America’s official fashion oversight, the Council of Fashion Designers of America (CFDA), has added to weight to rumors that a separate men's fashion week will run in New York next. The change would see menswear shift to an exclusive runway away from the women's - as early as next year - in time for the spring/summer 2016 season. As it stands, menswear designers show their collections in New York at the same time as the women's fashion weeks held in February and September. But following the successful relaunch of London fashion week in summer 2012 and its male counterpart, London Collections: Men, a similar move in New York could see men’s apparel established as a lucrative, standalone offering in the US city.The New York men’s fashion week looks to boost New York City's menswear sales and the international profile of its menswear labels, which show their seasonal collections in North America instead of Europe. The CFDA are said to be playing with the idea of New York’s first independent men's fashion week for next July but finding a date is an issue."There are still a lot of boxes that need to be checked, but we have tentative dates for July of ’15 to be the first one," Steven Kolb, Chief Executive Officer of the CFDA, told WWD reporters.Specific menswear dates could be July 20 to 22, to correlate with the Project, Liberty, MRket and Capsule trade shows also presented in the Big Apple at that time.If rumors are correct, the fashion week could take place a few days after Paris haute couture and thus, wouldn’t coincide with the London, Milan and Paris men's fashion weeks. But one thing is bankable; organizers will want to avoid America's Independence Day, which falls on 4 July. Whatever the dates, a July show would shift the New York fashion week spring/summer menswear collections forward in the calendar year from their usual September slot. It would also mean the New York men’s buying schedule would fall in line with that of the Milan, Paris and London shows.
According to reports, popular all-American brands said to have opted for the city change include Rag & Bone and this year's CFDA winners Public School. Fashion giants Ralph Lauren, Michael Kors and Michael Bastian are even said to be considering a jump across the pond to New York. Meanwhile, other luxury big names that walk the runway in Milan, such as John Varvatos and Calvin Klein, could nominate for a New York showing. So too could designer Thom Browne, who now shows in Paris.