This week, a look at the brands making their big NYFW debut and the boost they’re expecting. Scroll down to use Glossy+ Comments, giving the Glossy+ community the opportunity to join discussions around industry topics.
New York Fashion Week kicked off on Friday. This season, it features many of the mainstays including Cinq à Sept, Helmut Lang, Proenza Schouler and Tibi. But it’s also hosting brands, both old and new, that are making their fashion week debut.
Retrofête, the 5-year-old brand founded by Ohad Seroya and Aviad Klin, is hosting its first show on Monday. For Klin, the show is the next step in the brand’s growth, coming less than a year after it opened its first brick-and-mortar store in NYC’s SoHo last December.
“This is a milestone of five years of the brand,” Klin told Glossy. “We’ve talked about doing a show for a while, but we finally feel like we’re in a spot to go big or go home.”
That “go big”-ability comes from the fact that Retrofête has been busy adding new categories like accessories and handbags in the last year. For the first time, the brand is able to showcase a complete look, dressing models head-to-toe in Retrofête.
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The show also comes the same week as the launch of a dedicated mobile app, part of the brand’s overall focus on DTC sales, Klin said. The goal of the show is to strengthen a direct relationship with customers, rather than attract retail buyers and partners. The whole collection will be available for pre-order on the app right after the show ends.
Retrofête started as a wholesale brand in New York working with major department stores like Printemps and Selfridges — especially in Italy, which is the brand’s second-largest market. But in its largest market, the U.S., the focus is on growing DTC sales.
While Retrofête is an up-and-coming brand doing its first show at NYFW, womenswear brand Jovani also has its debut at NYFW on Friday night, but after 40 years in business. The brand, founded by Jacob Maslavi in the 1980s and now run by his son, Saul Maslavi, is using the show to debut its new focus on couture and RTW clothing.
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“I always go to all the shows and have for many years,” Saul Maslavi said. “I never thought it was for us, but we’ve started to lean into couture and ready-to-wear. Now that we’re doing well in that, it felt like the time to show people what we can do.”
Maslavi said the plan is to invite influencers to the show like Haley Kalil, Camille Kostek and Jen Selter, all of whom have millions of followers across social platforms. Selter alone has more than 14 million followers on Instagram. Those influencers are a valuable commodity. Last season, Launchmetrics reported that influencers accounted for 21% of the over $700 million in earned media value created for brands throughout NYFW.
“This is our way of starting a new couture phase for the brand and going full-force into it,” Maslavi said. “The show is a big deal, but it’s more about what we do after the show. Through our social posts, through our excellent PR team and through influencers, we will try to maximize the attention that the show brings us.”
As an attendee, Maslavi said NYFW has changed over the years, particularly in the post-pandemic years. The audience is different, for one. What was once an event reserved mostly for fashion editors and buyers from retailers like Saks Fifth Avenue is now primarily an influencer and consumer-facing tool, he said. Additionally, he said, in previous years, there were fewer shows but with larger audiences, sometimes 2,000-3,000 people attending.
Those mega events still happen — a Dreamland show planned for Saturday in Central Park with designs by Marco Marco is hoping to set a Guinness world record for the highest attendance at a single fashion show with more than 5,000 guests. But increasingly, we’re seeing smaller shows for niche brands spread out all over the city. That more open approach has been welcoming to debuts like Retrofête and Maslavi.
It’s also allowing for more visibility for emerging designers from outside the traditional fashion hubs like the U.S., France and Italy. On Tuesday, a Concept Korea show held at Spring Studios will introduce emerging Korean brands Mmam, Kimmy.J and Charm’s to NYFW audiences for the first time. For those designers, a placement at NYFW can do the dual job of introducing them to American customers as well as retailers looking to showcase hot new brands before they get big.
“We are celebrating Charm’s 10th anniversary with a renewal of the brand, and NYFW is a chance to show our competitive force through a global setting,” said Charm’s creative director, Yohan Kang, in an email to Glossy through a translator. “Our long-term goal is to set ourselves as an international brand, re-establishing our identity through our decade-long history. The focus for this show is to spread our work globally, starting with the U.S. market.”
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