WME Group has sold the intellectual property, trademarks and logos of New York Fashion Week — including the NYFW and NYFW: The Shows brands and associated digital assets — to Signet Fashion, a media and entertainment company focused on developing and monetising IP across film, television, live experiences, gaming and digital media. WWD

WME declined to comment on the sale. The talent and sports agency had acquired IMG, the sports and fashion conglomerate, for $2.4 billion in May 2014, bringing the NYFW assets under its roof through that deal. In the years that followed, WME-IMG rolled out a redesigned NYFW logo — a stylised black-and-white treatment stacking the four letters — and acquired MADE Fashion Week, a platform for emerging designers founded in 2009 by Mazdack Rassi. WWD

Sources told WWD that WME put the New York Fashion Week IP and trademarks on the market roughly two years ago. Multiple parties examined the assets under nondisclosure agreements before Signet emerged as the buyer. WWD

Signet Fashion said it plans to build on NYFW's global reach through expanded live programming, digital content, media production, brand partnerships and year-round audience engagement. Additional details will be announced later, the company said. WWD

The sale does not transfer control of the calendar. The Council of Fashion Designers of America (CFDA), the trade body representing American designers, continues to own and organise The Fashion Calendar and the Official New York Fashion Week Schedule, and remains responsible for scheduling and governance of NYFW. Steven Kolb, the CFDA's president and CEO, welcomed Signet's investment in New York Fashion Week. WWD

The ownership of the NYFW name has been contested before. In 2018, Fashion Week, Inc. filed a $10 million lawsuit in a New York federal court alleging that the CFDA and WME-IMG were infringing its New York Fashion Week trademark. The Fashion Law

That dispute reflects a deeper question about whether "New York Fashion Week" can function as a trademark at all. Imad Izemrane, founder and CEO of N4XT Experiences, which produces NYFW Collections — a separate series of shows and presentations — said his events should not be affected by the ownership change. He also argued that the name "New York Fashion Week" is not ownable because it is descriptive rather than a distinct trademark. WWD

For designers, buyers and attendees, the split matters because the thing called "New York Fashion Week" is not one company's production but a patchwork of rights. The CFDA sets the schedule. Signet now controls the logos and branded digital assets. Producers like N4XT Experiences run their own shows under the NYFW umbrella. Spring Studios and IMG have separately hosted tie-in events such as "Glam Slam," a five-day programme of screenings, fashion presentations and merchandise collaborations during the fashion week window. Adweek

What Signet does next will determine whether the brand simply changes letterhead or whether NYFW's name becomes something audiences experience year-round, across screens and live events, in ways the current calendar does not cover.