New York Fashion Week kicks off Sept. 7, and once again designers and the press are leveraging the web to reach virtual audiences far larger than those present at shows.
Building off success from past seasons, many brands will live stream the unveiling of their Spring/Summer 2012 collections on their websites and Facebook Pages, as well as video platforms such as YouTube and Livestream. Still more will be uploading backstage footage via their Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr and Instagram accounts.
Meanwhile, members of the fashion press will be churning out 140-character reviews and mobile snapshots live from the shows, while posting longer, slideshow-accompanied reviews on their respective news sites.
With so much to choose from, following Fashion Week online can feel nearly as overwhelming as attending in person -- which is why we've gathered together the best resources for enjoying the festivities online and on your mobile phone. If there’s any we’ve missed, please let us know in the comments section below.
Live Video
For a mostly comprehensive schedule of show live streams, see below. A mobile-optimized version of most of these streams is available at m.youtube.com/liverunway for the first time this season.
Thursday, Sept. 8, 9 a.m. ET
Thursday, Sept. 8, 10 a.m. ET
Thursday, Sept. 8, 11 a.m. ET
Thursday, Sept. 8, 1 p.m. ET
Thursday, Sept. 8, 2 p.m. ET
Friday, Sept. 9, 11 a.m. ET
Friday, Sept. 9, 2 p.m. ET
Friday, Sept. 9, 6 p.m. ET
Friday, Sept. 9, 7 p.m. ET
Saturday, Sept. 10, 10 a.m. ET
Saturday, Sept. 10, 11 a.m. ET
Saturday, Sept. 10, 3 p.m. ET
Saturday, Sept. 10, 6 p.m. ET
Saturday, Sept. 10, 7 p.m. ET
Sunday, Sept. 11, 12 p.m. ET
Sunday, Sept. 11, 1 p.m. ET
Sunday, Sept. 11, 2 p.m. ET
Sunday, Sept. 11, 4 p.m. ET
Sunday, Sept. 11, 7 p.m. ET
Sunday, Sept. 11, 8 p.m. ET
Monday, Sept. 12, 10 a.m. ET
Monday, Sept. 12, 11 a.m. ET
Monday, Sept. 12, 1 p.m. ET
Monday, Sept. 12, 2 p.m. ET
Monday, Sept. 12, 6 p.m. ET
Monday, Sept. 12, 7 p.m. ET
Monday, Sept. 12, 7:30 p.m. ET
Tuesday, Sept. 13, 10 a.m. ET
Tuesday, Sept. 13, 11 a.m. ET
Tuesday, Sept. 13, 2 p.m. ET
Tuesday, Sept. 13, 6 p.m. ET
Tuesday, Sept.13, 7 p.m. ET
Tuesday, Sept. 13, 8 p.m. ET
Wednesday, Sept. 14, 1 p.m. ET
Wednesday, Sept. 14, 3 p.m. ET
Wednesday, Sept. 14, 6 p.m. ET
Wednesday, Sept. 14, 7 p.m. ET
Thursday, Sept. 15, 10 a.m. ET
This season, Ralph Lauren will be live streaming its collection show on the New York Times' iPad app.
Thursday, Sept. 15, 8 p.m. ET
If you prefer live tweets to live video, we have a few favorites we recommend you follow.
Official Twitter account of fashion trade publication Women's Wear Daily, tweets commentary and photos.
Retail/fashion reporter for The Wall Street Journal, frequently posts images and news.
New York Times critic, tweets colorful, descriptive commentary from the shows.
Beauty director of Teen Vogue, supplies a good deal of backstage footage.
A live, photo-filled chronicle of runway shows and parties from freelance fashion journalist Jim Shi.
WSJ multimedia producer and reporter, posts high-quality photos straight from the runway.
Fashion market director at Details magazine, covering mainly men's collections.
Updates (including plenty of gossip) from New York magazine's fashion blog.
Retweets from Conde Nast fashion and beauty editors.
New York Fashion Week tweets chosen by Twitter.
Fashion News Sites
For those of you who prefer more editorially heavy coverage, here our top six picks for fashion news throughout the week.
Some of the most intelligent collection reviews during Fashion Week, accompanied by comprehensive slideshows and videos from the runway. If you're more interested in behind-the-scenes stories, see Style.com's People + Parties section.
Reviews and highlights from the collections are paywall-free throughout the week.
The New York Times' style blog contains short updates from on and around the runway, often accompanied by slideshows.
Editorial coverage and slideshows from The Wall Street Journal.
Trend reports and show reviews from The Huffington Post and its contributors.
Reviews and slideshows. Amina Akhtar, who founded The Cut, will also be penning a Fashion Week diary for an inside look at parties and shows.
Tumblr
Despite some negative backlash over its Fashion Week plans, Tumblr is once again sending a round of bloggers -- 16 this time -- to chronicle the shows. An internal staff of editors will also be curating posts to display at tumblr.com/nyfw.
In addition to Tumblr's chosen 16, we'd also like to put these Tumblrs on your radar for Fashion Week:
Consistently one of the first to upload runway footage to Tumblr, plus a hearty dose of backstage and celebrity/front row footage.
If you don't have the pleasure of sorting through thousands of show invite requests each season, you can live vicariously through the updates from DKNY's online personality, "dknyprgirl." In addition to humorously inappropriate requests and other behind-the-scenes anecdotes, you can hope to get a few sneak peeks of show preparations, too.
Although not known for up-to-the-minute fashion reporting, Teen Vogue is great about distributing runway footage in a timely manner, as well as capturing the scene in and around Lincoln Center.
After enjoying New York Times reporter Brian Stelter's coverage of Hurricane Irene through Instagram, we decided to include a list of some of our favorites for a visual report of the week. To locate them, open up Instagram and search for their usernames under Profile > Search Instagram > Users and usernames.
oscarprgirl
Watch Oscar de la Renta and his team put the finishing touches on the Spring 2012 collection from Director of Communications Erika Bearman. You'll also get snapshots of this enviable doyenne's ensembles more mornings than not.
simonesoliver
Expect a fair number of street photographs from Simone Oliver, senior fashion producer at The New York Times.
evachen212
Eva Chen cross-posts most of her Instagram snapshots to Tumblr and Twitter, but if you're keen to get backstage snapshots of makeup artists in action directly in your Instagram feed, you can follow her there too.
manrepeller
See what increasingly well-known tastemaker/blogger Leandra Medine of Man Repeller is wearing and watching.
burberry
Although not part of New York Fashion Week, followers can look forward to London by following Burberry's feed of glossy product images and stylish trench coats on the street.