House of Vanderbilt ties up with Signet Fashion in first NYFW move since trademark sale

House of Vanderbilt and Signet Fashion have announced a collaboration around New York Fashion Week, launching with a runway event at Vanderbilt Hall in Grand Central Terminal on 15 September.

The tie-up is the first public activity from Signet Fashion since it acquired the New York Fashion Week, NYFW and NYFW: The Shows trademarks, along with the associated website and social accounts, from WME Group in August. That transaction transferred brand assets but not operational control: the Council of Fashion Designers of America continues to own and organise the official New York Fashion Week schedule, which it has described as the authoritative calendar for American designers.

The two parties said the relationship is intended to expand opportunities across fashion, media, live events, sponsorship, commerce and digital experiences. The release describes the arrangement in prospective terms, referring to a "proposed NYFW partnership" and stating that the companies "intend to collaborate" on media, hosting, appearances and promotional programmes. No financial terms were disclosed.

The event

The launch show, titled Makers, Moguls, and Muses, is presented by Vanderbilt & Seewald Global Studio and Signet Fashion in collaboration with House of Vanderbilt. It will run before roughly 300 guests described as industry figures, investors, buyers and media, and is hosted by the actor and television presenter Mario Lopez.

Three designers are showing: Dustin Glickman of DSTN, Lorena Saravia, and Nabil Hayari of Hayari Paris. The event also marks the runway debut of Vanderbilt & Seewald Global Studio's Click-To-Buy technology and interactive AI hologram experiences supplied by AEXA. Twenty-five members of the US military, the FDNY and the NYPD will be recognised during the show, tied to the country's 250th anniversary.

Who is behind House of Vanderbilt

House of Vanderbilt describes itself as the first official family office of the Vanderbilt family. It is led by Consuelo Vanderbilt Costin, a seventh-generation descendant of Cornelius Vanderbilt, who is also a recording artist, co-founder of the creative professional network SohoMuse, and founder of the jewellery line Homage.

"New York Fashion Week has always been where creativity, ambition, culture, and commerce converge, and those ideas are woven into the Vanderbilt legacy," Vanderbilt Costin said. "There is nowhere more fitting to launch this partnership than Vanderbilt Hall, the room my family built more than a century ago. Working with Signet Fashion gives us an opportunity to honor that legacy by creating new opportunities for designers, entrepreneurs, brands, and creative talent for generations to come."

Signet Fashion is a media and entertainment company that develops and commercialises intellectual property across film, television, live experiences, gaming and digital media. Its stated plan for the NYFW assets is to build out live programming, digital content, brand partnerships, licensing and commerce around the name.

This article was drafted with the assistance of AI and edited by a FashionUnited journalist.