Fashion week

A fashion week is a fashion industry event, lasting approximately one week, wherein fashion designers, brands or "houses" display their latest collections in runway shows to buyers and the media. Most importantly, these events let the industry know what's "in" and what's "out" for the season.

The most prominent fashion weeks are held in the fashion capitals of the world, the "big four" receiving the majority of press coverage being New York, London, Milan and Paris. Other notable weeklong fashion events are held in cities around the world.

History

There are many fashion weeks worldwide. In 1943, the first New York Fashion Week was held, with one main purpose: to distract attention from French fashion during World War II, when workers in the fashion industry were unable to travel to Paris. This was an opportune moment, as "before World War II, American designers were thought to be reliant on French couture for inspiration."

The fashion publicist Eleanor Lambert organized an event she called "Press Week" to showcase American designers for fashion journalists, who had previously ignored their works. Press Week was a success, and, as a result, magazines like Vogue (which were normally filled with French designs) began to feature more and more American innovations. Until 1994, shows were held in different locations, such as hotels, or lofts. Eventually, after a structural accident at a Michael Kors show, the event moved to Bryant Park, behind the New York Public Library, where it remained until 2010, when the shows relocated to Lincoln Center.

British Fashion Council

The British Fashion Council (BFC) is a non-profit trade group for British fashion designers founded in 1983. Its main goal is to promote British fashion design in both the UK and internationally. Organising the twice-yearly London Fashion Week is one of the primary activities.

Leadership and activities

Based in London, it is currently chaired by Natalie Massenet and its chief executive is Caroline Rush. Previous chairs of the BFC have included Edward Rayne, Harold Tillman and Sir Stuart Rose.

A key activity of the BFC is to organise the twice yearly London Fashion Week, the main showcase for high fashion brands operating in the UK. The organisation also organises the annual British Fashion Awards, designed to celebrate leading designers and newcomers to the industry.

Another facet of the organisation's activities is to support the next generation of designers by supervising fashion higher education and apprenticeships in the United Kingdom.

Development of the organisation

Daily Front Row

The Daily Front Row is a fashion-industry publication, commonly known as The Daily. Brandusa Niro is the editor in chief. Formerly owned by IMG, Niro bought a controlling interest in the magazine in 2011.

Niro founded The Daily in November 2002, with the first issue launching for New York Fashion Week in February of the following year. The Daily is distributed every day during Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week in New York, chronicling the goings-on from the front rows to behind the scenes. The magazine is distributed for free at the site of Fashion Week. For the remainder of the year, the online magazine is updated every weekday with fashion news, party reports, features, and The Daily’s blog, Chic Report). In an article in Vanity Fair, her friend Graydon Carter, the magazine’s editor, called The Daily “the guiltiest pleasure of Fashion Week in New York.”

The Daily also produces print issues during Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week Swim in Miami, and has produced issues for Fashion Weeks in Sydney, Australia; Toronto, Canada; Moscow, Russia; and Mexico City, Mexico. In addition, The Daily produces issues covering various fashion trade shows, including Coterie, WSA, and Collective.

Fashion

Fashion is a popular style or practice, especially in clothing, footwear, accessories, makeup, body or furniture. Fashion is a distinctive and often habitual trend in the style in which a person dresses. It is the prevailing styles in behaviour and the newest creations of textile designers. Because the more technical term costume is regularly linked to the term "fashion", the use of the former has been relegated to special senses like fancy dress or masquerade wear, while "fashion" generally means clothing, including the study of it. Although aspects of fashion can be feminine or masculine, some trends are androgynous.

Clothing fashions

Early Western travelers, whether to Persia, Turkey, India, China, would frequently remark on the absence of change in fashion there. The Japanese Shogun's secretary bragged (not completely accurately) to a Spanish visitor in 1609 that Japanese clothing had not changed in over a thousand years. However, there is considerable evidence in Ming China of rapidly changing fashions in Chinese clothing. Changes in costume often took place at times of economic or social change, as occurred in ancient Rome and the medieval Caliphate, followed by a long period without major changes. In 8th-century Moorish Spain, the musician Ziryab introduced to Córdobasophisticated clothing-styles based on seasonal and daily fashions from his native Baghdad, modified by his own inspiration. Similar changes in fashion occurred in the 11th century in the Middle East following the arrival of the Turks, who introduced clothing styles from Central Asia and the Far East.

Front Row

Front Row may refer to:

See also