2015年02月06日 18:25
Back in August, we reported that a separate New York Men's Fashion Week — something that designers have been pushing for recently — might be close to becoming a reality.
Now it has been confirmed that American menswear designers will in fact have their own dedicated fashion week event in the Big Apple. This summer, the Council of Fashion Designers of America will launch New York Fashion Week: Men's, WWD reported. The first edition of this event will take place from July 13 to 16 at Skylight Clarkson Sq in SoHo.
New York Fashion Week: Men's, which will consist of runway shows, presentations and other events, will coincide with the Project trade show and New York men's market week.
"American men's wear has never been stronger or more creative. There are many reasons the CFDA is launching New York Fashion Week: Men's. It gives the designers a business platform to show during their market dates and is an opportunity to demonstrate the collective talent of an important segment of our industry," CFDA CEO Steven Kolb told WWD.
"The effort to create stand-alone men's shows is not just backed by CFDA and participating designers, but also by the American editors and retailers who have contributed as we have built this, and they will continue to be involved in our planning."
Tommy Hilfiger, Calvin Klein Collection, Michael Kors, Rag & Bone, Public School, Billy Reid, Todd Snyder, Michael Bastian, Ovadia & Sons, Robert Geller, Duckie Brown, Patrik Ervell, Timo Weiland and Kent & Curwen have all agreed to participate in this inaugural event, although it is not yet known who will actually host runways shows and who will contribute in other ways.
The idea behind New York Fashion Week: Men's is to give American menswear designers a level of exposure similar to what their European counterparts get from events such as London Collections: Men.
"What the British Fashion Council has done is impressive. There's a lot we can learn from them," Kolb said.
"We're not naïve enough to think that we're going to create a huge, international mega men's fashion week immediately. We know we have to build it from the ground up. But we're going to do a good job, and we know we'll be able to compete on a more global basis in the future."
Amazon and its fashion-centric sites— Amazon Fashion, East Dane and MyHabit — will act as the New York Fashion Week: Men's presenting sponsor, and additional support will be provided by DreamWorks and Shinola.