FASHION 101: Fashion Week -- Everything You Need To Know To Be An Insider This Week
Giambattista Valli Haute Couture Spring Summer 2013
You have heard of or maybe bought or borrowed the "Idiot" or "Dummies" editions of books on nearly every subject known to man or woman? There's a fashion for dummies book too, I am sure of it. :)
While fashion is really about clothes there are alot of people around the globe that are employed in fashion.
The Fashion Industry is a multi-billion dollar industry. As in 9 zeros and 2 commas.
Here's my personal run down of Fashion Week 101
so you are in the know just like an Insider:
This is really easy.....just 3 little steps: Where. What. When.
1) Where: Fashion Weeks are held in "the big 4": (in order one after the other so when NYC is over, models and designers fly to the next city) :: New York City, London, Paris, Milan are the "Big 4" of fashions weeks. Los Angeles, Miami, Melbourne, Sydney, Hong Kong, Vancouver, Melbourne, Montreal, Russia, Singapore, Toronto and others around the globe all have their 'weeks' too for their local markets.
2) What: There are many types of fashion weeks: To give an example there is Resort, Swimwear (shown in Miami), Accessories, Men's Fashion, Haute Couture (or high fashion -- the designs flowing down the runways which usually get a lot of negative press for how bizarre they look those shows are all about the designer's creative mind, the future, what's possible and not what is going to sell in the stores to you or me, per se. Shown in Paris in January).
Wendy Evens
Mercedes Benz Fashion Week
New York - Spring/Summer '13
Then there's Ready to Wear (RTW) or prêt-à-porter which is what Fashion Week's are really about (see #1). RTW (and most Haute Couture collections) are shown in a few different venues, such as an exhibit space or hotel ballroom on a runway / catwalk display or show. There is also the view in a Trunk Show; where live models walk around a small intimate setting (hotel room, restaurant, store, art gallery) and the customers can see and feel the clothes right there in front of them. The runway / catwalk is the most popular where there are rows of chairs to seat buyers of stores, photographers, illustrators, stylists to name a few (seeking the latest and greatest for their clients (think high profile people, celebs, etc), celebrities themselves who are a lot like editors and staff of fashion magazines (IE: "Vogue", "Elle", "Harper's Bazaar", "W", "InStyle", etc.) in a visual sense who will give that designer 'free' press when the editor's team cover (or celebs wear) the designers label on their glossy pages in a few months, and there are various media types such as news reporters gathering info, video etc for their market's TV station (as in a "Good Morning America" segment for example) and there are fashion journalists from around the globe too (my career path) covering media for their newspaper, magazine, blog, website, fashion book, etc.
As with most events in our culture, in America and Canada respectively, there is a corporate sponsor. Fashion Week in the Big 4 are sponsored and hold the name by German luxe car maker Mercedes Benz but the event is managed and produced by IMG World.
Carlos Meile Spring/Summer 2012
3) When: Bi-Annually: September shows RTW Spring/Summer (RTW S/S) February shows Fall/Winter (RTW F/W) or Autumn/Winter as it is called in the UK. Designer collections are shown 6-7 months before the clothes are available for sale in a store near you. As with publishing, that gorgeous cover shoot of your favorite model or actor is shot at least 3 months before it's in your hands. The magazine's editorial calendar is always in place and the editorial team is always working on a magazine 3-4 months ahead of time. So, your favorite fashion publication had their fashion and editorial teams front row at the last collection show covering all the buzz, fashion, beauty trends and the like in NYC and internationally and collections are no different; as soon as one show season is over the designer and her/his team is off to be inspired and create next season's collection. Haute Couture collections are shown in Paris in January (S/S) and July (F/W). It's really just a non-stop-fashion-love-affair!
Easy. Now you know.
Welcome to fashion week,
Wendy xx
MORE: If you type in "fashion week" into your Google search you will find every media type from print, online and mass media covering the "weeks".