February and September for fashion enthusiasts are untouchable months. As consumers’ buying power has grown, and there are more and more creative minds entering the industry, fashion week has evolved in a fashion couple of months with the FW season starting as early as the first weeks of January. But is fashion week still a relevant milestone in the business panorama?

The big four

For fashion, the big four in terms of cities are New York, London, Milan and Paris each with their own characteristics.

New York brings a breath of fresh air with a focus on smaller designers, ready to wear and more commercial styles. We see names such as Michael Kors, Ralph Lauren and Marc Jacobs presenting there. The New York fashion week brings forward the concept of American heritage, expressed by surprising designs. There is also more room for streetwear as well. 

In London, the focus of each fashion week is highlighting the very own of the UK. We are talking about names such as Burberry, JW Anderson and Simone Rocha. The downside of the London fashion seen is that it falls in the middle of the very busy fashion week schedule and right before Milan, a powerhouse.

The Italian city hosts its fashion week on the third week of February and September, with slight adjustments each year. It is home to some of the most powerful brands in the luxury world: Gucci, Versace, Fendi and Prada. Milan’s fashion week is one to watch every year it is some of the more artsy ones, combining the Italian timeless style with modern twists that come from the emerging creative minds.

Paris is closing the big four, coming right after Milan, with big heritage names such as Dior, Saint Laurent, Chanel and Louis Vuitton. In Paris, the most avant-garde designs come out, it’s the place where designers experiment the most out of the big four. 

Completing the frame

With the rise of influencers like Matilda Djerf and Barbara Kristoffersen, scandi fashion has become the it trend for the past years. Copenhagen fashion week has grown exponentially and Berlin likewise, playing the bridge between the nordic hemisphere and the rest of Europe. 

Post Covid, we’ve also seen a stronger dialogue between Asia and other regions of the world. As a result, emerging trends and currents have come from Seoul, Shanghai and Tokyo, that each have their own fashion week. The brands that emerge from there are more niche, but they are regarded highly amongst fashion enthusiasts. They are not trendsetters, but they are for sure the kind of brands that only the trained eye can recognise. 

The latest addition to the fashion week calendar has been the Bucharest fashion week born from the partnership of Mercedes as a sponsor and the Camera Moda Trust, along with multiple other romanian fashion outlets. It is the space for eastern european brands to penetrate the industry. At only its second edition, this March, the Bucharest fashion week is promising to deliver high quality collections. Already having household names such as Leonie Hanne attend the last edition and Chiara Ferragni (the cover of the March edition of Elle Magazine Romania) attending this upcoming one, Bucharest is pushing to become the latest fashion hub. 

Digital presence

With technology always playing a much more important role in our lives than ever before, brands are adapting to these conditions. Nowadays, almost every runway show is broadcasted live by the brand or by Vogue on their social channels. Photos of the collection are uploaded within hours from the event. All of the fashion magazines are taking about the pieces, taking apart the trends, making predictions and turning every show in a chart pie for the consumers to orientate themselves after. 

The digital space has turned fashion more into a game of number than anything else. It has helped with the diffusion of trends so fast that all trends have turned to micro-trends. It has put costumers under the spell of FOMO (fear of missing out) when seeing something on social media.

So with every trend created by the current season of fashion weeks being over already before the actual FW or SS time comes around, is the system still as influential? 

You think you decided to wear that sweater

As little credit as some would like to give to the concept of runways, fashion week and fashion content creators, they are still influential and relevant. Even in the actual paradigm, each fashion week of each city still bears importance in the way we dress. Of course, not everything on the runway will stick to the audience. But behind the curation of the collection there are hundreds of creative minds that make that piece of clothing happen. 

The most recent example is the Gucci burgundy-red that has been around for the last couple of seasons. It totally became part of the brand and was then picked up by fast-fashion, turning it into a global current. We still see some reminiscences of this trend even nowadays in chain stores with the colour becoming some sort of a neutral.

While getting ready to finish this fashion week season off, just heading into the last couple of hubs, it is amazing to see that runways still have major relevance. Brands deserve all the recognition, though, for managing to make fashion week as interactive of an experience as possible using technology and social media. 

_{Featured image: Instagram.}