This Week's Wow: Taming Fashion Week, or Trying To

In this weekly feature, InStyle’s Fashion News Director Eric Wilson shares his favorite fashion moment of the week, and explains how it could shape styles to come. Look for it on What’s Right Now every Friday.

The Moment: Next week brings us to the beginning of another major fashion season, with the fall 2014 collections kicking off here in New York. As I’m sitting at my desk finishing up features for April (still writing about spring!), every few moments a notice pops up in my inbox reminding me, sometimes chiding me, to rsvp for any one of the hundreds of shows that will be taking place all over the city. It promises to be a big season for news, with some major venue changes shaking up the normal flow of the New York shows, and major designer debuts happening in Europe, the denouement being the first show of Nicolas Ghesquière for Louis Vuitton in Paris. I’ll be posting dispatches throughout, so stay tuned.

Every season, the question I hear most often is this: What shows are you most excited about? Like most editors, I’m always eager for the big designer moments, like Ralph Lauren, who has been on a major tear on the red carpet lately, and whatever Francisco Costa will show at Calvin Klein Collection, following the momentum of his intricate spring collection (I’m still fascinated by the woven snakeskin dresses). Marc Jacobs, following his departure from Vuitton, will also undoubtedly be a thrilling moment now that he is fully focused on his New York collection. And there are big anniversary shows in store for Donna Karan and Diane von Furstenberg, so happy business birthdays, dear designers, and save me some cake.

Why It’s a Wow: This might sound like inside baseball, but I’m curious to see how New York’s fashion week copes with an ever growing roster of designers and all the grumbling over dissatisfaction with the shows at Lincoln Center. Michael Kors, Vera Wang and von Furstenberg are among the big ones showing elsewhere this season. Eventually, the heart of fashion week will move somewhere further downtown and maybe the designers will all get together again, but for now, it’s going to be all over the place, including two shows in Brooklyn (Brooklyn!), first for Rachel Comey’s dinner party on Wednesday night and then Alexander Wang’s show at the Brooklyn Navy Yards on Feb. 8. I’m not complaining, mind you. I make that commute every day.

Still, the shows require an unbelievable amount of stamina just to keep straight. It’s becoming so complicated that the Council of Fashion Designers of America is now getting involved in coordinating the calendar with its longtime gatekeeper, the irreplaceable Ruth Finley, who has been keeping track of the shows since the 1940s. On Thursday, the CFDA released an industry-only app that allows editors to filter shows by who’s showing where and whether men’s wear or women’s, along with a Top 25 that just can’t be missed (Marc, Michael, Donna, Calvin, Ralph, etc.). Alas, there were no surprises in their picks, other than that they managed to stop at 25.

Learn More: Follow along the fashion week schedule with us at InStyle.com (you can see the full listing of shows here).