Twice a year at New York Fashion Week, fashion designers from all over the world show off their collections on the runway, which have taken months of hard work to prepare.
At the most recent New York Fashion Week in February, upcoming fall and winter collections were shown off to buyers, celebrities and the general public.
Fashion week has been occurring for more than 80 years, where many iconic fashion trends have emerged, demonstrating the significant influence runways have.
Lisa Valendza, associate lecturer in Kent State University’s School of Fashion, told Kent State Today the effect of runway collections she has seen throughout her time working in publishing and licensing.
“Everything trickles down from the runway,” Valendza said. “So, if it’s a popular color, you’ll start to see it on a greeting card, packaging or in wrapping paper. So, when it comes to the runway, we always looked at trends and how to translate those trends to products.”
While runway shows typically highlight luxury fashion, popular styles from collections have a way of showing up in more affordable clothing brands, particularly when promoted by influencers on social media.
Ann Mariko Walter, Ed.D., director of New York City Fashion at Kent State and School of Fashion alumna, has developed her fashion expertise through working in the fashion industry and overseeing fashion students at the New York City study-away location.
After living in New York City for many years, Walter has seen the remarkable influence the city has had on the culture of fashion.
“In a city like New York, fashion is a part of everyone’s culture, whether you work in the industry or not,” Walter said. “There is so much intersection of fashion and art in the culture of New York.”
Kyairah Byrd, a sophomore fashion merchandising major with a minor in journalism, got to see the runway up close when she attended two New York Fashion Week shows in February, Fashion Global Collective and Art Hearts.
As a social media intern for Fashion Talks, a boutique fashion service and events agency, Byrd was invited by the company to attend several fashion week festivities, and even had the opportunity to meet model Chanel Iman.
It is a fashion lover’s dream to attend New York Fashion Week and Byrd encourages anyone interested in fashion to attend fashion week events for its many benefits.
“New York Fashion Week seems like it is unreachable to a lot of people, but it is not at all,” Byrd said. “It is a very reachable goal that costs money, but I think the money was worth the experience and networking I got to do.”
Byrd said seeing each of the designer’s work modeled on the runway was very inspiring.
“When a designer creates her designs, I would say it is an art that she envisions and puts on,” Byrd said. “She is putting art on a physical model and when that is posted to social media, people can interpret it in their own ways and get inspiration from those designs to create their own personal style.”
Catherine Leslie, Ph.D., professor in the fashion school, said there are three main theories when it comes to how fashion trends impact society: trickle-up, trickle-down and trickle-across.
“The trickle-down is the idea that wealthy people or influencers are influencing the trends downward,” Leslie said. “The trickle-up is when it comes from the street or sub-cultural groups and is moving upward. Finally, the trickle-across is among people of the same socioeconomic class. Fashion is going that way, and these are all happening at the same time.”
Have you ever looked at a runway show and asked yourself “who would wear that?’” Leslie said this is a big misconception when viewing runway shows. She believes that the over-the-top couture collections are not meant to be worn, but to inspire.
“A lot of it is not designed for people to wear, it’s to get the idea out there,” Leslie said. “The purpose of the fashion show, the couture and the high-end fashion design is to tap into the zeitgeist or the spirit of time. Then, it is to put out ideas that will be interpreted by brands based on what their target audience is.”
It takes a while for runway collection-inspired pieces to make their way into mainstream markets, but elements from collections such as color tend to trickle in sooner.
“Trends reach the masses over time. An initial fashion trend curve begins with early adopters and then peaks and will start to decline. It takes two to three years for a trend to go from the runway to the masses and then cease to exist,” Valendza said.
Walter said runway collections have the ability to spark many forms of self-expression among fashion consumers through styling.
“The influence of styling to the everyday consumer, who perhaps is not running out and buying a whole new wardrobe every fashion week, like few folks can do, is how to utilize fashion and repurpose things you might own and style them and use fashion week as a reminder about self-expression,” Walter said. “Fashion is about how you express yourself and who you are in your external presentation to the world.”
Fashion gives individuals creative freedom to express themselves in any form they choose, and with the impact Fashion Week continues to have on society, runway collections continue to be a crucial element in influencing trends.
The 2025 Annual Fashion Show will take place during the Kent State Fashion Week April 21-26.