Fashion week

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A fashion week is a fashion industry event, lasting approximately one week, that allows fashion designers or "houses" to display their latest collections in runway shows. The most prominent fashion weeks are held in the fashion capitals like Milan, Paris, London, and New York City.^[1] In the early and mid 2000s, fashion weeks sprang up around the globe to draw attention to designers elsewhere.^[1]

Contents 1 Characteristics 2 History 3 Cities with fashion week 4 See also 5 References

[edit] Characteristics

In the major fashion capitals, fashion weeks are semiannual events. January through March designers showcase their fall collections and September through November the spring collections are shown. Fashion weeks must be held several months in advance of the season to allow the press and buyers a chance to preview fashion designs for the following season. This is also to allow time for retailers to arrange to purchase or incorporate the designers into their retail marketing.

Fashion weeks are attended by buyers for major stores, editors of fashion magazines, the media, celebrities, and members of the entertainment industry. In years past, fashion weeks were predominantly for "the trade only"; however, today they are entertainment and media events. They may include live musicians, celebrity guests, lavish galas and charity events, and a few allow the public to purchase special passes to see the runway shows or attend expositions which display handbags, jewellery, shoes, hats and cosmetics. Many important fashion design schools participate in the shows, as well.

Some fashion weeks can be genre-specific, such as a Miami Fashion Week (Swimwear), Prêt-a-Porter (ready-to-wear) Fashion Week, Couture (one-of-a-kind designer original) Fashion Week and Bridal Fashion Week, while Portland (Oregon, USA) Fashion Week shows some eco-friendly designers.

[edit] History

The earliest fashion week, held in New York City in 1943, was intended to attract attention away from French fashion during World War II, when fashion industry insiders were unable to travel to Paris to see French fashion shows.^[2] Fashion publicist Eleanor Lamber organized an event she called "Press Week" to showcase American designers for fashion journalists, whose innovations had been previously neglected.^[2] (Buyers were not admitted to the shows and instead had to visit designers' showrooms.^[2]) Press Week was a success, and fashion magazines like Vogue, which were normally filled with French designs, increasingly featured American fashion. However after the war, people returned to Paris, and to other fashion "superpowers"; London and Milan, for the new fashion weeks that had emerged. At this point in time, these four cites controlled the fashion calendar, and continue to control it to this day. In the aspects of the buying side, and journalistic side, that is good, as it means less travel and the ease of simply jetting from New York, to the next in line London, then to Milan and lastly Paris in the space of one month. For buyers abroad, the convenience of this arrangement has meant that due to the proximity of London to Milan and to Paris, it means the fashion week is getting even more important.

The one major criticism is, is that talented designers from emerging fashion weeks like Los Angeles or São Paulo, do not get the same recognition as the designers that show in the traditional four fashion weeks, of Paris, London, Milan or New York. It also means that the established designers 'rule' the market, and new designers such as those from lesser economically developed countries, may not be able to open a slot in the fashion week schedule, in the four fashion capitals, hence, although maybe possessive of talent, their abilities to showcase this are severely hindered.

[edit] Cities with fashion week

City	Name	Date established
Amsterdam	Amsterdam International Fashion Weeks	2004[3]
Athens	Moda Athena	2004[4]
Auckland	New Zealand Fashion Week	2001[1]
Bangkok	Bangkok Fashion Week	2005[5]
Barcelona	Barcelona Fashion Week	1981 (Known as Pasarela Gaudí until 2001)
Belgrade	Belgrade Fashion Week	1996[6]
Berlin	Fashion Week Berlin	2007[7]
Boston	Boston Fashion Week	1989
Buenos Aires	BAF Week	2001
Cape Town	Cape Town Fashion Week	2003[8]
Columbus	Columbus Fashion Week	2007[8]
Charleston	Charleston Fashion Week	2007
Copenhagen	Copenhagen Fashion Week	1964 (Unknown in its current form) [9]
Cyprus	Cyprus Fashion Week	2008[10]
Hong Kong	Hong Kong Fashion Week	1968[11]
Johannesburg	Joburg Fashion Week	2007[8]
Kiev	Ukrainian Fashion Week	1997[12]
Kuala Lumpur[13]	Malaysia Fashion Week	2007-2008
Lahore	Pakistan Fashion Week	2007
Lisbon	Moda Lisboa/Lisbon Fashion Week
London	London Fashion Week	1961 (1993 in its current form)
Los Angeles	Los Angeles Fashion Week	2003[14]
Madrid	Madrid Fashion Week	1998
Manila	Philippine Fashion Week	1997[15]
Melbourne	L'Oreal Melbourne Fashion Festival
Mexico City	Fashion Week Mexico	1998[16]
Miami	Miami Fashion Week Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week Miami	1998[17][18]
Milan	Milan Fashion Week
Moscow	Russian Fashion Week	1994 (2003 in its current form)[19]
Nashville	Music City Fashion Week	2008[20]
New Delhi	India Fashion Week	2000[21][22]
New York City	New York Fashion Week	1943 (1993 in its current form)[2]
Oslo	Oslo Fashion Week
Paris	Paris Fashion Week	1973 in its current form
Portland	Portland Fashion Week	2003[23]
Prague	Prague Fashion Week	2002[24]
Reykjavík	Iceland Fashion Week	2000[1]
Rio de Janeiro	Fashion Rio
Rome[25]	Rome Fashion Week
San Diego	Fashion Week San Diego	2008[26]
San Francisco	San Francisco Fashion Week	2004[27]
Santiago	Pasarela Santiago	2006
São Paulo[28]	São Paulo Fashion Week	1995[29]
Sarajevo	Sarajevo Fashion Weeks - two rival events	[30]
Tokyo	Japan Fashion Week	1985 (2005 in its current form) [31]
Vancouver	British Columbia Fashion Week	2004[32]
Zagreb	Zagreb Fashion Week	2003

[edit] See also

• Fashion design
• Maite Dalila
• Haute couture
• Ready-to-wear

[edit] References