Just last month, the anticipated New York Fashion Week came back better than ever from February 11th-16th with designers excited to show off their hard work through their fall/winter 2022 collections. While most of the shows were done in-person again amidst the pandemic, there were some brands that opted for virtual live shows.
Let’s take a look at how brands made their mark at this year’s New York Fashion Week.
This was the second year that the NYFW: The Shows was presented by Afterpay because of a multi-year sponsorship deal with the organization. Afterpay is an Australia-based “Buy Now, Pay Later” company. What’s exciting about what they did this year is that they took NYFW bi-coastal by hosting in-person and virtual activities in both New York and Los Angeles! Afterpay opened a consumer experience at Westfield Century City through “NYFW ShopsLA.” This unique activation was open to the public wherein they could experience interactive shopping at different booths, food, and even live performances. Meanwhile, in New York, consumers were able to shop select looks they wanted from 11 Honore’s “See Now, Buy Now” collection through the Afterpay hub. The company also had a partnership with IMG as they created a new initiative called the IMG Fashion Alliance. This initiative aims to support the community, especially during the struggles of being in a pandemic while still celebrating New York’s immense impact on fashion worldwide.
Diesel, the Italian brand is known for its premium denim, hosted a party for the grand opening of their SoHo flagship store in Spring Street, New York. The celebration was filled with guests dancing to fun tunes from DJ performances while drinking and viewing the SS22 runway collection. It was also an after-party to celebrate the newest collection from its creative director, Glenn Martens. However, that’s not all. When you view the building from the outside, you’ll see that it had a 3D animated projection that covered it from both sides. It was as if the building was breaking down, then rebuilding itself again in Diesel’s signature red and white patterns. This definitely caught the attention of people just walking along the street and ignited their curiosity.
Yahoo is back again as this year’s official innovation partner for NYFW, specifically in a partnership with Maise Wilen’s FW22 collection. It was so exciting and thrilling as they were able to create such an immersive experience for viewers, both in-person and at home, using new cutting-edge technology. Maise Wilen’s collection was a holographic experience powered by Yahoo that blurred the lines between the virtual and physical worlds of fashion. While this was an in-person event, viewers at home were also able to join in on the fun via a QR code or a link. The live holographic experience offered different types of content for the viewers, from the volumetric capture technology that flashed the holograms on seven-foot-high projections with unique audio elements for each to augmented reality versions that were also available on mobile. They also created 2D video content for their social media platforms, even making it available for consumers to purchase an entire look they wanted just through a GIF. The show made use of virtual cast or models for the holograms that also had a multi-format use as they can live both in the metaverse and can also be transformed into a shoppable AR experience. This whole immersive experience definitely made Yahoo and Maise Wilen memorable and it’s exciting to see what they come up with next.
For the first time ever, NYFW announced an official wellness partner for this year’s events and they chose Alo. This was a great opportunity for the brand to expand their name, get their products out there and even share to everyone what they stand for as a company. Alo hosted a 3-day “Alo Sanctuary” which was housed at Spring Studios where they invited guests and encouraged them to take a break amidst all the fashion week chaos. This was a chance for guests to spend some time meditating, try out reiki healing, lymphatic massages, sound baths and get B12 booster shots to name a few. Especially with everything happening all around us and all the different changes, putting mindfulness and wellness at the forefront was very important and it was a great opportunity to not only spread that message but also put it into practice.
As the official shipping partner of NYFW this year, UPS designed a truck that was beautifully covered with its brand logo all over. The truck was parked outside of Spring Studios all week long, where they also hosted their pop-up shop to unveil their first-ever apparel collection Be Unstoppable. Consumers could take pictures and create content there while also looking through the collection. They could purchase the clothes either through a QR code, which was given at the truck or during the event itself. All proceeds of the collection and an additional $50,000 grant will go to In The Blk, a nonprofit organization dedicated to uplifting small Black Fashion brands.
All these brands definitely left their mark in New York Fashion Week’s fall/winter 2022 collection, and we are excited to see what they end up creating in the upcoming months for the next fashion week events.