Has NYC ‘lost its fashion luster’? NYFW under ‘threat,’ study says

Is New York Fashion Week so last season?

Well, according to a new report, burgeoning costs, a shrinking style sector and low enrollment in local design schools are threatening to topple Gotham as the global fashion hub.

Published on Wednesday mere days ahead of NYFW, the study from the non-profit Partnership for New York City detailed the hardships plaguing the city’s garment biz, which saw a loss of more than 50,000 jobs — a 30% decrease — over the past decade and declared the Big Apple “has lost a bit of its fashion luster.”

“The fashion industry has been declining for years but it is an important industry to maintain in New York City,” media executive Eric Gertler, who previously worked in economic development at both city and state levels, told The City.

“It’s not just about nostalgia. It’s part of the fabric of the city, pun intended, and adds to the dynamism of New York.”

Fashion insiders have indeed expressed concern the sparkle has faded. GQ declared it dead while Vogue said those who believe it’s “over are simply not going to the right shows.”

“NYFW isn’t dead; it’s just experiencing an expected vibe shift,” Teen Vogue hopefully reported last year.

Legendary fashion publicist Kelly Cutrone told The Post that NYFW isn’t dead or dying, but just as styles do, fashion week moves in cycles.

“It’s a really wavy business, the fashion business,” the People’s Revolution’s founder said. “Sometimes it’s up, sometimes it’s down.”

“Pray for Seventh Avenue,” she added.

Haute Mess

The new study noted students pursuing fashion degrees at the Parsons School of Design, Pratt Institute and Fashion Institute of Technology decreased by nearly one-third from 2016 to 2022, and emerging designers have been pushed out by the rising cost of doing business, shelling out as much as $125,000 to $300,000 to show at fashion week.

Plus, NYFW has no centralized location — gone are the days of editors huddled in the front row at the Tents at Bryant Park or even the Mercedes-Benz-sponsored home at Lincoln Center — and it’s now scattered throughout the metropolis. While it’s allowed labels with big budgets to get creative with where and how their work is presented, it’s a logistical obstacle course for new designers who rely on the attendance of buyers, editors and investors.

“During my reign, everybody knew in New York it was fashion week,” Fern Mallis, the former Council of Fashion Designers of America head, told The Post. “You couldn’t go anywhere and not know it fashion week was happening. The energy and excitement, banners on streets everywhere, it was palpable,”

“I doubt now that a lot of people in New York have a clue that it’s fashion week.”

The study also blames the proliferation of fast fashion and the popularity of e-commerce, as production is pushed elsewhere and online retailers encroach on brick-and-mortar market share. Department stores like Barney’s New York, which closed its doors permanently in 2020, thrust up-and-coming creatives into the limelight, but the shuttering of such “specialty stores” has created limited opportunities for designers to be discovered.

“Who knew Barney’s was so important,” Wylde added.

Then there’s the issue of extra bodies — in addition to A-listers receiving VIP treatment, social media influencers are now vying for front-row seats.

“You have a whole bunch of kids who think they work in the fashion business and they’re influencers because they, I don’t know, wear Maybelline mascara,” said Cutrone, who carefully vets the influencers she allows into shows, if at all. “Well, what do you know about fashion?”

Mallis said the invention of the iPhone and, subsequently, social media has “changed the name of the game,” with “shows now are for influencers.”

“Now everybody’s just doing a show for an Instagram moment,” she said. “So nobody really cares what the big editors and reporters say about a collection because they all have already seen it.”

Best foot forward

But, the show goes on. This season — which officially kicks off Friday with a runway show from Area — has shows on the docket as far away as the Hamptons with Ralph Lauren on Sept. 5. Meanwhile, Tory Burch’s Sept. 9 catwalk will be hosted in the Domino Sugar Factory across the East River in Brooklyn, and Tommy Hilfiger’s show on Sunday evening aboard the decommissioned MV John F. Kennedy ferry docked at Pier 17.

The CFDA, which owns and operates NYFW, has maintained that the bi-annual event is a “cultural cornerstone of the city.”

This year, the CFDA partnered with Rockefeller Center to stream 40 of the week’s catwalks 30 Rock’s rink, “giving New Yorkers and visitors a front-row seat to the creativity and innovation of American fashion,” CEO Steven Kolb said in a statement.

The shows, which are generally invite-only and closed off to the general public, will be made available for viewing via the livestream, which EB Kelly, the senior managing director of Tishman Speyer and the head of Rockefeller Center, called “the global epicenter of New York Fashion Week.”

However, the study suggested a complete overhaul of NYFW — such as hosting events at the same location, involving the city’s rich history and expanding accessibility for a wider reach.

“Most of the people from industry still believe in New York and believe that we are the center of innovation in fashion,” the Partnership’s president and CEO Kathryn Wylde told The City. “The question is how do we keep it that way.”

What to watch

Despite the report’s warnings of a waning fashion hub, CFDA has a stacked schedule this season, with Beyonce-beloved Luar, innovator Christian Cowan and NYC legacy brands like Coach on the docket.

Among a cohort of New York’s own, Proenza Schouler presented a 2025 spring ready-to-wear collection on Wednesday brimming with stripes, bold buttons and fringe just two days early, while some fashion houses are traveling from overseas to show in the Big Apple for the very first time.

This season is a first for Off-White, which is holding a catwalk in New York three years after the death of the Milan-based brand’s founder Virgil Abloh. This, creative director Ib Kamara told Vogue, “has been in the cards for so long.”

“Now the time feels right to show up,” he said. “It feels natural to grow and show where so much of the community around the brand is. I think it will be amazing and feel great for Off-White to show for the first time in the city.”

Meanwhile, FROLOV, the brand to watch this season, will also present a collection at NYFW on Sunday for the first time.

“New York, it’s the right point to present our collection, to present our brand, and to build this bridge between Ukraine in the war and all people in the world,” Kyiv-based creative director Ivan Frolov, who has created ensembles for Beyonce, Kylie Minogue and Jennifer Lopez, told The Post.

His designs recently became a viral spectacle thanks to pop sensation Sabrina Carpenter, who he says “was like magic” to work with. Her concert corsets — with a cut-out heart in the center of the bodice — have become her hallmark style, inspiring superfans to DIY the garment themselves.

“I think each big designer has something. For example, Yves Saint Laurent, his famous dress, or the little black dress by Chanel,” he said, calling the recreations “inspiring” and “the next level of brand identity.”

“[I’m] proud that people love this dress so much that they decided to make a copy.”

And, after a blockbuster rooftop show last year, socialite Anna Delvey — under the umbrella of her firm The Outlaw Agency, co-founded by Cutrone to help emerging designers — will be producing a three-show lineup in Chelsea now that her house arrest has loosened, allowing her to travel outside the confines of her home.

This year, instead of a precarious LES terrace, the Pornhub-sponsored shows for PRIVATE POLICY New York, Untitled&Co and SHAO New York will be hosted in the Altman Building to close out fashion week on Sept. 11.

And while Cutrone doesn’t see NYFW as “the most important fashion week in the world” — that would be Paris, she noted — the Big Apple’s presentations still deserve a world stage.

“It’s been a city of energy,” she said, “and of expression.”