Lauren Cherry
    Copy Editor

Recently, the New York Fashion Week has shifted to a consumer-based model. This decision was announced in December of last year by the Council of Fashion Designers of America (CFDA).

Having collections available to shop immediately after their runway shows is a drastically different approach from the longstanding fashion week model of showing collections four months in advance of the date that they are available for purchase.

For example, under the previous model, a fall collection that shows during the spring — the first fashion week of the year —  would not be available for consumer purchase until the actual fall season.

This is also when the spring collections to be worn the next year would be presented on the runway; is anyone confused yet?

Basically, instead of having to geek out now over the glorious Instagram feed of outfits that I can only dream about until the fall, more designers are moving towards making a seasonless wardrobe that is produced immediately and available for purchase within hours after the collection is shown.

As someone who plans on working in the fashion industry, perhaps as a stylist, I am interested in the possibilities that this new model presents. Fashion leaders, like stylists, will have the opportunity to immediately shop runway looks for their clients.

According to Fashionista.com, Burberry London was in the process of changing their runway model long before the CFDA’s decision was announced, offering accessories and select merchandise online immediately after their shows since 2010.

Their decision to do away with the old runway model entirely came earlier this month when they announced that Burberry would no longer show separate men’s and women’s collections, instead showing the collection together in a “buy-now, wear-now” format.

Now that the CFDA has decided to fix what they have dubbed “a broken system,” according to Women’s Wear Daily, designers are slowly but surely adapting the new model as demonstrated by this month’s fashion week.

Tom Ford quickly followed suit with his decision to adapt to the same format stating, “Fashion shows and the traditional fashion calendar, as we know them, no longer work in the way that they once did,” according to Fashionista.com.

Other early adopters of the new model include household name designers such as Oscar de la Renta, Zac Posen and Carolina Herrera, just to name a few from New York Fashion Week (NYFW).

Designers who immediately made their collections available online during NYFW include Derek Lam, Marchesa and Monique Lhuillier. To see a full list of which designers have adapted the new consumer-based model, visit Vogue.com