New York Fashion Week has lost longtime designer Alexander Wang. Starting this summer, he is moving his shows from the February and September schedules and place them in June and December. The move is likely to place his designs closer to pre-collection season.
According the company’s announcement, the move “is widely considered to be a transformative solution for the global industry, breaking out of the conventional fashion calendar.” The move also includes combining the pre-collection and main collections into one single collection, thus dividing the label’s products into monthly drops.
In terms of what the new change affects, the new schedule will shorten the time for purchases to four months after the show rather than the former span of six months. This also means that there will not be any ready-to-wear shows from Alexander Wang anytime soon.
The move will also shrink New York Fashion Week, which will likely affect a major portion of local industries such as hotels, restaurants, transportation and florists.
Wang will be the fifth New York designer of his generation to part ways with the official NYFW schedule.