Ruth Finley

Perhaps the biggest effects will be felt on the off seasons -- pre-fall and resort -- which are not formally scheduled in New York.

First, Chris Benz announced that he'd be sitting out the Fall 2013 shows. Soon after, Peter Som decided to forgo the traditional runway for one of KCD's nifty digital fashion shows, following in the footsteps of See by Chloe and Pierre Balmain, amongst others. Then last week's Wall Street Journal article about designers forgoing New York Fashion Week hit the real nerve, highlighting several up-and-coming (as well as established) labels choosing not to stage runway shows or presentations. Suddenly, it's okay—even respectable in certain circumstances—not to show at Fashion Week.

Every season New York fashion week gets bigger and bigger. When Ruth Finley, who is the keeper of the Fashion Calendar (aka your hard copy fashion week bible) started planning and putting out the New York fashion week calendar 65 years ago she estimates there were, at most, five shows a day, no more than one an hour. This Friday alone, on the second day of Fashion Week, there are 34 shows. “When [New York fashion week] started there was only one show an hour and now we have almost 300 in eight days,” Finley says. “There's quite a bit of overlapping and there used to be no overlapping.” While New York fashion week’s exponential growth is undeniably a sign of its health (and that's a good thing!), that “overlapping” of shows that Finley refers to--when you have five or more shows crammed into an hour--can also hurt the designers who’ve put in all that effort and money to show their wares. As more designers flood the New York fashion week schedule, it becomes more challenging for designers to make sure their collections are presented the best they can be. Top models and styling teams go to bigger labels with more pull and more money. Editors and buyers--though they might not always look it--are human, and can only make it to a limited number of shows per day. Designers are feeling frustrated.

The venerable Fashion Calendar, published as always by Ruth Finley, will give us the first look at the lineup (so far) for September's New York shows