WME Sells New York Fashion Week
by Charles Manning · Daily Front Row546
Well, New York Fashion Week, NYFW, and NYFW: The Shows have a new owner. WME – owner of IMG Models, The Wall Group, and Art + Commerce — has has sold the intellectual property, trademarks, and logos to Signet Fashion for an undisclosed sum. The sale comes two years after WME reportedly began looking for a buyer.
Signet Fashion is a media and entertainment company dedicated to developing, acquiring, and monetizing intellectual property across film, television, live experiences, gaming, and digital media. “The company plans to build upon New York Fashion Week’s global legacy, through expanded live programming, digital content, media production, brand partnerships, and year-round audience engagement,” the company told WWD via a statement. “Additional details will be announced at a later date.”
The Council of Fashion Designers of America still owns The Fashion Calendar and the Official New York Fashion Week Schedule and remains responsible for scheduling and governance of NYFW.
“The Official New York Fashion Week Schedule has long been stewarded by the CFDA and remains the authoritative calendar,” Steven Kolb, president and chief executive officer of the CFDA, told WWD. “New York Fashion Week, under the CFDA’s leadership, is at its best when others contribute through events, partnerships and experiences that support designers and strengthen our industry. We welcome Signet’s investment and look forward to seeing how its efforts help create new opportunities for designers and contribute to the continued success of New York Fashion Week.”
If and how Signet Fashion will actually manage to make money off of their new assets is anyone’s guess. NYFW is an institution with a certain amount of brand recogniition and a glamorous air about it, but it hasn’t proven to be a very fruitful asset for its previous owners. “The social channels [the website, social media handles] are what’s actually valuable,” an unnamed source told WWD. NYFW has about a million followers on Instagram and less than half that on X.