I’m so grateful for being considered and interviewed in the recent Pittsburgh Post-Gazette feature, “Is the Fashion Week Model Broken?” by Sara Bauknecht .
I have been covering New York Fashion Week since 2003, so if that makes me somewhat of an expert on the history of fashion week, I will gladly take the title. Years ago, I had proposed a class at New York University that was, for the most part, just on fashion week. Needless to say, the course was never approved, but if we may look at it as a social barometer of change, there’s no denying that the concept of the traditional fashion show is changing and with it, almost every other aspect of fashion is on the table, rife for re-examination.
Personally, I’ve been rethinking my contributions to the industry; what I’ve done, what I like to do, and where I personally can make the most positive change. Since I’ve had to streamline my fashion life in order to expand my time to accommodate my young family, I have been focusing the efforts on my teaching, being more thoughtful in my approach to andragogy and carving out more time to help my students. Fashion week just doesn’t hold the same weight as it used to; not only am I personally less engaged with it because of other prioritized commitments, but the absolute need to be present is no longer as important as it once was, since social media can takw care of that for me.
Acknowledging that the times are changing is one thing, but to truly know what the future holds is another; I can’t say ultimately what will be the fate of fashion week, but the more I think about it, the less it seems to be in union with the new digital age we are living in. All I can hope for is to find my way among this sea of change, and continue to deliver a trusted, unique perspective to the conversation.
