Fashion weeks are showcase events that last about one week in duration, give or take a few days. They are where designers display their next seasons collections to the fashion press, fashion enthusiasts and buyers.
Here is a breakdown of the main shows throughout the year:
- Ready-To-Wear
- Haute Couture
- Resort/Cruise
- Menswear
Between them, it is a dizzying, never-ending cycle of fashion shows. There are so many that for every month of the year, you can see a fashion show of some sort. It can be tricky to keep up. As soon as you've digested what to wear for one season, the next seasons clothes are being shown and new trends introduced to your palette.
Ready-To-Wear
Ready-to-wear shows feature womenswear and are bi-annual. Shows taking place in the first half of the year – January to June – will be premiering clothes for the upcoming Autumn/Winter season and shows taking place from July to December are debuting the following years Spring/Summer trends.
Practically every city around the world has its own ready-to-wear fashion week in different months. Those of note include:
- Berlin – taking place in January and July
- Copenhagen – taking place in February and August
- Madrid – taking place in February and September
- Tokyo – taking place in March and October
However, the fashion weeks that generate the most publicity and where all big fashion houses show are are the four held in the fashion capitals:
- New York
- London
- Milan
- Paris
They run for four consecutive weeks in February and September, always in the order shown above. Some would say in the order of clout the city has within the industry, with Paris being the holy grail of catwalk shows. A designer truly knows they've reached the highest tier when they show in Paris.
Haute Couture
Haute Couture shows take place in Paris in January and July. Whereas the ready-to-wear garments in a collection are produced en masse, couture clothes are one-off pieces that are made to the precise measurements of a persons body. Haute Couture clothes are made to the highest standard and traditionally the shows end with a beautiful wedding dress.
The Couture shows are a chance for designers to really exhibit their creative talents and not have to worry about creating commercially viable garments. They just have to make something fabulous, the clothes women dream about wearing when they are little girls.
Resort/Cruise
Known as the resort or cruise collections, these shows were created for the purpose of providing rich fashionistas with a whole new collection of clothes to take on their holidays.
They fill the gap between the Spring/Summer and Autumn/Winter seasons and include items not generally produced by the ready-to-wear collections, such as swimwear.
The resort shows take place in June and January. The January shows are also, mainly in America, referred to as the pre-fall collections as they take place just before the Autumn/Winter collections.
Menswear
Taking place in the heavy-hitting fashion cities of Paris and Milan, there are menswear shows twice a year, in January and June. In January we are treated to upcoming Autumn/Winter wares and in June the following years Spring/Summer collections are shown.
Other fashion shows of note are the fashion colleges graduate collections, which take place at the end of the academic year in June. These are where you can first spot the new up and coming designers. Alexander McQueen and Matthew Williamson are examples of designers whose careers kicked off straight after school when the fashion industry embraced their graduate collections.
Fashion is a truly fast-paced, ever innovative world, with new ideas popping up continually all over the world. By regularly checking sites like Style.com, you can see all the latest catwalk shows as they happen.
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