in Vogue." He explains. "The reach is immediate. You can literally see a social media post in your feed, interact with it or comment on it if you like... and then if you like what you see you can instantly swipe up and make a purchase. It goes directly from the runway to the consumer in seconds! It's like having your own army of minions that do all of your bidding."
Parallel to New York Fashion Week's transformation from exclusive trade-only insider environment to a Millennial populated, iPhone-in-hand free for all, an existential crisis of a different kind is creating an even bigger branding problem for the event. Random sponsors and vendors have begun lining the entryways, exits, and perimeters of the show venues to pimp out everything from ice cream, to energy drinks, to electronics, to cheap novelty items adorned with LEDs bulbs that light up and flicker in every color of the rainbow. "It is starting to look more like the carnival has come to town than NYFW" The Washington Post's fashion critic Robin Givhan seethes about the circus-like environment. She remembers back a couple seasons ago when plumbing fixture company Kohler had set up shop inside Lincoln Center. While she enjoyed the high-end bathroom facilities they installed on-site, the partnership between them and NYFW left her puzzled. "The issue is not about clothing," she says. "What's gotten under people's skin is this marketing machine. The week is able to pull in sponsors and companies that are not directly related to fashion, but who want to glob onto the gloss and prestige. That starts to take away the substance of it. People walking into the main lobby of the Lincoln Center felt a bit