The times are changing. We are seeing how cable companies, newspapers, and other traditional media are struggling with new generations and new mindsets. People today will not wait to get what they want; they want to get it immediately, easily, and for a low cost. This approach has caused problems for the traditional Fashion Week. Social media has been a huge contributor in reducing the exclusivity of Fashion Week.
Fashion Week is an event that goes on for weeks, from country to country, from designer to designer. It is a way for designers to showcase their clothing for the season with the hopes of getting retail buyers and celebrities to buy their clothes. The thing is, the old way of doing Fashion Week is just not working anymore. Not with the new mindset of their audience.
It almost feels like Fashion Week(s) are being shown everywhere today something that has definitely erased the sense of exclusivity. Social media has made it possible for both the audience and the designers themselves to post collections and shows all over the internet. Social media is now a way for designers to show their collections to the whole world in a matter of a click, but is this really a good factor?
The customers today want something when they see it, and the old way of waiting for the next season to get the clothing shown in the here and now is not working anymore. People see collections and instantly want them. Many fast-fashion stores such as H&M and Zara take advantage of the fact that people want the clothing shown during fashion week now: The stores start manufacturing similar clothing and put them in stores much faster than the designer brands. This fact, combined with the intense social media coverage of the designer clothes ahead of launching in stores, makes the customers fed up with the clothes when they actually come out. The new collection for the season is actually old in the mind of the customer due to the intense coverage weeks before launch.
Social media is not all bad for designers today. Social media gives designers and other companies a chance of determining which clothes will be successful and what clothing will not by measuring how well it does online. By clicks, likes, mentions, etc. they can guage just how likable the pieces are.
Social media is a way for companies to engage with customers and see what works and what doesn't. One can argue that social media ruins the exclusivity and sales of a new season, but it also helps the designers know what to invest in, and what is most attractive to the public.
Fashion Week of past, will not work financially for designers anymore, something that has been discovered by DVF, Versace, and Ralph Lauren. These three designer brands have started with a “see-now-buy-now model”. This model allows the customers to buy the pieces they see on the runway when they see it and not the next season. These designers are ahead of the times, realizing that a change had to be implemented to keep up with the rise of social media.
Designers are forced to think and act differently with the new mindset of their customers. The "see-now-buy-now" model is just the beginning of change within Fashion Week. What most designers and companies need to accept today is that change is not always bad; it just forces new ways of thinking and implementing how to do them differently; which at the end of the day, is what fashion is all about.
