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.

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.

Week

A week is a time unit equal to seven days. It is the standard time period used for cycles of work days and rest days in most parts of the world, mostly alongside (but not strictly part of) the Gregorian calendar.

The days of the week were named in different languages after classical planets, various deities (example: Thursday – Thor's day, a variation after Jupiter's day from Roman times) and heavenly bodies (example: Sunday – Sun's day) and other sources. In English, the names are Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday.

ISO 8601 includes the ISO week date system, a numbering system for weeks within a given year – each week begins on a Monday and is associated with the year that contains that week's Thursday (so that if a year starts in a long weekend Friday–Sunday, week number one of the year will start after that).

The term "week" is sometimes expanded to refer to other time units comprising a few days, such as the nundinal cycle of the ancient Roman calendar.