What's the Ultimate Payoff of Showing at New York Fashion Week? Designers Weigh In

New York Fashion Week‘s Spring 2025 season was filled with star-studded catwalks, immersive show venues and exciting collection concepts, but what makes NYFW unforgettable for the actual designers? From Sandy Liang to Brandon Maxwell to PatBo‘s Patricia Bonaldi, the talent behind 15 of New York’s buzziest brands were kind enough chat with the Fashionista team backstage and answer our burning question of the week: What’s the ultimate payoff from participating in NYFW?

For independent designers especially, staging a show requires significant time and resources, and they all have their own reasons and feelings about what makes that investment worth it. Keep scrolling to read what they each consider to be the ultimate, hard-earned fashion week “win.”

Christian Juul Nielsen, Aknvas

“The fact that everyone’s here and it’s all happening at the same time. It’s very difficult to get all the models, editors, you guys, visitors and everyone together at the same time. So all my buyers travel to New York, and they meet me here. We actually opened up my creative studio with my sketches, my fabrics, everything. I invite my buyers in there, and they see me in my real universe, what the brand is all about.”

Bach Mai

“If you asked me 12 hours ago, I would’ve had a lot of regret that I was doing [this show]. I thought it was going to be a disaster. Everything was going wrong. And somehow in the last 12 hours, we pulled together something that I’m really proud of, and thanks to my team, we’re like a ragtag band of kids trying to put on a show. But I feel like that’s what New York is about. Paris has these huge houses with big budgets. We have scrappiness and gumption and passion. And it is also to create a moment that I hope that I was able to share with everyone. That’s why I do it.”

Brandon Maxwell

“The biggest payoff for me personally is seeing so many young people like myself who work on it and who come here with a dream and get to experience it, which in turn sparks something that may then go on to lead them to do something that they’re passionate about. That’s what it’s about. I’m so proud to be an American designer and to work in New York — the incredible artisans that are here, the teams that work here work so hard… I do think it has value and I think there are some of the most talented people in the world here.”

Daniella Kallmeyer, Kallmeyer

“I would say the people in this room, if they felt moved by the pieces, if they speak about the pieces after the fact, that it will have stayed with them. One of my favorite things is that all of my friends know the name of the Clemence pants. They’re always like, ‘I’m wearing my Clemence jeans to dinner tonight. Are you?’ They are so invested in the product and the product education, and I think that would be how this collection evolves is that people feel invested. It belongs to them and it’s their friend. We [the team] love each other more than we ever have, so that’s a huge win. We survived this season more in love than ever, so I would say from a Kallmeyer perspective, there’s no bigger win than that.”

Kate Barton

“So this is actually my first runway show, and I really have been so supported by the industry and by Goldfish and my school SCAD, and I think just it felt like the right moment to do my first show, and it felt like I was ready to have that moment and reveal a really clear message on what the Kate Barton brand really is.”

Melitta Baumeister 

“It means a lot to me. I think participating in New York Fashion Week, I really feel I’m part of New York now with also winning the CFDA[/Vogue Fashion Fund], where otherwise I was often not really known here being super niche, and sometimes you’re in your own bubble and you don’t even feel part of the city. And this really just as a brand, it makes you really feel part of the city.”

Jonathan Cohen

“New York] Fashion Week is a crucial way to gather buyers, editors, and the community all together to see the new collection. While it can be a heavy lift as a small brand, it can become very successful if you are strategic about it. Planning is key to creating content that will last for the next several months as you unveil the collection to your clients and stores. It can also be a great way to form new partnerships with retailers, strengthen existing ones, and create conversation for future collaborations. It can also be a way to uplift causes you are passionate about. For example, this season we presented at The Center, which supports (but is not limited to) the LGBTQ+ youth community, which is the start of a mentorship program we plan to do with The Center.”

Patricia Bonaldi, PatBo

“I think I love to see people getting emotional about what I do, so I think it’s about feeling this. It’s not about just selling, it’s about getting emotional about the work and feeling the work, connecting to the brand. I hope that people feel connected to the brand and keep supporting us.”

Sandy Liang 

“I love that my team gets to be really proud of their work.”

Fletcher Kasell, Tanner Fletcher

“It’s, for me, showing something new. We’re around the same pieces all the time. You sit with a collection for a while, so just bringing newness into the brand, I feel like we advance every time we do a collection. We always say, this is our best one, yet. Last season was our best. Now this season‘s set up, I think every season we level up, so it feels good to know that we’re doing something that we’re even more proud of.”

Edvin Thompson, Theophilio

“This right here, you see this, the energy in the room, it is just everything. But for me, I’ve always said from the very beginning, representation is so important. I don’t take that for granted. I come from a very small island in the countryside. Even when I go back and visit my grandma, I feel so big, and the gravity of that and being able to see yourself everywhere in the world, that is so important. I don’t take that for granted at all. So representation is just like the ethos of what I do.”

Ulla Johnson

“I just want everyone to love it and feel inspired and I want ourselves to feel excited. It’s like, putting on the show is as much for inspiring our own creativity as it is outward-facing, and I think we’re always looking to do something a bit unexpected as well as stay true to ourselves.”

Jackson Wiederhoeft, Wiederhoeft

“This community building exercise is such a gift. We’re doing all the fittings for the brides and seeing them see themselves in that first moment and when they see themselves in a way they’ve never seen themselves. Leslie, who’s one of the brides, and Sarah, who’s in one of the runway looks, they were both in my first show five years ago on a little stage in a photo gallery in Flatiron. And I just am so honored to get to support this community and build this story, and I just want to keep building this kingdom for everyone.”

Phillip Lim, 3.1 Phillip Lim

“Fashion is such an important vehicle for change, and to be part of this New York community is everything, because to me, New York City is the capital of the world. It’s the center of the world. And to be able to be a steward of the community for 20 years, I’m so grateful for that. Only time can do that for you, really.”

Taylor Thompson, 5000

“I think really it’s about just showcasing the work… trying to make sure that the work itself all comes together at once. I feel like, a lot of times you see it on racks or you see [the] clothes. You see individual silhouettes. But as a whole body of work, that’s what I feel like I wanted to see, and I wanted the people around to feel like they were part of 5000 as a whole, that they were able to not necessarily fall off, but fully experience this moment together.”

Reporting by Brooke Frischer, Janelle Sessoms, Emma Greene and Dhani Mau.

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Source: Fashionista.com