What are you doing this Valentine’s Day? A romantic home-cooked meal with your partner? Enjoying a cocktail at the bar where you first met? For some New York Fashion Week attendees, grazing thighs with the person sitting next to them on a backless bench will be the most intimacy they enjoy all day.
This is not a new problem for coupled-up fashion professionals—the fall season often overlaps with the Hallmark holiday. On a 2009 episode of The Rachel Zoe Project, the stylist’s last-minute work obligations threw a wrench in her plans with her then-husband, Rodger Berman. “Valentine’s Day becomes Valentine’s Morning and, what you didn’t see, is that our wedding anniversary is the following day,” Berman wrote at the time. “I think we spent it going out to a ‘fashion dinner.’”
Still, this year feels like a particular blow to all the lovers out there: Valentine’s Day falls on the Saturday of a long weekend. Anyone hoping for an extended romantic getaway was in for a rude awakening when the fall 2026 calendar officially dropped. “My boyfriend keeps asking me when I’m free,” says Emily Freedman, a publicist at the Lede Company. “I’m not sure we’ll be having a proper Valentine’s this year but that’s his fault for dating a girl in fashion PR.”
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Nicole Phelps, Vogue’s global fashion features director, has her fashion week Valentine’s down to a science. “I have a stack of reviews to write that night, so we’ll order our favorite pizzas from Motorino East Village,” she says. Still, not all romance is lost: “On Valentine’s Day they traditionally shape their pies like hearts.”
For designers whose shows fall on V-Day—or right after—the holiday will be spent putting the eleventh-hour touches on their collections. “Our show falls on February 14th, so I’ll be at the studio all day with my team,” says designer Joseph Altuzarra. Even though his 11 am show time gives him just enough time to make it to dinner and a movie, Altuzarra knows he’ll be spent. “By the time it’s over, I’m usually too exhausted to do much of anything. My husband and I will celebrate a few days later instead. We’ll go out for a nice dinner—and this year I’d love to sneak in a movie too, ideally Wuthering Heights.”
Some V-Day lovers got a head start on their plans. “Not even the marketing department at Hinge loves Valentine’s Day as much as me,” says Chloe Malle, Vogue’s head of editorial content. “Knowing Valentine’s Day falls smack dab in the middle of New York Fashion Week, my kids and I started working on our Valentine’s in mid-January. By the time actual Valentine’s Day rolls around I think we will all be over it.”