Milan and Paris may not succumb to trend for "see now, buy now" catwalks

In recent weeks Burberry, Tom Ford, Michael Kors and Rebecca Minkoff have all made moves to towards a "see now, buy now" model for their London or New York catwalk shows but industry experts suggest that Paris and Milan may hold their ground and stick with showing a season ahead.

Speaking as Gucci posted its strongest revenue growth in three years last week, Francois-Henri Pinault, chief executive of Gucci parent Kering, rejected the idea of moving catwalks to align with retail drops. Pinault told Bloomberg that showing six months ahead created desire among the customer and that selling direct from the catwalk "negates the dream" of luxury.

Kering is one of the world's most powerful luxury brand houses and also owns Stella McCartney, Saint Laurent, Bottega Veneta, Balenciaga, Christopher Kane and Alexander McQueen among others. Kane and McQueen (as of this season) show in London, while the others show in Paris or Milan.

Industry watchers have suggested that Paris and Milan may stick with the current system of showing a season ahead and use the move as an opportunity to reclaim their positions as the true homes of luxury, while New York and London make the switch to the more commercial see now, buy now model.

“There are some brands for which a runway show is a communications event,” Pinault told Bloomberg. “Burberry has doubtless decided what suits it best. What we will decide will be what suits our brands and our vision of luxury.”

"Paris and Milan were always going to take longer to make the switch," said one industry analyst. "Now you wonder whether they will make it at all. In recent years they have lost some of their lustre, and some of their designers, to London and New York. Maybe by holding out and saying 'we represent true luxury' they may win some of them back."

Last week Gucci, under its new creative director Alessandro Michele, reported a full-year net profit rise of 32% to €696m while sales rose 15.4% to €11.58bn.

Burberry is due to show its AW16 show in London today. It has said this will be the last show it will preview six months ahead. Moving forward its collections will be labelled February and September and will drop in the shops a day after they are shown on the catwalk.

New York Fashion Week owner the CFDA meanwhile has appointed Boston Consulting Group to assess the feasibility of moving towards a consumer-focused model.