Your Fashion Tech Guide to NY Tech Week 2026
Tech Week is next week! Here's everything you need to know (and add to your calendar) to make the most of Fashion Tech's biggest week in New York.
Team,
We’re going on year 3 of bringing fashion tech to NY Tech Week!
From 0 events in 2023 to over 15 in 2025, NY Tech Week has become Fashion Tech’s biggest week of the year. Whether you’ve participated before or this is your first time, it can feel hard to know how to make the most of the week, so we’re here to help.
Not only have we put together 3 events we’re confident you won’t want to miss, we’ve also sifted through the hundreds of NY Tech Week events to build a filtered calendar of the must-know fashion tech moments of the week.
Finally, if you want to be part of NY (Fashion) Tech Week in an even bigger way, we’ve got a few spots left for founders who want to pitch, plus volunteer opportunities for photographers and general event support: sign up to volunteer here.
Sound like fun? Let’s get into it.
But first, a huge thank you to our sponsors who make this week possible. To our event sponsors Make The Dot, UpScaleX and inHaus, our drink sponsors Lunar, Ramona, and Society de la Rassi, and our incredible venue and community partners Fashion Institute of Technology, Fashionphile, and Workplayce, none of this happens without you!
Fashion Tech Panels at FIT — Monday, June 1st · 4–7 PM
For: Everyone — Founders, Fashion & Tech Professionals, Investors, Students
Kicking off the week STRONG. For the second year running, we’re partnering with the Fashion Institute of Technology to bring together the leaders, builders, and innovators shaping fashion tech’s next chapter, and this year’s lineup is our best yet.
We’ve put together two panels getting at the questions we know our community is actually asking:
Panel 1 — Beyond the Headlines: Why Getting AI Right for Fashion Is Harder Than It Looks. Founders and AI experts enabling AI across the fashion value chain will dig into what it really takes to build with this technology in a way that actually solves real problems, why the gap between the hype and the reality is wider than most people think, and what the path forward looks like for fashion brands and builders alike.
Panel 2 — Fit Check: What It Actually Takes for Fashion and Tech to Partner Successfully. Getting to the heart of what every founder and fashion leader wants to know: What should fashion brands look for when choosing a tech partner? How do you stay ahead of constantly shifting technology? And what do fashion tech companies need to understand to land and keep major partnerships?
But that’s not all! At The Pattern Maker, as long time subscribers know, we’re about getting into the weeds, and sometimes panels aren’t the right vehicle to do that. So between our two panels, we’re bringing in Emilie Ho, cofounder and CEO of Make The Dot, for a 10-minute tech talk that takes us behind the scenes on how they’ve rethought the technology supporting every step of fashion production and beyond.
Doors open at 3:30 PM · Panels 4–6 PM · Open networking 6–7 PM
Fashion Tech Pitch Practice — Tuesday, June 2nd · 6–8 PM
For: Founders, Investors, and anyone who wants to be in the know on the latest fashion tech companies being built
This event was a hit last year so we brought it back.
Here’s the premise: During Tech Week you’ll be asked 100 times “so, what are you building?” To make the most of the week, you’ll need a strong hook that gets people interested and asking follow-up questions. So to help you prepare, we’ll have 8 ready-to-raise founders give their pitch in front of our expert panel of investors, Serena Ainslie, Alan Zong and Katie Dunn, who will follow up with questions and then give live feedback.
This year, staying true to our post from March pushing fashion tech founders to diversify their thinking when it comes to funding partners, we’re partnering with Girl Math Capital, one of NY’s leading angel groups, to bring more angel investors to the room.
For founders, whether you’re pitching or in the audience, you’ll get valuable tips to take with you through tech week and beyond. For investors, you’ll get access to ready-to-raise fashion tech startups. And for everyone else, you’ll get to hear the newest ideas being designed up to change fashion!
Founders, we have a few spots left! Tell us about your company here by this Tuesday EOD 5/26 to be considered.
Fashion Tech Mixer at Fashionphile — Wednesday, June 3rd · 6–8 PM
For: Founders, Investors, Fashion & Tech Professionals, Operators
TPM regulars, you know the drill (and you know spots go fast).
Co-hosted with Fashionphile, the country’s largest ultra-luxury resale platform, we’re bringing together the best and brightest from across fashion and tech for an evening of real conversation and connections. No agenda, just a curated room of people designing the future of fashion and fashion tech.
Spots are limited, so grab yours now and make sure to include enough context about your background in fashion or fashion tech when you RSVP!
Want to be part of making this happen?
These events stay free because of the incredible people who show up, including behind the scenes. We’re looking for:
Photographers for all three events (June 1, 2, and 3)
General event volunteers for day-of support
If you’re interested, sign up here. We’d love to have you. And if you know someone who’d be a great fit, please pass this along!
But wait, there’s more!
Like I said, figuring out how to make the most of Tech Week can be hard. And though we believe our 3 events are a great start, there are still hundreds of events happening across the week with no easy way to filter for what’s actually relevant to fashion and retail tech.
So we made made our own site. In addition to our 3 featured events, we’ve curated a list of 8 more fashion and retail tech events hosted by people we trust and think are worth your time.
Check out the full NY (Fashion) Tech Week Curated Calendar
From agentic commerce panels to AI fashion galleries to the Fashionology Summit on Saturday, it’s all in there with dates, times, hosts, and direct RSVP links.
Finally, to get you warmed up before tech week even starts, check out Jade’s virtual event THIS FRIDAY on how to Build an AI Agent for Your Brand.
PHEW that was a lot. Which event are you most excited about? Drop it in the comments and share this with whoever you’re dragging along with you next week.
See you out there!
The Pattern Maker