Karen Walker ditches fashion week

November 11, 2016

Karen Walker ditches fashion week

A model wears an outfit from Karen Walker's Spring/Summer 2016 collection. Photo: Supplied

Auckland designer Karen Walker has ditched fashion week events as a means to tout her latest designs to customers and media.

The designer, who has shown 20 collections at New York Fashion Week, said in an article in a rag trade magazine there would be “no more shows”.

Ms Walker said there has been a paradigm shift in the industry and there are better ways to engage with the industry and customers.

Ms Walker said she is “wrestling” with the fast timeline of the fashion industry, including the time to develop a product, its time on the shop floor and how long it lasts in consumers’ wardrobes.

This news follows an international industry debate on the future of fashion weeks as an increase in social media and consumer attention has called to question fashion’s wholesale schedule.

New Zealand Fashion Week (NZFW) founder Dame Pieter Stewart said her team has already made adjustments to its approach to showcasing clothes.

“We are happy we have done what international fashion weeks are struggling to do.”

Five years ago, New Zealand Fashion Weekend launched to offer fashion shows and events for the general public before the industry and media fashion week.

Auckland designer Yvonne Bennetti has been showing at NZFW since 2005.

For the past few years the designer has used the catwalk to communicate directly with customers with a a focus on bespoke garments.

She said NZFW attracts new customers each year.

“They do a great job . . . our shows are always full.”

Dunedin-based fashion brand NOM*D has shown collections most years at NZFW.

The creative director of NOM*D, Margarita Robertson, said the internet has changed everything.

“I think it’s all in turmoil right now,” she said. “I don’t know what the answers are, but I think in a year or so it might be a bit clearer.”

Although the wholesalers that come to NOM*D’s show are typically existing clients, she said “it’s good for us to have a presence at NZ Fashion Week”.

Vinny Sherry of PR agency, Campbell and Co, is one of three new investors in NZFW.

He has previously worked with NZFW, as a communications manager through his agency, and understands the brand.

“We always try to understand designers’ needs and shape the event to that,” he said.

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