On August 11, 2018, the New York Post boldly stated that the ‘September Issue is Dead,’ referencing the decline in print advertising dollars spent on fashion’s most coveted issue of the year. This isn’t really news to anyone. Digital continues to be the death of anything print. It’s simply more immediate, economical, and accessible.

The Association of Magazine Media reported a $417.5 million drop in advertising dollars in 2017. This reality, coupled with a rising tide of self-proclaimed social media influencers and celebrities, means that now everyone has a voice. The result is an egalitarian playing field that even publishing conglomerates like Conde Nast are losing leverage to.

Similarly, when the September 2018 fashion shows – where designers display their creations in hopes of swaying consumer buying habits for the following Spring/Summer – have digital and social media in a front row seat at every event, they appear destined to succumb to the same “September issue” that print outlets are facing.

The costs of producing a fashion show runs the financial gamut, with industry estimates putting the average cost around $250,000 – some reaching upwards to a million dollars – for twenty minutes of media attention that will soon shift to the next show. There are over seventy shows per season. Relevance comes at a steep cost for designers, and they are feeling the financial pressure of diversifying product offerings, securing celebrity associations, and spending marketing dollars that will drive full price sales when the merchandise finally reaches consumers in March.

To further complicate the cost of doing business, lower-priced brands are constantly circling like vultures. They vigilantly review online images, social media posts, and blog content to determine what designs to ‘borrow,’ and then outmaneuver designers and higher priced retailers by delivering “inspired” looks to market faster, and for less.

New York Fashion Week (NYFW) attendance was once restricted to store buyers, preferred customers, and select fashion editors/reporters. Now, the event has become so widely accessible that anyone with a social media following is welcome. Considering this transformation, it may be helpful to consider NYFW’s origins, how technology is changing everything, and what the future holds.

Up until the 1940s, French designers dictated the upcoming season’s fashion in very intimate presentations held within their private salons. At the time, fashion journalists primarily disregarded American collections. However, when France was occupied by the Germans during World War II, editors were unable to travel to Paris, so PR genius Eleanor Lambert took this opportunity to highlight the work of American designers. She created what was originally known as “Press Week,” a time for editors to visit New York and see the latest from American designers. It was an immediate success and eventually put New York on par with Paris as a fashion capital.

It wasn’t until the 90s that the various shows were brought together for the first time. Interestingly, Fern Mallis, executive director of the Council of Fashion Designers of America (CFDA), was attending an individual fashion show in Manhattan when the loft space literally started falling apart as the music played. For safety reasons, Mallis sought out a venue where diverse shows could be held safely and with less disruption. Once known as 7th on 6th, these shows were eventually sold to IMG in 2001. The event’s title changed to “Olympus Fashion Week” in 2004 and then to “Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week” in 2007, to reflect new title-sponsors.

Today, the shows are collectively known as “New York Fashion Week” and are still organized by IMG. The events generate approximately $900 million annually for the city of New York and bring in over 100,000 media professionals and fashion-related visitors each year. This media frenzy has transformed what was once a heavily guarded industry event into a chaotic media sensation rivalling the Academy Awards. Over time, however, it continues to lose ground to digital and social media.

Designers are working overtime to embrace this evolution with digital theatrics aimed at preserving their status within this new reality. One noteworthy example was Tommy Hilfiger’s Spring 2017 “see-now, buy-now” concept for his Pier 16 show, presented by supermodel Gigi Hadid. The event was open to 1,000 invitees, as well 1,000 members of the public, and incorporated Snapchat, Instagram, and a live stream on over 300 fashion and lifestyle digital properties. The show generated 2 billion online impressions and generated a 900-percent increase in traffic to the brand’s website.

Ralph Lauren’s 2015 Purple Label presentation also generated over 165 million impressions in the 24 hours following the event due to the involvement of celebrities and bloggers like Cody Simpson, Emma Roberts, and Hanneli Mustaparta. The company has subsequently reduced its overall advertising spend in order to place more emphasis on digital marketing and “appeal to a new generation” through “online, mobile, e-mail, and social media.”

At NYFW 2017, brand success actually seemed to be measured by media impressions, with Victoria Beckham’s brand accumulating over 5 million social media impressions, “representing 17% of all engagement during fashion week.” Even more recently, other major artists like Kanye West and designer Misha Nonoo have released entire lines solely on Instagram via “Insta-shows.” Whether through Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, blogs, or designer websites, attending a fashion show has become a modern public spectacle, even if viewed by mobile phone.

Partly due to the price tag, but also as a result of the power of social media, several major designers have opted out of NYFW altogether. Runway shows don’t hold the value they once did for the core audience of buyers, retailers, and editors. The immediacy off technology and the influence of social media has shifted power to the ever-changing mindset of the consumer, completely altering the business of fashion. Whatever happens, the future definitely won’t look like the past.

A recent New York Post article paints a picture of what that future may look like. London-based photographer Cameron-James Wilson created what is being called the first digital supermodel. Her name is Shudu, and she has already garnered 130,000 Instagram followers. And despite not even being a real person, she’s garnered enough social media followers to be considered an influencer. What’s virtual and what’s reality is becoming indistinguishable.

Integrating digital technology into fashion isn’t new. Any true fashion enthusiast will recall the opening of Alexander McQueen’s 2006 show, when a holographic Kate Moss swirled around on stage to the audience’s amazement. As an agency that has long used CGI/virtual reality in sales and marketing campaigns, virtual designer showcases seem less of a probability and more of an inevitability.

While social media has already changed the original purpose of the shows, it would be a fair assessment to say that artificial intelligence (AI), virtual reality (VR), and augmented reality (AR) will continue to have a dramatic impact on the future of live, in-person fashion shows – perhaps even making them obsolete.

Ultimately, technology now has the ability to empower fashion designers to exercise more control over the logistics, costs, and accessibility of their shows, while simultaneously providing analytics that could shape the success of their collection.

Photograph: Steven Meisel / Vogue Italia, August 2008