the zeitgeist

>> Designers may be pulling their belt tighter this Fashion Week, but hardly any are pulling out of the rat race altogether — the attention is too valuable. "You kill a thousand birds with one stone, because you get that many people there in an hour and you're getting one message across to them," says Scott Sternberg of Boy and Band of Outsiders. "They're writers and photographers and culturally indulgent people with loud mouths."

Instead, designers are saving by hosting presentations instead of runway shows (Monique Lhuillier, Temperley London, and Carmen Marc Valvo), inviting fewer guests (Marc Jacobs and DKNY, who's slicing her usual 1,000 down to 400), sending email invites instead of by mail (nearly everyone), or showing fewer looks to save on fabric and sample-making costs.

Two models, 15 looks, and a free space to show it in »

>> Fall 2009 is "the make or break season" for small designers, according to Eric Wilson of The New York Times.  Stores are reducing their orders by 20 percent or more for Fall, and some are already trying to cancel their Spring orders, which puts small businesses, especially those without independent financial backing, in a tenuous position.  Basically, Wilson points out, "The more stores that close, the more designers will follow."  And in show season, the cost of samples and putting on a show doesn't help with the strain.

"We're just trying to survive." »

>> Models are having a tough time of it, now that brands, from Chanel on down, are feeling the pinch.  Designers hired fewer models to walk during couture last week, and labels are cutting fees in general.

"Half price! It's half-price everywhere, in Milan, even in New York," cried Ukranian model Anna Chyzh, backstage at Stephane Rolland last Monday.  Aidan Jean-Marie, director at Premier Model Management in London, which has represented Claudia Schiffer in the past, confirmed that clients who used to pay a daily rate of $4,200 are now coming in with a budget of $2,100.

In response to the budget crisis, agencies are adjusting their mix of "commercial" models and pricier "catwalk" models.  "You need both sides to survive the downturn, but the balance shifts slightly towards the commercial models," said Jean-Marie. "The catwalk girls are not your day-to-day girls, they are anomalies, with measurements they had when they were 16 and still have at 18."  The rise of the more "commercial" look has already come into being in Spring 2009 ad casting, judging by the prevalence of Toni Garrn and Anna Maria Jagodzinska.

And it could get worse . . . »

>> Even after the groundbreaking all-black July 2008 Vogue Italia and the newly inaugurated President Obama, models of color are still having trouble taking the runway in Milan.  After three days of menswear, only Giorgio Armani and Donatella Versace cast black models; Jil Sander, Gucci, Missoni, Burberry, Trussardi, Bottega Veneta, Gianfranco Ferre, Roberto Cavalli, and Prada did not.

Frida Giannini, who has cast exactly one black female model since since she took the reins at Gucci in 2005 — Chanel Iman — blamed modeling agencies: "I think it would be great if there was an industry initiative on this issue, because I am always looking for black models, or even Chinese or whatever, for the shows.  I’m after a specific kind of look, and I request the agencies — I asked last season — to send me someone interesting. But they never send me anyone very new."

Finger-pointing seems to be the go-to excuse with this issue, but the owner of New York agency Red says he flew out three promising black models, who ended up with "amazing options, options I’d never seen before on black guys" for Prada or Jil Sander.  Unfortunately, they all fell through before the shows.

Even Franca Sozzani, editor of Vogue Italia, who had such a hand in pinpointing the issue, seems ready to push it aside, blaming the lack of diversity on the fact that designers might see it is "too obvious" to cast black models the week of Obama's inauguration.  “It has nothing to do with a racist attitude."
*image: source

>> THE ZIETGEIST —Everyone's hoping to stay in the black these days, the fashion flock included.  At the Calvin Klein Pre-Fall presentation Tuesday, 28 out of 31 front row guests wore black; Eric Wilson likens it to "fashion's version of comfort food" — "the fashion crowd hasn’t looked this dark since the early 1990s." [NYT]

*image: source

>> With Pre-Fall show season in full swing, it may seem like business as usual on the surface, but within the span of two days, Stefano Gabbana, Donna Karan, and Bridget Foley, executive editor at WWD, have spoken out indicating otherwise.  The consensus is that the industry needs rehab — and fast — that or, Foley writes, "we can wait for total industry Armageddon, à la the financial and auto industries, to step back and try to set things right."

Gabbana was first kickstarted into action when he saw cotton shorts being stocked last year in the Milanese Dolce & Gabbana store during Winter:

"I started asking myself, ‘What’s happening?’  As a consumer I said, ‘No, this makes no sense.' I don’t want cherries or strawberries at Christmas anymore. I want to eat, dress and live on time.  I think we all need to sit back and ponder over this anxiety we all have of constantly needing to anticipate."

Numerous designers have bemoaned the increasingly accelerated system, and Gabbana is no exception, WWD writes — he calls the whole ordeal "drugged," partially because it leaves him warehouses full of excess merchandise:

"He foresees a vortex of collections that have shorter and shorter life spans and that are often out of touch with the needs of a consumer increasingly overwhelmed by a crescendo of merchandise and wooed by super-early sales in this tough economy."

So what's the solution? »

>> THE ZEITGEIST —We've seen legions of "it" bags and "it" shoes, but Raf Simons may have started a new phenomenon — "it" earrings.  The spear-like earrings he created for Jil Sander's Damiani collaboration elicited covetousness as soon as they hit the runway, but now that they're available ($4,500-$10,000, natch), the gushing is back.  Style.com is "now coveting" the pieces, Interview "love[s] the clean lines," and NY Magazine says they "exceeded our every expectation." [Style File, Interview, The Cut]

>> Now that the scandal with his traditional Fashion Week venue is settled, would Marc Jacobs start fresh for Fall 2009 with a new location?  Fern Mallis, who oversees New York Fashion Week organization, says that she's had "several major designers" who haven't shown in the Bryant Park tents in the past show interest in transferring back into the tents to save money.  Marc, Calvin Klein, Oscar de la Renta, is that you?

Not only is downsizing in the way of parties and events expected come February, but when runway shows can run up to $150,000 a pop, many designers — especially the less established ones — may opt for the simple presentation, maybe even sans models.  Mallis even recommends that young designers team up for a presentation with one or two other designers, to split the costs.

For sure, the worst thing that can happen for a label is the inability to show at all; As Mallis puts it, "Businesses are still in business, and they need to show that they are in business."
*image: source

>> THE ZEITGEIST —The fashion industry and food are not often associated, but Hadley Freeman says there's no reason they shouldn't be: "Please! Food is colorful, it’s potentially expensive, and you can be a total snob about it — OF COURSE the fashionable are obsessed with it."  Mini fast food — hamburgers, pigs-in-a-blanket, cheesecake — like served at the Whitney Art gala last night — have supplanted Laduree macaroons as the food trend-of-choice, but apparently you can't go wrong with Japanese food — a fashion food classic. [Style File]

>> Despite all those shoe-induced falls on the Prada runway, the fashion industry's obsession with super-high heels is causing designers to go higher.

Manolo Blahnik, who for over 20 years has gone no higher than five-inch heels — and doesn't do platforms — is increasing his maximum height to six inches this year.  He says it's paying off — the six-inch heels already account for 30 percent of his business.  And Christian Louboutin, who has popularized extreme heels, is seeing his new six- and seven-inch heels sell so well that he has plans to introduce eight-inch platform shoes next Fall: "I hear they can be painful, but women keep asking for them."

Poor economic times mean longer hemlines, but higher heels?  We'll see — a model told reporters after the Prada show: "I was having a panic attack, my hands were shaking. The heels were so high.  Some of the girls were crying backstage they were so scared."  I love my vertiginous heels, but who wants to buy into that . . .
*image: source