Why I Did Not Participate in Fashion Week This Season

On the move before Vancouver Fashion Week's Spring/Summer 2018 runway presentation

Since New York Fashion Week Spring/Summer 2019 begins today, I thought I’d write a blog post to explain why I am not participating in this season. As someone who began their career creating runway collections, it was difficult to make the decision to forgo Fashion Week this year. The best days of my life have been spent backstage at fashion shows; however, there are several reasons why I decided to take a small break and focus on other areas of this business.

In today’s fast-paced society, it is easy to set ourselves up for a burnout. We are praised for being busy, so it is tempting for everyone, especially entrepreneurs, to take on an impossible workload. If you follow @faunstudio on Instagram, you will know that we had a busy summer attending our first trade shows as a wholesale clothing label. We attended KnowShow in Vancouver and MAGIC in Las Vegas, allowing us to secure retail accounts and bring FAUN’s designs into store for you!

While it’s tempting to take the opportunities to show a new collection at an international show, it’s important as a small company to manage and scale our workload and prioritize the right activities to maximize growth.

Marisa P. Clark pictured backstage at Paris Fashion Week, presenting Autumn/Winter 2018-2019

Beyond the practicalities, there was also a theoretical basis to this decision. As an environmental and social activist, I find it difficult to reconcile the paradox between fashion (something fast-paced and focused on replacing old with new) with sustainability (based in preservation). There’s no doubt that the fashion industry is influencing consumers with cheap, readily available styles that are quickly made to feel irrelevant as they fall apart and new trends quickly replace them.

As a fashion designer I feel pressure from the fast fashion industry to constantly churn out new collections. However, I realized that the best way to slow down our unsustainable consumption habits is by providing a better alternative to fashion fashion pieces. Rather than push myself to create new pieces in order to keep up with brands with different capacities and values, I’ve realized it is more important to focus on creating beautiful pieces that are wearable beyond one season. By removing ourselves from the fashion calendar, I am better able to design a capsule collection full of timeless, high-quality pieces.

This said, a big part of me wishes I was participating in the high-energy scene of this Spring/Summer 2019 Fashion Week. While I would love to present a new collection, I think the best message I can send this season is by not creating anything new at all. I am really happy with our current range and want to work on perfecting this before I move onto the next thing. By doing this, I can ensure that my designs have a long-life and that my future pieces are well-thought out and necessary. Hopefully this article explains why I’m taking a step back and inspires you to reach for existing pieces in your wardrobe before you buy into the next set of trends.