As the semi-annual New York Fashion Week is only one step away and recession is ruthless with the U.S. retail industry, designers taking part in the event that opens on Friday are doing their best in order to create clothing lines fashionistas would die for.
While designers are preparing to reveal their collections during this week’s fashion shows, they also have to cope with the twofold test of reducing their own expenditure and beguiling parsimonious purchasers and users into enhancing their spending.
Pete Nordstrom, president of merchandising for the fashionable Nordstrom Inc. department stores, informed Reuters that the company was “counting on the industry to step up with something new.”
Approximately 70 designers are exposing their creations in huge tents set up in Manhattan for Fashion Week, while other designers are showing their collections across the city.
Fashion industry is facing plummeting U.S. retail sales, as well as a distressing credit crisis, and redundancy last month registered the worst decrease in more than three decades. As for the purchasing field, the International Council of Shopping Centers reckoned that 148,000 retail stores closed in 2008 and another 73,000 are expected to put down the lid in the first half of this year.
“Right now, it’s like you’re in the middle of a tsunami,” explained Diane von Furstenberg, who leads the Council of Fashion Designers of America, as quoted by Reuters. In addition, she said that the only solution was to come up with innovative ideas that would immediately draw the attention of women and make them want to see the respective clothes in their own closets.
Several designers chose to organize lower-cost presentations and set up systems where attendees stroll around models who stand still, thus avoiding expensive and pretentious runway shows. While a runway show held at Fashion Week’s tents usually costs $100,000 to $250,000 or more, a show in a smaller location could actually cut the expenditure in half and a presentation in the designer’s display area could be the most cost-effective option of all.
Among the design houses that settled on a still presentation are Betsey Johnson, Reem Acra, Nary Manivong, Joanna Mastoianni, Generra, Luca Luca and Temperley. Moreover, Carmen Marc Valvo opted for a nightclub in which to expose her creations, thus saving thousands of dollars.
Popular designer Marc Jacobs is a trend-setter in anything: he has turned his reduction in spending into a challenge for fashionistas, who are competing to obtain an invitation at the designer’s show, which will shelter only 500 guests, compared to the usual 2,000 attendees.
According to city officials, the semi-annual Fashion Week shows instill about $773 million into New York City’s economy and hold up 175,000 jobs in the fashion industry.
