Michael Kors to opt out from New York Fashion Week

The creator declared today that he has opted out of New York Fashion Week, planned for this year for the week of September 14, for a spring 2021 introduction in the mid-October to mid-November period.

This announcement has been prompted by the virus-imposed lockdown, and this kept their customers away from the stores for a long period of time, resulting in a huge amount of unsold inventory.  This shutdown also disrupted their supply-chain and thus delayed the production and deliveries of the collections relating to falls 2020.

Kors believes that his customers should be given the time to absorb the fall deliveries which will be arriving in September and not overburden and confuse them with additional designs, products, and ideas. Moving his date by a month will crumple the time between the Kors' spring show and its conveyance, however it does not qualify as a ‘see now-buy now’ show. Most of the designer brands are adopting see now-buy now. We've been finding out about the "see now, buy now" marvel and how it is changing the way shoppers’ shop and how designers plan their assortments. Barely few brands have adopted this strategy, it's been said that the fashion business needs to change the manner in which it considers consumers shopping to keep up with the of the quicker and quicker demand of new items and that "see now, buy now" could be an extraordinary method to do it.

Preceding the late 1990s, the New York spring assortments were shown from late October to the start of November, after the Paris assortments. This calendar was in place for many years and it exhibited great results back then. Michael Kors believe that in this age where customers are influenced by the speed of social media, it makes more sense to show the assortment closer to when it will be delivered.

The designer mentioned that he will produce only two collections a year, one being for spring/summer and other one for fall/winter. Michael Kors is keen on joining the club of Gucci, Giorgio Armani, Dries Van Noten and YSL, who reduced their fashion cycle to two times a year. Kors believes that fashion calendars need to change. By eliminating resort, and pre-fall, the themes will be a lot more streamlined and this give a lot of room for reflecting and analyzing things. He said, “I think it is also important to return to the idea that September and March are key months in launching the beginning of seasonal selling for the consumer.” Kors added, “This is when key editorial and media content hits, when the weather is starting to change, and when people are ready to absorb new collections and product- that they can wear and shop immediately. Keeping all of this in mind, we will also be reassessing when the fall collection is released to the press and the public- most likely sometime between mid-March and mid-April.”

Kors absence is set to create a huge void in the fashion week, being one of the fashion week’s tent poles. This absence might trigger the elimination of more participants as other designers are also reconsidering their own deliveries. This will increase the uncertainties in the post-COVID19 fashion world.