Ralph, Tommy and Tom missing from CFDA February NYC runway schedule

By

Godfrey Deeny

Published
Dec 20, 2019

The Council of Fashion Designers of America (CFDA) has unveiled its provisional women’s ready-to-wear runway schedule for next February, and three of the country’s five most famous fashion houses are missing.

 
The names of Ralph Lauren and Tommy Hilfiger do not even appear on the calendar, now available on the CFDA’s own website. Tom Ford is listed on the New York Fashion Week schedule, but as showing in Los Angeles and not New York.
 
A spokeswoman for Ralph Lauren explained that the house “was still reflecting on a possible event.”  Lauren’s last show in September was a major highlight of the American season, when the country’s most famous designer built a pop-up jazz-age Ralph’s nightclub on Wall Street, where the cast cruised around in evening gowns and tuxedos before a concert starring Janelle Monáe.

Hilfiger is expected to reveal a new city to stage his latest version of a series of collaborative See Now Buy Now shows he has done in recent years that have included collabs with Gigi Hadid and Lewis Hamilton. In the process showing everywhere from Los Angeles and London, Milan and Shanghai.

Hilfiger also chose a novel setting last September , when he staged his co-ed collection with Zendaya in the Apollo Theatre in Harlem.
 
Tom Ford – despite being the president of the CFDA, which controls the main NYC fashion calendar - had already announced that he will stage his next show in Los Angeles two nights before the Academy Awards.

Moreover, arguably the hottest new name in New York in the past few seasons, Pyer Moss, by the very talent Haitian-American fashion designer Kerby Jean-Raymond. As previously announced, he does plan to return to the NYC catwalks in September, but instead for the debut of 2020 Pyer Moss will be presented in a Paris showroom during the French menswear season.
 
The five-day women’s season runs debuts on Friday, Feb. 7 with Monse, and closes – respecting tradition – with Marc Jacobs on Wednesday, Feb. 12. All told, there are 69 runway shows and four major brand appointments on the CFDA schedule. A crammed calendar, with 15 shows alone on the Saturday.
 
This season is preceded by a three-day menswear season of some 20, essentially fledgling, American creators.
 
Though often better known for its celebrity quotient, actor appearances and dazzling after-parties, the New York women’s season does still contain some great American talent: Proenza Schouler, Rodarte, Brandon Maxwell, Tory Burch, Michael Kors and The Row to name a few. While Manhattan will also welcome some powerful non-American names such as Sies Marjan, Zimmerman, Palm Angels or Longchamp.