NYFW has been in total disarray for the past few seasons. We’re not going to sugar coat it—these guys have had some serious challenges including designers leaving official venues, sponsors dropping out and getting kicked out of Lincoln Center. But over the last few months, they’ve been slowly working their way back to the top. In April they found two new venues to host the shows and just yesterday, they finally secured a major sponsor—Lexus has officially replaced Mercedes Benz. (Way to leave it for the last minute, guys. NYFW S/S 16 is next month.)
In addition to the new sponsor, NYFW is getting another logo change. In July, the CFDA (who has control over the Fashion Week calendar) created a new logo for the event—a plain navy and gold image that was intended to unite official shows, those from Made Fashion Week and the independent shows not tied to any organization, into one collective. And that was fine until WME-IMG, owners of the official Mercedes Benz Fashion Week, decided to create another logo to exclusively distinguish the main show schedule from the others. The latest logo is also intend to represent the relaunch of NYFW under its new owners William Morris Endeavor, the talent agency that bought IMG in 2014.
While officials seem pretty stoked about the multiple logos, new spaces and new partnerships, some industry insiders are worried it could be total chaos and confusion for attendees, and we share their concern. Catherine Bennett, managing director of IMG fashion events and properties, told The New York Times that the logos were “complementary” and would simply distinguish official shows from the others. We’ll have to wait until next month to see how it goes, but we hope there’s nothing but smooth sailing after this rather bumpy start.
