New York MEN'S Fashion Week? Designers Discuss Possibility

Designers and industry bigwigs are contemplating the possibility of holding a Men's Fashion Week in New York, WWD reports. Menswear is regularly shown in the Big Apple during the fashion weeks held in September and February, and mixed in with the numerous womenswear shows. But menswear designers say that debuting their collections in September--three months after Milan and Paris hold their Men's Fashion Weeks--is bad for business.

"I'm very proud to be an American designer," Thom Browne explained. "But we do have to sell in a true selling season of men's in order to get production started. Getting sales done in June and early July is really important from a production standpoint....It means getting the next collection done two months earlier, which isn't easy. And even sooner, actually, because we have to get everything and everyone there."

But the CFDA and IMG Fashion doesn't seem too eager to jump on board, with Executive Director of the CFDA Steven Kolb saying, "Unless there's a real demand for it, it would be a difficult thing to build, because you wouldn't be guaranteed the right designers would participate. How would you layer marquee names with the emerging designers so it's fully representative? That's been the challenge."