Set in both the beginning and end of the year, fashion week is a huge annual event that brings together every aspect of the lucrative fashion industry.
New York, Paris, Milan, London, the epicenters of fashion, and all hold their own annual fashion week. Crofton, Maryland, doesn’t have any obvious connections to fashion week So how could it possibly be affected by fashion week? Taking a look at the students and staff of Crofton High can answer this.
Junior Natalie Fuentes, former president of Crofton High School’s fashion club, which is not currently running, said the trends of the runway trickle down to her closet. “I tend to screenshot and save things I see from fashion week and I feel like that ends up in my closet because it’s in my mind and becomes my inspiration for what I want to wear.”
Fuentes also said that students would dress up more if they paid more attention to fashion week. “I feel like students would dress up more and wear less pajama pants or create their own sense of style based off what clothes catches their eye.” Fuentes said that the wedding dresses at the end of shows is something she always looks for. “I don’t remember anything specific that stood out to me last season but I do always look for wedding dresses showcased at the end of runways.”
Junior Patrick Dougherty said he doesn’t pay that much attention to fashion week, but that he does take inspiration from it, “ The silhouettes inspire me to push beyond the boundaries of fashion and experiment in my everyday life.”
Dougherty is a self proclaimed “pinterest goober;” he said that he takes most of his inspiration from social media rather than the runway or real life. Social media like Pinterest and real life take most if not all of inspiration from the runway. Social media influencers are often invited to these runway shows, those influencers get paid to wear clothing from the collection both to the show and out in public. They then post about the show and their outfit to social media and it starts trending. Once something starts trending then people try to emulate it in a more affordable and achievable way. This is one of the most direct impacts that fashion week has on the consumer side of fashion.
Mrs. Ashley Haynie, a Family and Consumer science teacher, who teaches the fashion classes and ran the fashion club last year, said she uses fashion week to help her with her teaching.
“I usually research to see what I can incorporate into my lessons, I normally pay attention to it for school purposes than for myself.” She said she thinks fashion shows are important. “ …good for people to see what they have out, what their inspiration is, their upcoming designs, and how it changes through the seasons.”
Even if for students who are not into fashion, clothes that stores carry and therefore the clothes people wear are not only impacted by but also determined by fashion week and the trends that come out of it.
