More and more American designers are choosing to show their collections in large European cities, rather than in the United States. With this they hope to increase their brand awareness, reach a wider customer base and to secure their future profit. But what is the impact of this on NYFW?
Steven Kolb, CEO and director of the Council of Fashion Designers of America (CFDA), painted an optimistic picture for the future of New York Fashion Week (NYFW) during an opening event in the Rockefeller Center. He celebrated the courage and creativity of American fashion in the context of the 400th anniversary of New York. His vision was spacious and hopeful: fashion as a connecting power, source of inspiration, motorcycle of culture, driver of the economy and above all, champion of creativity.
However, his words seemed to make little impression, given the quiet atmosphere around NYFW spring/summer 26. This season, which ended with shows by Pamella Roland, Elena Velez and Agbobly, there was a feeling that the fashion capital of America loses its appeal to its own designers is growing. It is no secret that the NYFW program has become increasingly thinner in recent years.
NYFW opens with an optimistic façade, while American designers drop out
More and more American designers and brands, from Carolina Herrera and The Row to Thom Browne and Rick Owens, are choosing to present their collections in European cities. In this way they can benefit from the targeted media attention, greater involvement of consumers and premium positioning that are accompanied by deviating from the conventional fashion show.
Striking absences on the official NYFW calendar of this season include Tommy Hilfiger, Ralph Lauren and Carolina Herrera. Ralph Lauren presented his women’s collection for spring 2026 in his private design studio to Madison Avenue 650, one day before the start of NYFW.
Carolina Herrera announced that it would present her spring/summer 26 collection at the Plaza Mayor in Madrid on September 18. Marc Jacobs showed his autumn/winter 25 collection outside the official schedule in the New York Public Library on 30 June. Other former NYFW greats that were missing on the spring/summer 26 schedule are Tommy Hilfiger, Peter Do and Helmut Lang.
In combination with the structural fragmentation of NYFW and an increase in unconventional brand partnerships, the debate about the relevance of NYFW this season continued, despite the presence of international brands such as COS, off-white and Toteme. Many insiders emphasize that the problems of NYFW have been playing for more than twenty years since IMG took over the biennial fashion week from the original organizers, the CFDA.
IMG wanted to further commercialize the fashion week by selling show packages for up to $ 45,000 irigous dollars in international brands that wanted to show in New York. This diluted the attraction of the event. The calendar started to grow, which led to coordination problems and planning conflicts between IMG and the CFDA.
From central to spread: the location problem of NYFW
From 1994 to 2009, Bryant Park was the heart of NYFW. All important shows took place here and designers benefited from a standardized, cost -effective infrastructure. After the worldwide recession of 2008, however, IMG decided to leave this centralized model. Events were moved to different locations in Manhattan and Brooklyn.
Although the diversification of locations offered more opportunities for personalized show formats, it also led to higher production costs and logistics challenges for visitors. Buyers, press and influencers have been complaining about traveling through the city for years to attend various presentations and shows. These operational problems coincided with increasing financial pressure.
The current show budgets regularly exceed the six digits. A fashion show during NYFW costs on average between $ 125,000 and $ 300,000, according to Vogue Business, depending on the location, complexity of production, models, staging, and more. It is therefore not surprising that more and more brands prefer to spend their budgets on other forms of exposure, such as digital marketing campaigns, events abroad and collaborations with influencers, which offer direct public involvement at lower costs.
The problems of NYFW aggravated between 2015 and 2020, when the central junction was moved to various locations, including Spring Studios in Tribeca, Clarkson Square and Skylight at Moynihan Station. Large designers and brands opted for independent show locations and after the pandemic, more and more brands have switched to unconventional presentation rooms, from cultural institutions to industrial complexes.
Rising costs and financing deficit are affecting NYFW
Other factors, such as the presence of celebrities and influencers (brand ambassadorships create contractual limitations), and limited municipal support compared to European fashion weeks (where local governments provide financial assistance), have further affected the strong brand identity of NYFW.
The current city administrators show little interest in restoring the institutional distinction of the event, despite the fact that the fashion industry employs around 180,000 New Yorkers (about one in twenty inhabitants, according to statistics). This limited support is striking given the considerable economic impact of the event: NYFW generates nearly $ 900 million for the city every year, according to the Economic Review, but receives relatively few public investments.
New York places the financing deficit in a disadvantaged position in relation to European fashion capitals, where local governments actively collaborate with organizers of fashion weeks through direct financial support and investments in infrastructure. Without government support, the New York fashion community is highly dependent on private financing for everything from location costs to support programs for emerging designers, making participation more and more expensive and exclusivity is more difficult to maintain.
CFDA launches reforms for NYFW
In response to these structural challenges, the CFDA has implemented reforms through a strategic partnership with KFN, a new fashion platform. KFN’s first initiative, which started this season, focuses on developing physical and digital experiences that increase the reach and impact of NYFW, while the CFDA retains its fundamental role in organizing the official designer calendar.
The most important part of the partnership is setting up a decentralized infrastructure model with ten complementary locations (Venue Collective), all close to each other under 34th Street. The initiative offers participating designers more cost -effective alternatives for various presentation formats, including traditional catwalk shows, static presentations and private agreements. KFN ensured that these locations were available for designers for free in September, in response to the rising production costs that participation of international or emerging designers may have discouraged.
There are also discussions about a restructuring of the biennial format of NYFW. According to various news items, the current presentations in February and September would be merged into one annual event in September, although official confirmation from the CFDA is still not forthcoming. This potential change reflects broader discussions about efficiency and allocation of resources, but the implementation is likely to encounter resistance from established brands that have integrated the current two -seasons structure in their operational frameworks.
While NYFW remains in search of a stronger basis, these possible changes take place in a sector that is already struggling with considerable headwind. The fashion industry has to deal with reduced consumer expenditure and changes in management at large fashion houses, in addition to geopolitical tensions and disturbed supply chains. Given this combination of challenges, the current identity crisis of NYFW is both inevitable and signaling for the unrest in industry.
The question now is whether these reforms can restore the attraction of the event or whether New York Fashion Week should reinvent its role in an increasingly fragmented worldwide fashion landscape.
- American designers are increasingly presenting collections in Europe to increase brand awareness and profit, which has consequences for NYFW.
- NYFW stands for challenges, including a thinner program, location problems, rising costs and limited municipal support.
- The CFDA has implemented reforms, including a collaboration with KFN to offer cost -effective locations and a possible shift to one annual event.
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