The timeline will follow the CFDA’s own, Russo says, when it comes to applications, schedule and location announcements. The KFN venues will operate on a first come, first serve basis. Approximately 30 designers will be able to participate. Applications are open now.
Phases 2 to 5: by September 2027
Beyond next September, KFN has big plans that extend well beyond the trade element of fashion week. After revamping NYFW itself, KFN will add on two consumer elements, set for September 2026.
Phase two, the ‘American Fashion Festival’, is a two-to-three day fashion festival that Izemrane says will bring American designers that don’t typically show at fashion week into the fold. It will run parallel to NYFW’s opening weekend, and bring in nightlife, sports and music touchpoints.
Phase three, the ‘American Fashion Experience’, is envisioned as a “multimedia exhibition” that will take place each September that will travel beyond New York.
Consumer integration is a slippery slope. International fashion weeks have experienced the muddied waters that come with mixing customer events with business ones. But Izemrane and Russo are confident that by keeping the consumer events separate from the industry happenings – a “modular” setup, as Russo calls it – that NYFW will be able to achieve the best of both worlds. “They’ll be separate things,” she says. There were no details yet to share on the types of consumer events that would be offered, or what the programming would look like.
The pair liken their vision for NYFW to Art Basel, where a flurry of brand events, pop-ups and activations have almost overtaken the fair itself. “They’ll fly in from Miami to New York the way people from New York flag to Miami for Art Basel,” Izemrane says. “Galleries go there to show. Not everyone’s going there to go look at gallery artwork,” Russo adds. “They’re going there for parties, they’re going there for nightlife experience, big art moments outside the trade part of it. We feel like there’s no reason that New York fashion shouldn’t have that same sort of a structure.”
The difference here is that, at Art Basel, consumers can purchase tickets to the art fair itself. At NYFW, shows and showrooms will remain invite- and appointment-only.
Phases four and five, also to be set in motion by September 2026, get back to the crux of NYFW itself. The fourth, which involves getting more financial and logistical support from the city and state, has to wait until KFN establishes itself, the founders say. “Without a really strong plan and vision to rally around, it’s very hard for government entities to support,” Russo says. This next year will be the proof of concept, and the idea is to increase funding not just for NYFW, but for American fashion businesses more broadly. And, lastly, KFN will round out its offering with an AI-supported digital platform for NYFW attendees to organise their schedules.
As for the rumours that New York’s February fashion week is on the out, the co-founders declined to give specifics. “We’ve heard all the feedback about it. It’s something that we’ll dive deeper on. A lot of people have a lot of dilemmas around why not to – and why to [have it],” Russo says. “Definitely for next February we will be showing up and then we’ll see as we’re building this out further.”
Correction: Updated to reflect that Izemrane is the former, not current, president of Spring Place.
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