That leaves Ralph Lauren, Tommy Hilfiger, Burberry and Rebecca Minkoff as the main poster children for the movement. The industry at large was never wholly sold on the idea of see-now-buy-now, so how does Ford's defection bode for it?
It depends on whom you ask.
Ford alone might not be enough to scare off the power brands that have embraced the concept, but there is a growing sense that the momentum that drove see-now-buy-now into the zeitgeist for the September 2016 shows has dwindled. For now, all of the remaining designers who have implemented see-now-buy-now fashion shows are planning to go forward with them, at least in the short term. That doesn’t mean there isn’t some degree of wait-and-see going on.
“Right now, it’s doing well,” said Ralph Lauren, who radically shifted his model beginning in September, staging a see-now-buy-now collection show even after he had already shown and produced a fall 2016 collection the previous February. Lauren noted that opting for immediacy drew new online retailer partners to pick up the collection. As for the most recent lineup shown in February, he said the reaction has been positive but it’s still early days, with only roughly six weeks of selling on which to base feedback.
