by a “consumer-led” desire to abbreviate the time between which things are seen on the runway and when they arrive in store. There has been much talk of how the impact of social media has played havoc with the consumer’s understanding of the fashion calendar. The move has also issued a broadside to those high street retailers who have capitalised on the delay in delivery by replicating the looks (for a fraction of the price) in the interim. “It will cut down on the number of copies we see each season and put the power back in the hands of the brands,” explained Coach chief executive Victor Luis.