New York Fashion Week Walks It Back

In New York City, the switch from summer to fall changes before the leaves ever turn.

The streets fill with patterns and colors, and the thrill and promise of a new season can be seen in voluminous dresses that sweep others off sidewalks and pants that make the word “pants” seem like an inadequate description.

The second week in September is New York Fashion Week (NYFW), and though it takes place on a few small blocks in the city, the whole world sees and feels what happens there.

But this year, the swirl and swish is quieted and digitized.

COVID-19 health regulations mean temperature checks at the door, outdoor shows capped at 50 people, and indoor ones at 50 percent capacity.

There will be no spectators at any shows, just personnel, vendors, designers, models, and press.

All are subject to travel guidelines if they come from outside New York.

If this sounds like too much trouble for anyone to attend a show in person, you’re right.

The majority of the shows will be digital this year.

Just how many will go on is still not known.

The famed CFDA Fashion Calendar isn’t fully filled out days before the week kicks off.

Oh, and week would be a misnomer, too, because this year fashion week goes from Sept.

13 to Sept.

17. 

The majority of the shows that are on the calendar say “digital activation” beneath the designers’ names.

What those presentations will look like is still unknown, but there is one unifying theme: they’ll be using Runway360, a platform built by design studio De-Yan that allows for 360-degree views of collections and live streaming, as well as e-commerce.

If designers want to show their collections in AR or VR, they can do that, too. 

There won’t be a lot of street style outside the shows since most people will be watching from home, whether with Runway360, on NYFW.com, or on designers’ sites and social media.

But home is a definite trend of the season, and no one knows that more than Lowe’s, which is furnishing the runway sets for Christian Siriano, Jason Wu, and Rebecca Minkoff. 

The Spring/Summer 2021 NYFW shows are not a trendsetter in this regard, though.

In February, Milan Fashion Week had a slow roll of shows closing as the pandemic swept Italy, while Paris Fashion Week was sparsely attended a week later.

When it was time for fashion and the fashion crowd to return to Paris in July for the couture shows, they’d gone all-digital. 

"I am Naomi Campbell and I declare Paris Couture Fashion Week ouvert [open]," the supermodel said in a July Instagram message, which kicked off video presentations from a marvelously mythic Dior film, a more standard presentation sans audience from Dolce & Gabbana, and a short from Iris van Herpen.

While the shows were a success of a kind, winning praise for their beauty, they featured little in the way of clothes and even less as far as fashion as an industry is concerned.

There was no joie, no vivre, no rustle as the clothes went past in vast spaces with vaulted ceilings, no rush of people to see and being seen in the streets, no quick coffees with gossip, no late-night parties followed by sunglass-shielded hangovers the next day.

The ability to go digital has existed for a while, but grateful as we may be that this king of access exists, we're learning that we are very analog beings after all.

In New York City, the switch from summer to fall changes before the leaves ever turn.

The streets fill with patterns and colors, and the thrill and promise of a new season can be seen in voluminous dresses that sweep others off sidewalks and pants that make the word “pants” seem like an inadequate description.

The second week in September is New York Fashion Week (NYFW), and though it takes place on a few small blocks in the city, the whole world sees and feels what happens there.

But this year, the swirl and swish is quieted and digitized.

COVID-19 health regulations mean temperature checks at the door, outdoor shows capped at 50 people, and indoor ones at 50 percent capacity.

There will be no spectators at any shows, just personnel, vendors, designers, models, and press.

All are subject to travel guidelines if they come from outside New York.

If this sounds like too much trouble for anyone to attend a show in person, you’re right.

The majority of the shows will be digital this year.

Just how many will go on is still not known.

The famed CFDA Fashion Calendar isn’t fully filled out days before the week kicks off.

Oh, and week would be a misnomer, too, because this year fashion week goes from Sept.

13 to Sept.

17. 

The majority of the shows that are on the calendar say “digital activation” beneath the designers’ names.

What those presentations will look like is still unknown, but there is one unifying theme: they’ll be using Runway360, a platform built by design studio De-Yan that allows for 360-degree views of collections and live streaming, as well as e-commerce.

If designers want to show their collections in AR or VR, they can do that, too. 

There won’t be a lot of street style outside the shows since most people will be watching from home, whether with Runway360, on NYFW.com, or on designers’ sites and social media.

But home is a definite trend of the season, and no one knows that more than Lowe’s, which is furnishing the runway sets for Christian Siriano, Jason Wu, and Rebecca Minkoff. 

The Spring/Summer 2021 NYFW shows are not a trendsetter in this regard, though.

In February, Milan Fashion Week had a slow roll of shows closing as the pandemic swept Italy, while Paris Fashion Week was sparsely attended a week later.

When it was time for fashion and the fashion crowd to return to Paris in July for the couture shows, they’d gone all-digital. 

"I am Naomi Campbell and I declare Paris Couture Fashion Week ouvert [open]," the supermodel said in a July Instagram message, which kicked off video presentations from a marvelously mythic Dior film, a more standard presentation sans audience from Dolce & Gabbana, and a short from Iris van Herpen.

While the shows were a success of a kind, winning praise for their beauty, they featured little in the way of clothes and even less as far as fashion as an industry is concerned.

There was no joie, no vivre, no rustle as the clothes went past in vast spaces with vaulted ceilings, no rush of people to see and being seen in the streets, no quick coffees with gossip, no late-night parties followed by sunglass-shielded hangovers the next day.

The ability to go digital has existed for a while, but grateful as we may be that this king of access exists, we're learning that we are very analog beings after all.