New looks on the runway at New York Fashion Week will be met with changes behind the scenes as designers tweak their shows and schedules to meet the needs and expectations of digitally engaged consumers.
About 100 designers will showcase their collections at the fashion fest that begins today. The looks are expected to hark back to the 1980s and feature shirtdresses, well-defined, generous cuts, ruffles and clothes that transcend the seasons.
"I think we are going to see a lot more seasonless merchandise; in other words it is going to be more about layering," said Lizzy Bowring, head of the catwalks Department at trend forecasting and analysis company WGSN.
Another theme will be athletic-inspired fashion and street-style looks, popularized by singers Kanye West, Beyonce and Rihanna, whose Fenty Puma collection will be available in pop-up shops and stores this week.
"A lot of people are going into this realm and I think it is what people are actually buying too," said William Kahn, fashion market and accessories director at Hearst Magazines, Town & Country.
"The celebrity culture is so strong right now, if Beyonce or Rihanna put their name on something it can create a major trend in itself."
While many designers will be showing 2017 Spring/Summer collections that will not be in stores for months, others will try a different format by showing in-season fashions.
Some brands are opting for the "see now, buy now" model with the designs on the runway, or capsule collections, immediately available to customers. Appointment-only presentations are another option, as are online shows and combining men's and women's fashions into one presentation.
Reshma Qureshi, a 19-year-old Indian woman whose face was brutally disfigured in an acid attack, will walk at New York Fashion Week. She is scheduled to walk the runway on Sept. 8 in two shows. Qureshi was attacked by her brother-in-law and pinned down by his friends who doused her face in acid in 2014. Her features were horribly damaged and she lost sight in one eye, but Qureshi has been determined to build a life for herself. She is the face of a campaign to end the open sale of acid in India and appears in videos on YouTube offering beauty tips and makeup advice. The daughter of a taxi driver, she was filmed wiping away tears and smiling when told by the charity Make Love Not Scars that she would be flying to New York.
At New York Fashion Week, Fashion Istanbul, a project culminating in a collective runway show, will introduce five prominent Turkish designers. The participating fashion houses are Erol Albayrak, House of Ogan, L'atelier Cache, 113 STUDIO and Nilüfer Satorius. All fashion houses will be showcasing their Spring/Summer 2017 collections. The project is created by Torius LLC, Nilüfer Satorius, a New York based consulting company and designer for international brands. The designers' collections will be displayed at Nilufer Satorius' 5th Avenue showroom in New York City following the runway show.
