The mega-designer decided to show his new F/W 2020 collection in Los Angeles this season and, like an irresistible fashion magnet, he attracted a bevy of A-listers and editorial talent (Anna Wintour included) all the way across the country. Naturally, this redirected the industry’s attention away from the regularly scheduled east coast happenings — a blow to the gut of NYFW and its already dwindling relevancy.“When I went to the Tom Ford show in LA, what I was really struck by was the amount of editors, stylists, journalists, and critics who are based in New York but showed up for the show,” says Connie Wang, a senior writer at Refinery29 who lives in California. She points out that for those in attendance, accommodating the February 7th date of Ford’s show required missing the first day of NYFW and, most likely, at least half of day two. “That Friday-through-Saturday time stretch has generally been pretty important, and the spot is usually reserved for a lot of really buzzy and contemporary designers whose shows are well-attended [in New York],” Wang explains. And while the absence of show-goers was already felt throughout the early portion of fashion week — which included big-ticket items like the Brandon Maxwell show at the Museum of Natural History and a collection voluminous gowns by CFDA/Vogue Fashion Fund winner Christopher John Rogers — a sizeable handful opted to skip out on all six days entirely.Dora Fung is a freelance editor and stylist who has been covering NYFW since 2006 for publications like Vogue China and The Cut. She was among the crowd of Tom Ford spectators that chose to forego most of the New York events in favour of an extended, sun-drenched stay in California, making it back only for day six’s Michael Kors and Marc Jacobs shows. “I felt bad missing some of the shows in New York, especially Monse and Self Portrait because I have a personal relationship with the designers, but Tom Ford has been so good to the magazines I work with that it was too important to not be in LA for it,” she says with her sights now set on Milan. Ford’s clout, it appears, is heavily rooted in his ties to Hollywood. This has long been the not-so-secret ingredient to his recipe for success. The designer-cum-film director knows how to make an irresistible cocktail of ravishing designs mixed with potent VIP energy and topped off with a delicious sex appeal, and people are drinking it up now more than ever before. “That is the power of having an A-lister sitting front row. Where else would you have gotten J.Lo, Renee Zellwegger, Demi Moore, and Miley Cyrus?”