Tom Ford Cancels Show

Tom Ford

TOM FORD has announced that he has cancelled his planned presentations at New York Fashion Week. He will instead come back onto the schedule in September, amalgamating his menswear and womenswear collections into one show and adopting the "see-now-buy-now" model that is proving so popular among fashion houses in the industry right now. Instead of showing the traditional spring/summer collection, he will show autumn/winter 2016 instead.

Burberry's Christopher Bailey

"In a world that has become increasingly immediate, the current way of showing a collection four months before it is available to customers, is an antiquated idea and one that no longer makes sense. We have been living with a fashion calendar and system that is from another era," said founder Tom Ford in a statement today. "Our customers today want a collection that is immediately available. Fashion shows and the traditional fashion calendar, as we know them, no longer work in the way that they once did. We spend an enormous amount of money and energy to stage an event that creates excitement too far in advance of when the collection is available to the consumer. Showing the collection as it arrives in stores will remedy this, and allow the excitement that is created by a show or event to drive sales and satisfy our customers increasing desire to have their clothes as they are ready to wear them."
The announcement echoes that made earlier today by Burberry, which revealed it intends to do the same thing as of September, although will remain on the London Fashion Week calendar for the planned autumn/winter 2017 showcase later this month. Both brands have stated their intention to have the collection seen on the catwalk immediately available in store and online straight after the show.