Fashion Week fatigue

There is a palpable sense of Fashion Week fatigue in recent coverage of the spring/summer shows. The problem seems to be just the sheer amount of events: a fashion editor or buyer could almost spend the entire year attending fashion weeks as almost every city from Lagos to Singapore now has one. Even major events seem to be under pressure with the recent LA Fashion Week attracting some criticism for a lack of the usual glitterati and industry heavy weights at shows.

A number of major buyers were reported in WWD as opting out of the recent L.A. event:

“I couldn’t sit through another show if you paid me,” said John Eshaya, vice president of women’s wear at Ron Herman, which is renowned for fostering local talent. “My team just got back from Europe and we’ve been seeing shows since the second week in September,” said Ron Frasch, president and chief merchandising officer of Saks Fifth Avenue. “It’s now the end of October. To pick up and go to L.A…it’s not going to happen. We have a business to run.”

It seems that fashion media and buyers are choosing to attend only one or two key events a season and spending more time on personal visits to designers (or just checking out the shows online). Designers may also be placing less value on fashion weeks by simply not showing at all or showing independently outside of the major events – Hugo Boss being a recent example according to Fashion Wire Daily.

WWD: Stars Don’t Come Out: Fashion Week in L.A. Badly In Need of Buzz