'FASHION IS IN EVERY FIELD OF WORK'

Things are very different from what they used to be, says Fern Mallis, the founder of the New York Fashion Week in an exclusive conversation with Bazaar India.

- VINOD NAIR

Harper’s Bazaar: In 1993, you initiated the launch of Seventh On Sixth, later to be known as New York Fashion Week, a centralised platform where fashion designers could display their clothes. Thirty years since then how do you think the fashion industry has evolved? 

Fern Mallis: “Well, people are still wearing stylish clothes and attending fashion weeks in large numbers. It is still an important business. When we started New York Fashion Week, it was done in a much more centralised way with everything happening at a single venue at Bryant Park. In 2010, the venue was shifted to Lincoln Centre and these days shows are scattered across the city and people are a bit frustrated having to run from one place to the other.” 

HB: How different are fashion weeks today? 

FM: “I would say things are very different from what they used to be. New York Fashion Week is run differently from the way I used to as they don’t have a centralised venue. People are different, social media is different, you don’t really see too many identifiable retailers and editors of magazines and newspapers anymore. Instead, you see plenty of influencers and TikTokers whom people don’t even recognise as part of the audience. Fashion has changed a lot. It’s not even a big deal to get into a big department store anymore. There is a lot of B2C happening through Instagram and e-commerce sites. People thought there will be significant changes during the pandemic and we had discussions that time about producing less, and producing in time for the season. Unfortunately, people talked about it but it didn’t really change anything.”