\n\tSources said that WME put the NYFW intellectual property and trademarks up for sale two years ago, and several different parties looked at it, but had signed nondisclosure agreements so couldn\u2019t discuss the assets or the price.<\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cThe social channels [the website, social media handles] are what\u2019s actually valuable,\u201d said one source.<\/p>\n
\n\tIn February, N4XT<\/a> Experiences, which produced its first season of The Venue Collective as a partner in KFN in September 2025, came up with a new name, NYFW<\/a> Collections, (N4XT split with its Kilburn Media partner Mark Manuel, a Hollywood executive and financier, after one season) and a slate of fully contracted venues across New York City in an effort to strengthen NYFW<\/a>.<\/p>\n \n\tWhen told of the Signet acquisition of the trademarks, Imad Izemrane, founder and CEO of N4XT Experiences,<\/a> said Friday, \u201cThe more people who come into our world and into our industry with the right intentions and the more infrastructure and the more support we can give the designer community the better.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tHe said his NYFW Collections shouldn\u2019t be impacted with a change in ownership of the trademarks. He said the name, New York Fashion Week, is not ownable. \u201cNew York Fashion Week by itself is not ownable, it\u2019s descriptive versus distinct trademark. It\u2019s a big difference,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n \n\t\u201cThe most important thing is, what is the New York Fashion Week business? The New York Fashion Week business is to have a great relationship with the designers to create an infrastructure that\u2019s going to support the fashion industry and the designer community. You curate an incredible group of designers that you put together and with that, you can sit down with partners, sponsors and packages and use those sponsorship deals to support the industry,\u201d said Izemrane.<\/p>\n \n\tHe said they\u2019re still finalizing their designers for September, but they should have 18-20 designers participating. \u201cWe\u2019re going to have the strongest and best lineup we\u2019ve ever had,\u201d said Izemrane. Among those participating in NYFW Collections are Diane von Furstenberg, Altuzarra, Prabal Gurung, Henry Zankov, Forme, Aknvas, Sergio Hudson, and Kim Shui.<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\t\t \t\t\t\t\tElizabeth Sulcer, June Ambrose, Zanna Roberts Rassi and Jenna Lyons at the Prabal Gurung fashion show at Cipriani 25 Broadway last February.<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tGilbert Flores\/WWD<\/p>\n \n\tNYFW Collections also offers no-fee venues and supports the designers financially. \u201cEveryone needs different types of support,\u201d he said. The shows take place in venues from 42nd Street to the Financial District. \u201cWe don\u2019t want to hold designers into this one specific format that they need to be in the same space in the same venue. The whole point is that we wanted to accommodate designers to have creative freedom and have their own unique spaces and venues,\u201d said Izemrane. <\/p>\n \n\tHe said he finances these shows through sponsors and partners and has \u201can incredible partnership\u201d with SAP, and plans to reveal another big partner that\u2019s joining. During fashion week, they do an experiential activation with SAP to showcase the latest technology that powers the fashion retail industry.<\/p>\n \n\tSources said that the investors in Signet are the same investors in Kilburn Media, and Signet\u2019s acquisition of the NYFW trademarks could be a signal that Kilburn may be looking to start up again with a stake in the fashion world. Mark Manuel of Kilburn couldn\u2019t be reached for comment.<\/p>\n \n\tSusan Scafidi, founder and director of the Fashion Law Institute at Fordham Law School, said a company can indeed own the trademarks New York Fashion Week and NYFW, and does. She recalled around 10 years ago when an entrepreneur came along and called themselves Fashion Week Inc., and decided to trademark New York Fashion Week and NYFW [neither IMG nor CFDA had ever trademarked the full phrase or acronym before] and sued IMG and CFDA collectively for using it.<\/p>\n \n\t\u201cSo there was drama, and they finally settled this. And in fact, there was a court ruling saying, \u2018Well, you know, sure you registered it and you maybe can own the online, but in the U.S., use gives you rights to marks.\u2019 The lawsuit went on for five years and was finally settled in 2020.\u201d Her guess is that WME\/IMG paid some money, and trademarks were assigned to IMG, who owned them.<\/p>\n \n\tShe said other companies coming in and using NYFW have to be \u201csuper careful\u201d about not creating confusion because that could lead to another round of lawsuits. She said Signet, who now owns the trademarks, can now use them as they like. \u201cBut that means that everyone else using variations of it could have some issues,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n \n\t\u201cI mean everyone wants in on New York fashion because it\u2019s glamorous, right? And whether there\u2019s actual money in it or not, that might be another story. It\u2019s never really seemed to have that kind of return on investment, shall we say?\u201d said Scafidi.<\/p>\n \n\tIt has become increasingly clear over the past few years that WME Fashion hasn\u2019t been able to monetize NYFW as it had hoped. In 2024, IMG <\/a>began making big changes in its operation of New York Fashion Week and pivoted from producing a centralized venue for NYFW: The Shows to concentrating its efforts on facilitating brand partnerships and creative collaborations between brands and designers. Through Focus, a creative and production agency, the company continued to produce fashion shows, consumer experiences, tastemaker dinners and events globally.<\/p>\n![\"Elizabeth](\"https:\/\/wwd.com\/wp-content\/themes\/vip\/pmc-wwd-2021\/assets\/public\/lazyload-fallback.gif\")
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