The Ins and Outs of Fashion Show Production With IMG's Dominic Kaffka

Watch the full conversation between Dominic Kaffka and Editor-in-Chief Dhani Mau on The Fashionista Network.

Dominic Kaffka began his journey with IMG in 2008 as an office manager and production coordinator in the company's Berlin office. Now, he's the SVP and managing director at IMG's in-house production company Focus, where his team is responsible for top New York Fashion Week shows and other big fashion events throughout the year.

Kaffka always wanted to produce live events when he got his start working for IMG's former global head of production; it was a coincidence that he ended up focusing on fashion, he told Dhani Mau live on The Fashionista Network. (Watch it here!)

"It's just a great company that gave me and a lot of others a lot of growth opportunities," Kaffka said of rising up the ranks over 15 years at IMG.

For New York Fashion Week Fall 2024, Kaffka and his team produced shows for Proenza Schouler, The Blonds, Altuzarra and Jason Wu, among others. Planning for shows begins an average of three to six months in advance, Kaffka said — and every aspect of the show is intricately orchestrated: the location, lighting, set design, runway layout, guests, backstage and much more. With New York being an especially expensive city in which to host a show, Kaffka shared that the first big step — determining the location — is frequently a major challenge. Though he loves opportunities to get creative, whether it's finding an unconventional venue on a limited budget or building a world around a designer's once-sentence prompt.

"Often it's really unexpected details that come up that you might not have thought of because a show is in a very new or different context," Kaffka said. "But that's great because, for the next show, you've learned and that's a really important process, building your career, building your network and building your teams from each show and each experience as every show is really very different."

While every show presents its own unique set of challenges, Kaffka's biggest hurdle to date was navigating the Covid-19 pandemic. "That was a big learning [experience] because we had to figure out during those two years how we can make shows for 25 people in person look amazing for a few thousand people online," he said. "As hard as it was, those two years, we've learned so much also about being resilient, never giving up with the most impossible changes we had, and at the end of the day it paid off."

He was referring to Jason Wu's September 2020 runway that brought Tulum to Manhattan with pounds and pounds of sand, which he now sees as a career highlight. Another was a Condé Nast event for which Karl Lagerfeld was in attendance, which Kaffka looked back on as "the biggest honor in the world to work with one of the greatest of all time."

For those interested in a career in event production, Kaffka vouched for the importance of building up experience in the field: "The best thing is always to start as an intern, start as a PA, start as an assistant or coordinator somewhere, and then try to figure out what exactly you want to do," he said. Kaffka himself said he looks for potential interns or assistants to be motivated, consistent and communicative.

As the fashion industry grows increasingly digital, Kaffka still wholeheartedly believes in the value of an in-person runway experience. He revealed that he loves to time a runway to a sunset because of the unique energy it creates. In one instance, he recalled, "We were standing in the tech booth and had literally tears coming down because it was so beautiful when everything just fits perfectly," he said. "And that's why live events are so important."

"I remember during Covid everyone said, 'Well, we might not need fashion shows anymore, content works as well,'" Kaffka continued. "But I'm a firm believer that there's no technology yet that can replace a live experience when you're in the room with people and you see the garments and all the creative pieces come together in a perfect way."

This conversation was hosted on The Fashionista Network powered by interactive media platform Fireside, where viewers get the chance to participate and speak directly with industry figures. Learn more about The Fashionista Network here.

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