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London Fashion Week squeezed out by rivals?

by Terri Potratz | September 15, 2008 at 10:07 am

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Rumours are abound that London Fashion Week is being intentionally squeezed out of the international fashion week schedule by marketing company IMG, which manages the major fashion weeks in New York, Paris and Milan, among others.

The British Fashion Council (BFC) retains the rights to London Fashion Week, which IMG unsuccessfully tried to overtake recently. New York Fashion Week will push their dates ahead by a week next year, a move which is being received as an intentional effort to squeeze London out of the picture. London Fashion Week occurs over a 6-day period directly between the New York and Milan fashion weeks, and if New York pushes their dates that could effectively kill the London event.

A BFC spokeswoman told Reuters that New York, which precedes London, would like to change its dates and stage an eight-day fashion week, leaving London with as little as four days to hold its event before the Milan shows begin.

"We're being squeezed in the middle," said a BFC spokeswoman who said Riva would try to massage the dates with her counterparts at the Tuesday meeting.

However, IMG is denying any ill favour towards London Fashion Week, citing that the decision is entirely up to the Council of Fashion Designers
of America:

IMG denied it was behind London Fashion Week's problems. "IMG has a close relationship with London Fashion Week and we are always open to discussing ways that we might support their efforts," said a company spokesman. "IMG is not a part of the conversations that are going on regarding the international fashion week schedule, and we will follow the lead of the CFDA in the scheduling of the shows in New York."

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chowdawg

at 10:32 on September 15th, 2008

Getting catty on the catwalk. Things could get messy. All kinds of puns available here for biting comments and scathing remarks; I like this fashion week stuff.