New York Fashion Week (NYFW) is a notorious event occurring biannually in February and September. The event is widely attended with an average of 230,000 people in total and over 300 shows. The second 2023 New York Fashion Week just passed, lasting from September 7th to September 13th. In recent years, there has been controversy around certain types of people attending the shows. Some have said that social media influencers are taking over and shouldn’t be allowed.

During New York Fashion Week, new fashion collections are displayed to the public. This opportunity is used to portray upcoming trends and predictions. These runway walks are also used to exemplify what will be worn in the nearing seasons. Besides runway shows, there are a lot of pop-up events. There are often store events where big brands debut clothing lines.

New York Fashion Week used to be called Press Week and was created as a way to showcase American fashion to a global crowd. While many events are similar all around the world, such as Milan, Paris, and London Fashion Week, New York Fashion Week was created for a particular reason. NYFW was created to divert attention away from French fashion, as well as to prove to the American public that the United States can keep up with the rest of the world when it comes to trends. 

It is very selective and can be hard to get invited to the shows. People who often attend the events are of important rank and high social status. The most common audience attending the shows are generally people involved in the fashion world. In recent fashion weeks all around the world, not just in New York, some people are becoming upset with who has been invited to attend. More and more social media influencers are starting to pop up at various events. Over the past ten years, social media has evolved into a big platform causing the exclusivity of the shows to shift. Some models do not like the idea of social media stars’s presence and want New York Fashion Week to remain exclusive. 

While that idea is widely held, social media influencers do bring a lot of publicity. These digital creators promote exposure surrounding the elite world of fashion. Considering that Fashion Week has been evolving for so long, the audience changes rapidly. Through and through, the modern fashion world has suppressed its superiority by expanding its borders to include the likes of social media influencers causing some controversy within the select community.