As the conduit between luxury labels and the outside world, communications teams have long been responsible for shaping a brand’s narrative. But who tells those stories, where they’re told, and why continues to shift. So what does it really mean to be a fashion PR today?
Fashion week offers the clearest window into the system. Four times a year, the industry’s most powerful communications agencies descend on New York, London, Milan, and Paris to boost the global visibility of dozens of brands, managing everything from front row seat allocations and celebrity dressing to press coverage, backstage access, and events. While many luxury labels have their own in-house PR teams, most also work with agencies to help bolster their communications teams, particularly during show season.
And so, for the Fall/Winter 2026 season, I met with and shadowed several agencies that operate across key cities, including KCD and Karla Otto, Purple and Lucien Pagès across all fashion weeks, DH–PR (London and Paris), Beside Communications (Milan) and Reference Studios (Milan and Paris), to better understand the role of a PR in today’s turbulent fashion landscape.
“You set yourself a nice challenge doing this story and catching everybody at the busiest time,” says Lissy Von Schwarzkopf, with a smile. Lissy is chief business officer of one of the world’s biggest fashion communications agencies, Karla Otto, which has 14 offices across four continents and represented leading labels including Valentino, Jil Sander, and Ferragamo this season. It’s unusual for PRs to be photographed or interviewed, a sentiment shared by most industry execs who commented for this story. “We usually like to be discreet and be behind the scenes,” Alexander Werz, Karla Otto CEO, says. “It’s about the client being seen, and us doing the work.”
However, since the explosion of social coverage across fashion shows, every cog in the fashion machine has become a point of fascination for the public. And the PR industry is arguably one of the most dynamic roles in the business — even if it can be a white-knuckle ride. “Every season, no matter how much you plan, there are always last-minute changes down to the wire,” says Daisy Hoppen, founder of London-based PR agency DH-PR. We’re doing a walk-through of the show space ahead of the Raw Mango show at London Fashion Week to check where guests will arrive, where backstage will be, and envision any possible issues. Every PR does this before every single fashion show, and while it helps mitigate risk, it’s impossible to extinguish it entirely. “Talent changes, life happens, people’s children get colds,” adds DH-PR agency director Marion Abramov. “We have to be ready for anything.”
Sometimes, things really don’t go to plan. “Once, there was a very important celebrity who was supposed to arrive at a show, and everyone was there. There was only one seat empty, and this person didn’t want to get out of the car,” says Lucien Pagès. “It was so embarrassing, because everybody was expecting the show to start, and this person, they’re human, you know, sometimes they freak out, and they don’t want to go. So we had to start the show.” After 30-45 minutes of waiting at any show, guests start to become unhappy, Pagès says, and some may even have to leave because their schedules can be so tight, so he tries to never exceed that limit.
It may seem trivial, but a fashion show and the reception it receives can move the needle on a brand’s performance. If the alchemy of the collectsion, the vibe, and the experience is right, it can not only drive critical acclaim and brand relevance but also sales, as we’ve seen with Matthieu Blazy’s Chanel debut in September, which caused a frenzy outside Paris stores when the collectsion dropped a couple of weeks ago. From deciding who is in the room to sharing information and images post-show, PRs are responsible, in one way or another, for most of the stories told about a brand moment. And in an industry where the consumer is more discerning than ever, brands have to get it right.
From vibes to KPIs
When I visit the PR agencies ahead of the shows, desks and floors are covered in enormous sheets of paper, with intricately color-coded seating plans (each agency has a different code). Teams circle around the paper, testing combinations of editors, talents, buyers, and friends of the house.
“You have to have a personal touch,” says Hoppen, “I will look at the chart and say this person and this person are friends, so they will talk to each other, but those two used to work together at the same title, so that might be a little acrimonious.” It’s about curation of personalities, to achieve the brand’s goals, be it social media buzz, resonance in a certain industry like art or music, or a community feel.
“It’s demanding work,” says Mumi Haiati, founder of agency Reference Studios, which represents labels including Blumarine, C.P. Company, and Chrome Hearts. When we meet, his team is poring over the Blumarine seating plan. “The glamorous moments come from long hours and meticulous preparation. PR is still about coverage, but increasingly it’s about understanding how brands can participate meaningfully in culture, at a time when [audiences] can be suspicious of brands.”
Over the last decade, the way brands have measured the success of a fashion show has changed considerably, PRs agree. When Lucien Pagès started his agency in 2006, he had never heard of a KPI (key performance indicator). “It was more about feedback and feelings,” Pagès says. “Before, we were waiting to see if things worked when they arrived in the store. People knew which show was working [intrinsically] based on instinct.”
Today, PRs are often ruled by data reports following activations. Earned media value (EMV), which each agency measures differently through organizations like Launchmetrics, Lefty, or WeArisma, has become an important currency. These metrics attach a certain monetary value to social media engagement, such as likes or comments, to determine the total monetary value generated by an event, a fashion show, or a talent. “When you do a show, like you can go a few million, or the value of a few million, overnight,” Pagès says. Brands then use this data to evaluate an event, and their PR’s performance post-show or post-activation. While it’s a useful barometer, “it can oblige you to do quantity and not quality, if you are under pressure,” Pagès says. “Also, sometimes it’s a bit fake, because people buy their followers or have bots.”
Resisting hype and focusing solely on media value metrics is a challenge PRs want to help brands navigate, too. “Sometimes it’s complicated to explain the importance of positioning. You can have hype for a moment through social media, but you will not last if you’re not consistent,” says Valerio Innella, founder of Milan-based agency Beside Communications, which represents Thom Browne and Acne Studios in the Italian market, plus Italian brands like MSGM. “What we really try to do with our clients is educate them on how being relevant in the system is important to create a long-term brand [equity] and commercial success. So trade and institutional magazines are still extremely important for that. Maybe it’s not about sales, but it’s about long-term relevance.”
In this vein, print placements remain an important KPI for many brands, PRs agree. At several of the nighttime or late-afternoon shows this season, agencies had to provide a preview image to newspaper journalists to meet the next day’s print deadline. “When there’s a passion project from a client, they all still want to go and buy that newspaper or magazine. I actually don’t think that will ever go away,” Hoppen says. “If you have a really great print title that has a really strong community and has presented something in a very specific way, Luncheon magazine, How to Spend It, or something with the prestige of Vogue still hold their weight. It is about that omnichannel hybrid of really strong digital output and then something meaningful in print as well.”
It’s also important for PRs to believe in the brands they’re pushing. Werz, reflecting on his long career, has seen that only the brands with solid product behind the storytelling or “packaging” can sustain. “I don't believe in mental masturbation. I think it’s absolutely boring. I believe in real things…if the product is great, then [we] can enhance something. If not, forget it.”
There’s still a stereotype of PR as risk-averse gatekeeping, adds Haiati. “In reality, good PR often requires pushing brands to take calculated risks to create real momentum and lasting meaning. We use data, but we’re not driven by fear. We’re driven by the ability to decode culture and match brands with the right communities at the right moment. It’s psychological, strategic, and deeply creative work.”
From brands, the goalposts continue to shift. “Gone are the days where it was mandatory to have one cover and four six-page print features a season per designer (which used to be the norm), now there is so much breadth and depth as to what a great campaign looks like,” says Andrew Lister, executive vice president of Purple, another global PR agency, with seven offices across four continents. “This can be across social campaigns, celebrity placements, industry talks, corporate communications, destination shows, partnerships, and collaborations.”
Navigating crises and instability
It may be ‘PR not ER’, as someone quipped to me during Paris Fashion Week, but disasters do strike, both big and small, that PRs have to contend with, throughout fashion week and beyond.
Stolen show seats are one recurring mini-crisis. This is a common issue for PRs and requires a cool head. If someone important doesn’t get their seat, it can jeopardize coverage in the press or on social. Innello remembers a recent show where the designer decided, one hour before the show, to take off four to five benches to make more space for the models to exit. “So we had 30 or 40 people that we didn't know how to seat. The level of stress is high in those situations, but you face it. Even if it’s impossible. The most important thing is that the guest [doesn’t] have to realize there’s a problem. They may be a bit squeezed, but that’s the worst of it.”
“One day we arrived at the show venue, and the production company had given us the map of the space in reverse,” says Pagès. “When we arrived to stick the [seat] numbers down, my team realised. It was already rehearsal, and people were about to arrive. You always learn from a failure like that, it’s like wow, that situation could actually exist.”
Other times, there are bigger challenges at play. Spring may have sprung in Paris, but as New York Fashion Week attendees felt this season, the weather is not always fashion’s friend. “We’ve had some pretty major weather moments over the years,” says KCD CEO Rachna Shah. She looks back on the Victoria’s Secret show in 2012, a week after Hurricane Sandy in New York. Or a Tom Ford for Yves Saint Laurent show in a black box structure that became unsafe amid high winds. “Literally an hour before the show, we had to cancel and get everyone out of the structure — hair, makeup, tech, everything. Then we had to set up a plan to send people to the show location to say, don’t come,” she says. “Looking back, you think, ‘Oh my God, how did we do that?’
PRs are also, sadly, accustomed to geo-political crises, like the ongoing war in the Middle East, that intensified during Paris Fashion Week this season. September 11 also happened in the middle of New York Fashion Week in 2001. “There were still people who needed to show collectsions, so it was about reimagining what that would be and how they could still see the buyers, because they needed to go to market,” Shah says.
Particularly in the current moment of geopolitical unrest and economic instability, crisis management is a crucial part of fashion communications as brands and communications teams weigh how to respond, or not, to global issues. “For all of us, we have learned a lot over the last five years, through all these seismic moments, whether it’s been Black Lives Matter or the [collapse] of retailers. I think all of us now know you stop, you pause, and you review. You don’t respond straight away. It’s important to kind of take stock of the situation,” Hoppen says.
The job today is to be a steady hand, even in times of uncertainty, adds Pages. “It’s much more complex today; there is a lot of hysteria, a lot of opinions. We want to help our clients feel stable, to be reassuring, and not detached.” This can be difficult, as many agencies have worked with their clients for many years and are personally invested when they face difficulties. “When there is a problem, I cannot be hysterical as well. Because if the consultant is hysterical, nobody will find a way.”
The retail climate, too, is squeezing the industry, as the luxury slowdown challenges marketing budgets. Meaning PRs have to get creative to inspire brands to keep activating, even as budgets contract. “If you look at something like [the collapse of] Saks or Matches, they have huge knock-on effects on the whole industry,” Hoppen says. “That’s when you really want to put your arms around your clients even more. The challenge is to ensure that our clients thrive and survive in a very difficult landscape, and that requires you to think outside the box. Gone are the days when you can just wait for your client to give you something. You have to go to them and say, how can we help you?”
While PR agencies are collegiate with each other, of course, there’s competition for business, too. Often, brands will jump ship from one agency to another as their contracts end, for a myriad of reasons, be it budget, personal relationships, or leadership changes. “One of the biggest challenges is desirability,” Werz says. “When you have more than 40 years behind you, [potential clients] may think, that’s a giant. It’s boring. It’s too big. So you have to show that you’re hungry, and you have to give the best results.”
David Siwicki represents some of Paris’s most exciting new names at his eponymous agency, including Hodakova, August Barron, and Meryll Rogge. For smaller agencies that represent up-and-coming labels, it’s about making it easy for buyers and editors to discover and support new brands.
“Fashion week is always a logistical challenge, but we work smartly to offer events on days or locations that are easily accessible — people want to discover our clients; we just have to make it easier for them,” Siwicki says. For example, this season, he chose a venue by the Courrèges show, for the Fidan Novruzova presentation, so editors could pop in en route. “I don’t pretend to appeal to everyone; instead, we focus sharply on the key outlets and editors who understand our curated selection of clients across fashion and culture.”
Fashion week may be over, but the event schedule remains relentless for agencies looking ahead. “When I started with Karla Otto, we had fashion weeks — that was it,” says Werz. “There wasn’t yet the density of events we see today. If we count now, we do over 600 events a year. Of course, it can be a small dinner, but it can also be thousands of guests for an evening.”
Shah is seeing a return to local, smaller activations between the major events. “It’s not just about doing things in local markets, although the US has been a focus, now it’s not just New York, LA, and maybe Miami. What are you doing in Nashville? What are you doing in Aspen, Houston, Dallas? And it’s happening across Europe, too. It’s about catering to smaller groups.” Brands may also employ an agency for a short time to target a specific region. “It might be like, Q1, we’re focusing on New York. Q2 we’re doing Europe, and Q3 is Shanghai,” Hoppen says.
“Before everything was about the show, the show, the show, the show,” says Shah. “Now it’s like, OK, there’s the show, but then what’s happening with that launch? Or that moment?” With the relentless pace of events and launches, it’s good to strike a balance in terms of scale. “It doesn’t all have to be giant, right?”
