Bridget Foley | New York Fashion Week

The New York Times‘ Bridget Foley chimed in this week about the Fashion Week scheduling nightmare that’s broken out between international participants New York, London, Milan, and Paris. Ever measured in her opinion, Foley writes of New York’s over-wrought eight day “week:”

We all know that from a creative standpoint many shows — perhaps a full half of the New York schedule — have no reason to exist. That conversation tends to focus on younger types “not yet ready to show.” But putting the onus for the overstuffed days on the upstarts is unfair; there are just as many established companies who show for no apparent reason other than the press they’ll get. Which, in a complicating factor, is not insignificant motivation.

Foley goes on to explain the difficulty with the concept of Fashion Week in general:

That’s the problem with our fashion “weeks.” They — to say nothing of the solar day — were not intended to accommodate 36.75 shows on each of eight days. When the system was established, that volume would have been unthinkable.

Though she raises the possibility of staging “deliberately concurrent shows” so that editing and buying teams would have to split up in order to view them all, Foley acknowledges that solution may cause as many problems as it solves. Still, she has a point; the over-saturated schedule in all the participating cities cannot sustain itself. Behold, Exhibit A, B, and C.