It’s been a tumultuous ride for the kingpin of fashion weeks, the New York Fashion Week, over the past few months. And today, it was announced that their title sponsor, Mercedes-Benz has pulled out of the title sponsorship role.
In addition, WME-IMG which owns Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week said it is acquiring their rival, Made New York (the cool downtown show), the fashion show that became a favorite for many top designers and didn’t charge designers to showcase their collections.
Moving forward as of the February 2015 New York Fashion Week Show, the show has been renamed (without the Mercedes-Benz part) and the September show will feature some sort of combo with Made New York.
To back up a bit, in case you missed it, New York Fashion Week was told the had to move to a new location a couple of months ago because of community protests that their fashion tents were destroying Damrosch Park near the Lincoln Center. Damrosch Park is public land and the New York City Department of Parks and Recreation said things had to change. IMG said OK, and that they would be moving the show to a new location, as yet to be determined. Rumors for the new location include Brooklyn or in the future, the Hudson Yards which will feature the much touted Culture Shed to be completed in 2017.
Other interesting aspects to note will be how the shows, New York Fashion Week and Made New York will collaborate. Made New York, which was owned by Milk Studios, says all money made from the show goes back into the show. They do not charge designers to showcase. New York Fashion Week, however, is notorious for charging between $75,000-$500,000 or more to show. Very different business models.
What is also interesting is that Mercedes-Benz claims it is not getting out of fashion by not sponsoring the New York show, but rather is continuing with their sponsorships elsewhere including shows in 30 countries globally. This begs the question then, about why they would be pulling out of New York.
Stay tuned for more news.
