The business of Fashion Week

The business of Fashion Week

Fashion Weeks are at the forefront of a multi-trillion dollar industry - and one person who knows a lot about the business of fashion is our special guest, Fashion Editor at the Australian Financial Review, Lauren Sams. In this Squiz Shortcut, Lauren’s talking us through:

• why Fashion Weeks are such a big deal for brands and trends

• how they’ve evolved over the years

• and why their impact goes beyond the fashion industry

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Squiz the Shortcut

Lauren, fashion as an industry is huge - it impacts all of us, consciously or unconsciously, when we open our cupboards and drawers every morning. Firstly, tell us what Fashion Weeks are, and what happens during these events?
It’s very similar to what you’re imagining, I think. There is a runway, usually there are multiple rows of seats (although some designers just do one row now so that everybody is ‘front row’). You wait for ages, normally, because models are coming from other shows, or the designer is still getting things ready, or the weather hasn’t played ball. And then the show starts, the models walk the runway, and the whole thing is done and dusted in about 15 minutes. As for the people there, they’re a mix of celebrities, buyers, media and influencers…

There are 4 big Fashion Weeks each year  - New York, London, Milan, Paris. What makes each one different?
Different designers show at different weeks. Usually it’s about where you’re based - so a British brand like Burberry, for example, will show in London, and Ralph Lauren shows in New York. But that’s not always the case - sometimes it’s about where you want your brand to be positioned. Paris is the fashion capital of the world, and everyone wants to be associated with it, and it’s where most of the buyers are concentrated. So a brand like Stella McCartney - which is based in Britain - shows in Paris. So does Zimmermann, even though it’s Australian. And so does Valentino, even though it’s Italian… It used to be along geographical lines, now it’s more about where your customer is, and what you’re trying to say with your brand.

And how does it work? Do you need to be invited, or do you pay to show?
Some fashion weeks are invitation only - in Paris there is couture week, which is one of those. Other fashion weeks are pay-to-play: you participate with a fee. That’s how Australian Fashion Week works, for example, and New York and London.

And they’re big events … Who funds them?
Again, it depends. Usually there is a body that organises and funds the week - like in London, the British Fashion Council is behind London Fashion Week, and it funds a lot of the background organisation. But when it comes to securing a venue, hiring models, inviting guests, scoring publicity - those costs, which are not insignificant, are covered by the brand. 

What impact does it have for a brand? Why do it? What’s the ROI (return on investment) on showing at Fashion Week?
That’s very hard to know, but based on the fashion brands that do it twice a year, every year, the ROI is absolutely there. There’s a lot going on - there are buyers who are making orders based on the show (and then the re-sees, where you can see the clothes at a showroom the next day), there are media who are writing about it, celebrities who make an impact just being there, and everyone who posts on social media about it. 

Do you have a favourite of the 4?
Paris is the pinnacle, definitely. I remember my first big show, which was Dior. Dior always shows at the Tuileries, and it builds an enormous set just for fashion week - you’ll see it dismantled a few days later. I walked into this bespoke building - again, created for one show - that was made to look like an underwater garden, with incredible sculptures and stadium-style seating around the perimeter. Actress Charlize Theron was there, so was the French First Lady Brigitte Macron. It was such a powerful setting and a reminder of how much these brands invest into moments like this.

Do you have a standout memory from a show?
My favourite show I’ve been to was Chanel, when it had no creative director, in September 2024. It was a beautiful show, and then Riley Keough - Elvis’s granddaughter - sang “When Doves Cry” in a giant birdcage at the end in the Grand Palais. I had tears in my eyes - it was very special. 

The world of fashion is a lot more accessible now to everyone with livestreams… bloggers who used to just be spotted out the front for street style are just as likely to be sitting in the front row… What else has changed?
Definitely the media landscape has changed - there are a lot more influencers… There’s also a breadth of celebrities. Brands are really thinking about who their audience is - so someone like Martha Stewart might be at a Tory Burch show, for example, or Nigella Lawson, who came to Lee Mathews at Australian Fashion Week last year. It’s not necessarily about getting the biggest star in the world - it’s someone cool, someone who really aligns with what you want your brand to represent. 

Is the traditional Fashion Week model sustainable, or do you see it continuing to evolve?
During the pandemic there were a few vocal designers who made the case that Fashion Weeks were expensive, tedious and not good for the environment - there seemed to be a movement that suggested we’d evolve the model. But that hasn’t happened and in fact, I’d say fashion brands are investing even more money and time into these runway events. Evolution is happening - but it’s more about how a fashion brand shows up…

Just explain that a bit more…
So a brand like Christian Louboutin, which hasn’t always had a runway show, is now showing in Paris. And that business will do really interesting things like a show in a swimming pool, or on a football field. And then you have brands like The Row (the brand created by the Olsen twins), which shows in Paris too, where phones are banned to make it all feel more exclusive and intimate. 

I feel like we can’t talk about fashion without talking about fast fashion… 
Fast fashion doesn’t really influence fashion weeks directly but it does make a lot of noise - which means other fashion brands need to make noise in different ways. But these fashion shows absolutely influence fast fashion - there would be people and even AI bots looking at the Chanel runway and figuring out what they can copy, and how fast they can get it to market. 

The shows can sometimes be a lot to take in… The world of these models stalking the runway, in impossible clothes - what impact does it have on us? 
It has a huge impact. Fashion Week is usually where we first see a trend - like for example, it’s where we first saw fringing at Bottega Veneta, which became a huge trend not just at that house but at many others. It’s where we really see what a designer is ideating and it’s where we see the purest form of their vision of fashion. Not everything that is shown goes into production, which makes it even more interesting in some ways - you’re then seeing (based on what does make it into store) what is commercially viable. 

Does Australia have a Fashion Week? What does it mean for local designers?
We do… We have Australian Fashion Week, which is held in May in Sydney. It’s a trade show, which means it’s for buyers and media. And then there is Melbourne Fashion Festival, which is an initiative run by Melbourne city, and it’s for consumers - so you can buy a ticket, see a designer and buy clothes right off the runway. 

What’s something that might surprise us about attending fashion weeks?
It’s a bit like school camp in that the attendees - media, buyers, influencers - are pretty much together for a week. You’re often at the same hotel or nearby, you see each other around the city and then of course you see each other at the shows. It’s quite funny, actually. And the other important aspect of fashion weeks are the re-sees. 

Yep, a 15-minute look at the threads isn’t a long time, so tell us how re-sees work…
So this is an appointment you can make after the show itself, and you go to the designer’s showroom to see the clothing up close. It’s where a buyer will order the clothes for their store, or a journalist can see things and ask detailed questions. I’ve often been asked what I think about particular pieces, and my answers are then filtered to the buyers in my region to determine what, for example, the Valentino store in Sydney will order. Just because it’s on the runway doesn’t mean it’s going to work for every market. 

Thank you Lauren, we feel more stylish already…

Onto our Recommendations

Watching: The Devil Wears Prada on Disney+ is always a good time, and Lauren also recommends these fashion documentaries: McQueen, as well as 7 Days Out (specifically, the episode about the lead up to the Chanel couture show), and Dior and I (about Raf Simons’ tenure as artistic director of Dior)...

Listening: Our Year Ahead interview with Lauren, where we asked for her predictions on the big news stories in fashion for 2026. You can find that on Apple or Spotify… 

Scrolling: Eva Chen’s Instagram account. She’s head of fashion partnerships at Instagram, and it’s a good window into the world of fashion and designers…

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