Radhika (Radhi) Sharma's Blog

With fashion week up and running this year in the largest cities in the world, one might wonder the actual purpose fashion week serves to the industry. These events were designed as a showcase of ideas of the greatest minds in fashion. Fashion week represented the glamour and magic of fashion, and the elite of the elite would join designers in order to witness their talents.

However, the world is changing. We now see that fashion week is witnessed by heiresses and celebrities, but also content creators who show us what the events are really like. Before the age of social media, we got a glimpse of fashion week from magazines and newspapers. Now, I could have watched the London Tommy Hilfiger show through Instagram stories and Snapchat from my dorm in Vancouver.

The logistical reason for fashion week was for the retailer’s sake. The wholesale method requires a middle-man and in the age where fashion shows were necessary, manufacturing would take anywhere from four to six months. Now, brands are attempting to abandon the wholesale method to an increasingly direct-to-consumer model (DTC). In the DTC model, brands utilize e-commerce (smartphone apps or websites) in order to make profits. In general, the DTC model is said to better consumer experience, cut prices by eliminating middleman costs, build brand relationships, but especially is a motive for brands to cut out the middleman of retailers. In this way, consumers are able to buy at the click of a button, have more efficient purchasing, and also designers can collect data in order to produce according to demand. An important point to consider is that manufacturing can be done within days in our age.

To keep fashion week alive and still embrace the DTC model, designers have attempted to use a see-now-buy-now method of selling pieces after shows. However, fashion’s fickleness has proved this attempt unsuccessful. The pieces in those collections are very much out of season, and to consumers, it is too early to begin purchasing.

Another negative aspect is the cost. Brands, such as Tom Ford and Vera Wang have pulled out of Fashion Week this year because of this reason. A show itself can cost over half a million USD. Now, other methods of marketing and showcasing collections have come up, such as social media campaigns, films, and cheaper presentations throughout the year. This not only lowers cost structures, but also allows for a larger reach and audience, and a somewhat more permanent statement. Fashion week is no longer necessary in the industry, and as social media and e-commerce become more prevalent, more brands should shift into accommodating the times.