Inside Story

New York Fashion Week (NYFW) has faced challenges in recent years as sponsorship dollars dried up and the search for suitable venues has spread the calendar map all over the city. Designers and attendees have agreed: something needs to change. This September, it will, thanks to newly-formed organization KFN, which soft launched in February.

As Vogue Business reports, among the chief changes for next season is the new Venue Collective, a resource of free-to-show venues funded by KFN. It’s just the beginning. At a press event held this month, KFN unveiled a five-phase revamp for NYFW, with the goal of completion by September 2027. The first phase is the introduction of the Venue Collective. The second and third involve the introduction of consumer-centered events; fourth is generating city and state support; and fifth is the introduction of a digital platform for NYFW attendees.

KFN was founded in partnership with KF Fashion, a division of Kilburn Media, a private equity-backed company that produces ticketed entertainment events, and N4XT Experiences, which acquired LA Fashion Week in 2022. It’s helmed by Imad Izemrane, co-founder and CEO of N4XT Experiences and co-founder and former president of Spring Place, and Leslie Russo, founder of The Culture Shop, who was previously president of fashion events and properties for IMG (which used to host NYFW at Spring Studios, before pulling out ahead of February 2024 fashion week). KF Fashion is financing KFN’s NYFW plans. (Strategic brand partners are also part of the revenue model.)

The CFDA remains the official organizer of NYFW, and will manage the calendar while offering programming and strategic input. “We welcome what KFN is doing to support the industry at large, which is aligned with the mission of the CFDA,” CFDA CEO Steven Kolb said in a statement.

Introducing a consumer-facing event is likely to be divisive for NYFW stakeholders, participants and attendees. As fashion shows across the world have transitioned from industry-only events to marketing spectacles, the question around who should be in the room and how designers can play both sides – business and consumer – has dictated conversations around the future of fashion week.

NYFW, in particular, has become more commercial. Introducing ticketed consumer events, similar in format to Art Basel, according to organizers, would bring the public even closer. KFN argues it’s necessary to fund the other phases – and that introducing dedicated commercial events will successfully bring consumers into the fold without placing the burden on the designers that show on-schedule. “[The B2C] doesn’t work if the foundational part isn’t strong,” Russo told Vogue Business after their presentation. “We felt like we needed to solve for that first.”

To determine what NYFW needed, the KFN team set up roundtable discussions with industry players, and consulted stakeholders from model and activist Bethann Hardison to designer Prabal Gurung. “We wanted to come up with something rooted in this idea that New York Fashion Week doesn’t really belong to one entity. It belongs to everyone in this room. It belongs to the city of New York and it is organized by the calendar that is owned by the CFDA,” Russo said. It read as both a rally for the New York industry, and a subtle nod to the ongoing tug-of-war between IMG and the CFDA for the reins of NYFW. And a promise that, this time, it’ll work.

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