When summer collections are released in winter, and winter collections are released in summer, fashion really does seem to have it backwards. Runways release womenswear and menswear twice a year, six months before they actually hit the stores. The problem is, when it’s a freezing cold January day, I don’t want to be looking at flimsy summer dresses. Likewise, on a scorching hot Saturday in August, I really don’t care about what woollen jumpers will be in fashion in six months’ time. The thing is, consumers don’t want to know what to wear in half a year. They want to know what to wear now.

Runway shows have traditionally catered to the press, but things are changing. Fashion is becoming increasingly consumer driven. Rather than ministering to fashion journalists, designers are increasingly targeting buyers with their catwalk events. Yet the seasonal runways don’t seem to be made for the consumers.

Any business analyst wouldn’t have opted for a seasonal system – a huge social media buzz is created around a collection that no one can actually buy until it is released at the beginning of the pertinent season (usually around six months later). In the era of social media, people have a ‘see it now, want it now’ mentality that the catwalks fail to capitalise on.

When people can scroll through their Instagram feed and see street style that they could buy online with next day delivery, why would they wait another six months for the fashion houses to catch up? Customers expect high fashion to be no different. When catwalks can be streamed live, buyers build up excitement about the clothes. After seeing these items on countless celebrities on social media, and in endless editorials, people get tired of the ‘latest’ fashion.

“Because of social media, particularly Instagram, a lot of our clients are tired of the imagery by the time it hits the stores,” says menswear designer Charlie Casely-Hayford. “They’ve been bombarded with it.” By the time it hits the market, it’s already old news. No one cares what dress Kendall Jenner wore half a year ago.

“When people can scroll through their Instagram feed and see street style that they could buy online with next day delivery, why would they wait another six months for the fashion houses to catch up?”

It’s not just the social media aspect of modern life that makes the seasonal system seem outdated. The jet-set lifestyle of celebrities means that winter might be spent in 40ºC heat. “Customers don’t see fashion through the lens of fall or spring, and the whole idea of a season is becoming antiquated, said Ken Downing, Senior Vice President and Fashion Director of Neiman Marcus. “On our website, we noticed people were buying puffer jackets in the middle of summer and tank tops in the middle of winter,” adds Nik Thakkar, a creative consultant and brand strategist at Ada + Nik. “Seasons just don’t work anymore and we experienced that first hand.”

Many houses have already broken away from seasonal constraints. Earlier in 2016, Burberry announced that they would sell their AW16 collection straight after the catwalk event. The house decided that instead of the conventional SS and AW collections, it would show two ‘seasonless’ collections per year, with one in September and another in February, with looks coming on sale immediately off the runway. Not only does this cater to their high-income jet-setting customers, but also to the ‘Instagram generation’ who can instantly absorb the latest collections online in the context of the season.

Preview: London Fashion Week SS17

However, this approach is not without its problems. Reducing the time between runway and retail would put even more pressure on the supply chain, which might compromise the quality of the collection. “It is clear that brands cannot create faster,” agrees Susanne Tide-Frater, Brand and Strategy Director for Farfetch. “Fabrics will always need 12 weeks make-time and a buy-now-wear-now approach cannot have further impact on the quality of a beautiful fashion product.”

This is particularly problematic for smaller independent brands that do not have as much financial, capital and labour potential to boost their supply chain. “Big brands like Burberry can say, ‘We’ll do 20 of those six pieces,’ based on what their feedback is from live-streaming it.” says Vogue Fashion Director, Lucinda Chambers. “Smaller brands don’t have that opportunity and will be unnecessarily squeezed.” This makes it difficult for smaller independent brands to keep up with larger brands who have that level of flexibility. 

The solution might be to show only the looks that have been pre-made, but this might reduce quality in another way. Usually, only about 20 to 30 per cent of what is seen on the runway will actually go into production, with designers using feedback from the press to gauge which pieces will hit the markets. Quality might be reduced in terms of popularity, with items hitting the market that, in a traditional seasonal system, would have been filtered out.

A half way point, recently adopted by Burberry, is to have a pre-season collection shown to potential buyers, journalists and retailers. Looks are shown prior to the catwalk event, in order to assess popularity before finalising their collection on the commercial runway.

Changing from the traditional seasons may be difficult for any brand to uphold, but in a consumer driven market, it seems the right way to go. Given the scrutiny of the traditional fashion cycle over last year, we can expect to see many changes in 2017