Luxury Industry News Roundup: New York Fashion Week Fall 2010/11

This past week was New York Fashion Week, where the high, low and middle of the United States fashion industry meets to show, tell and twitter. Every fashion site/blog in the metaverse has been devoted to non-stop observations, so below are my own personal picks for the trends that came out on top for NYFW Fall/Winter 2010/2011:

1.) TWITTER:
Twitter was a huge winner during the Fall 2010 shows as nearly every single person in attendance with a smart-phone or laptop was texting his/her 120 letter summaries for the Twitter-connected to read (and read . . . and read . . . and read, dear lord, it never stopped). But for all the cynics who whine that Twitter is nothing but stupid people detailing their trivial lives, it's time to pull your heads out of the sand and take a second look.

Heavy industry hitters like Women's Wear Daily (WWD), Elle Magazine, GQ, Grazia, Glamour and Style.com (the online home of Vogue) were up and running with gusto on the social networking platform, along with reputable individuals like NYTimes writer Cathy Horyn, Washington Post writer Robin Givhan, Marc Jacobs President Robert Duffy (who handed the duties off to an assistant at the close of the Marc Jacobs show after several spontaneous comments -- and one nude pic of a pole dancer at the MJ afterparty -- had to be deleted from his Twitter stream), photographer Scott Schuman (The Sartorialist), Calvin Klein designer Francisco Costa, designer Tory Burch, designer Rachel Roy, designer and president of the Council for the Fashion Designers of America (CFDA) Diane Von Furstenburg and Joe Zee, creative director at Elle, who dropped any and all pretentions at editorial sophistication and twittered like a thirteen year old girl at her little sister's Bat Mitvah. A few bubbly examples: celebrity Nicole Richie was "super cuters with the bangs" while sitting in the front row at Proenza Schouler; dresses were "killer" at Naeem; he was "DYING" for Rodarte; a Tommy Hilfigger boot was "SICK!!!!!!"; and he described pretty much everything else on the runways, from platform pumps to bags to the models themselves, as "major" -- but he ran tirelessly all week from show to after-party to show, twittering all the way, so maybe there's something to be said for indefatigable (and irrepressible) thirteen year old girls, after all.

*Relevant aside: Mr. Zee describes himself as a sixteen year old girl, thank you very much. I still say thirteen, but we're at least in the same ballpark.

*Second Relevant Aside: I'll have what he's having.

I've never seen so much Fashion Week and industry information made so easily accessible. TwitPics were flying even as the shows were still in progression, and anyone following the separate Twitter streams got to hear who was at the shows, what was being shown, what the reactions were of industry types in attendance and what were the emerging trends. Between shows streaming live on Facebook and non-stop observation on Twitter, I almost felt like I was there at Bryant Park, only without all the snow, slush and cranky crowds.

Watching the fashion industry charge onto Twitter was like watching the baby take its first steps as event coverage changed almost overnight from the solemn and the guarded to the fast and the furious. The Associated Foreign Press wrote that Social networking pulls the mask from fashion world: "Previously inaccessible shows and ultra-hip designers are being brought down to online earth by Twitter, Facebook, online streaming and blogs, allowing ordinary folk a glimpse of what previously only the high priests and priestesses of the runway were allowed to see."

While Hitha Prabhaka writes at Mashable about How the Fashion Industry is Embracing Social Media: "What was most shocking wasn't the sheer volume of people talking about the week-long event, but the actual people who were participating in the conversation. Journalists, fashion incubators, retail gurus and people who were just plain interested in the industry were weighing in on a topic that has notoriously shut its doors to anyone deemed an outsider."

And as long as we're talking about participating in the conversation . . .

2.) BLOGGERS:
In the ceaseless quest to reinvent itself, the fashion industry embraced bloggers as the new celebrities at Fashion Week (though each and every one of them should close their eyes and think "Amy Winehouse" just to remind themselves that the fawing attention of the fashion world, while heady and intense, is often fleeting) occupying front row seats usually reserved for the likes of Victoria Beckham, Beyonce, Rihanna, Kanye West, etc.

My guess is that after the news leaked out that numerous celebrities were being paid (and paid a lot) to sit front row at fashion shows in order to up the buzz for the brands, then the gig was up. It's no longer "hot" when people are speculating how much you had to pay someone famous to attend your show -- because, you know, the famous person should be there because they *want* to be, not because you're forced to hijack their fame in order to get anyone to look twice at your designs.

But nature does abhor a vacuum, so bloggers rushed in where Rihanna was no longer hired to tread. Robert Duffy, President of Marc Jacobs (who had been part of the crowd that energetically embraced Twitter as a means of hyping upcoming collections), even went so far as to state that they were banning celebrities at their Fall show because their wattage-sucking presence was taking the focus away from the clothing and accessories (which is why everyone's supposed to be there in the first place, right?).

With photographers and TV news crews unfortunately expending more energy in stalking the movie stars than in talking to the designers and fashion editors, inviting the bloggers to sit front row solved that problem in one fell swoop.

I mean, yes, people rushed to pose for pictures with thirteen year old blog-phenom Tavi Gevinson (who, funny enough, writes with more gravitas than Joe Zee) as campy, self-professed "attention whore" Filipino fashion blogger BryanBoy flitted about like a new Bobby Trendy, just with (way) more expensive clothes and a sharper wit, but global mega-brands don't just, out of the blue, decree that bloggers are their new BFF's. Every move is an agenda, every invite is calculated for maximum marketing value, and here's what the latest crush on the bloggers looks like:

A.) Robert Duffy wasn't just blowing smoke out his a** when he said that celebrities were "boring" -- the Hail Mary pass of famous faces in the crowd was seeing diminishing returns. Add to that the cheek of celebrities using the various Fashion Week shows as PR for their own careers and not the other way around, and the fame-game days were rightly numbered. Brands spend tens of thousands (sometimes hundreds of thousands, as is the case with the mega-brands) putting together shows for Fashion Week, so with wholesale/retail sales across the globe stuttering, they needed the focus fixed back on the merchandise -- booting out the actresses and ushering in the bloggers did exactly that. Sure, people talked and wrote about the bloggers, but they also talked and wrote about the designers and the clothes because bloggers don't have faces, names and personalities big enough to eclipse the likes of Marc Jacobs, Michael Kors, Ralph Lauren, etc.

B.) The style bloggers worship Fashion Week and seemed, frankly, a little giddy (BryanBoy) and dazed (Tavi) by the cameras and the attention, unlike numerous international celebrities who waltz in absolutely expecting the paparazzi to bow and scrape. While celebrities are invited because they're famous, the bloggers are invited because they're known for living, breathing and writing about fashion. Again, this puts the attention back on the shows, the designers and the clothes.

C.) And not to be overly cynical, but the fashion industry loves a circus act, a la Amy Winehouse and Beth Ditto, two recent darlings of the fashion world who were tossed aside just about as quickly as they were annointed with that sudden, addictive gush of attention. The new and the unusual gets people talking, and what could be more new and unusual right now than unfiltered and unpolished street-style bloggers sitting next to Vogue queen Anna Wintour at major shows?

BryanBoy squeezes in between Vogue staff and Suzy Menkes

From AOL news: High Fashion's Latest Accessory: The Blogger -- "As recently as a year ago, bloggers were routinely, and sneeringly, barred from many of the major fashion houses' runway shows in Milan, Paris, London and New York. Then a lightbulb went on. Today those same houses are tripping all over themselves to make sure that bloggers like Bryan Boy and Tommy Ton and an adorable 13-year-old girl named Tavi Gevinson get front-row seats. Gevinson was even flown to Tokyo for a party with the label Comme des Garcons and wrote a review for Harper's Bazaar."

There have been rumors of discontent and exasperation among the ranks of die-hard fashion journalists that these unschooled upstarts are offered prime placement while the pros are relegated to the rows further back, but if the pros don't know the game by now, then they haven't been paying attention.

Let's sum it up for them anyway: Traditional Fashion Journalist = Zero Buzz, and Zero Buzz = Loss of Market Share. Cathy Horyn, Suzy Menkes and Robin Givhan are terrific industry writers, and I read all three of them with zeal, but, fair or not, they create as much sizzle on the 21st century pop-culture radar as a Michael Bolton CD.

*Note: Not to say that Cathy Horyn, Suzy Menkes and Robin Givhan aren't given front row access (they likely are -- and Cathy Horyn has mentioned several times that she doesn't find the presence of bloggers threatening), but journalists with less clout have been heard to grumble.

*Note 2: The traditional fashion journalists have found themselves between a rock and a hard place as advertising revenues at their respective employers are in free-fall. "How does one bite the hand that feeds?" must be the question spinning through their brains as they check their critical impulses and swoon predictably over the collections trotting down the Marc Jacobs, Michael Kors, Calvin Klein, Donna Karan, Reed Krakoff (Coach), Tommy Hilfiger, blahblahblah runway.

Listen, fine, they're all good designers (they wouldn't be where they are if they didn't possess some modicum of talent), but the uninterrupted sychophancy is starting to grate. I mean, c'mon, can every single Marc Jacobs collection really be a bona fide hit? No wonder the man is surprisingly insecure -- he isn't sure anymore who's genuine or who's just fishing for the LVMH wallet. The few wryly critical comments I read were directed at collections from labels that can't (or don't) splurge on pricey ad space.

Which means the straight talk coming out of fashion week was from the blogging corner -- well, that and decades-long fashion vet Lynn Yaeger, who was recently let go from the Village Voice, so she has nothing to lose, natch -- which makes their increasing presence at fashion events such a welcome relief, despite (or possibly because of?) the carny-type vibe they bring to the proceedings.

3.) THE LOOK OF LUXURY:
Now that the free-for-all of consumer demand has screeched to an undignified trickle, the big luxury companies have been trawling the remaining shreds of what used to be their souls to find a way to bait and hook the newly-shy big spenders. Their epiphany? Heritage. And by "heritage", they mean the triumph of quality and substance over the wow of cheap thrills.

The New York runways for Fall 2010 were a near jaw-dropping display of opulence as gleaming metallics, extravagant beadwork, intricately worked wools and leathers, silk columns and plush dyed furs trundled down the catwalks, generally accompanied by sparkling jewels big enough to choke the family dog.

Zac Posen, Peter Som, Michael Kors, Marc Jacobs, Carolina Herrera, Donna Karan, Phillip Lim, Oscar de la Renta, Chado Ralph Rucci, Temperley London, Isaac Mizrahi, Proenza Schouler, Ralph Lauren, Vera Wang, Dennis Basso, Ohne Titel, Catharine Malandrino, Halston, Helmut Lang, Naeem Khan (the list goes on) ditched the PETA obeisance and significantly upped the luxe content in the their collections with scattered showers (if not outright downpours) of fur, all of them scrambling to be the "it" brand that the remaining members of the global jet-set might hopefully embrace (China, India, South America and the Middle East haven't yet hopped aboard the Fur Hate train) -- because that jet-set pie is shrinking, right along with the economies of entire nation states, and no one wants to be the brand left without a seat when the music stops playing.

Though I'm uncertain if mega-brands like Marc Jacobs and Ralph Lauren can pull it off. They're catering to the international money crowd, but does a billionaire's wife in China really want a fur coat from a label that sells PVC bags to teenagers? Boutique names like Peter Som, Ohne Titel and Naeem Khan might be the ones that benefit the most as new money seeks out the exclusive experience in luxury fashion. Will they ever achieve the size and clout of a Marc Jacobs or Michael Kors? No, but I don't think they're trying to or even expect to, either.

In an interview with Style.com, Cathy Horyn stated that the days of small brands turning into mega-brands are over, and that young designers will need to specialize, plying their craft at exceptional levels if they're going to survive: "You can't do it in half measures. You have to make the clothes at a really high level. And I think a lot of designers now, they're not committed to it. If you want to be an Azzedine Alaïa, you have to stay really committed to it and not spread out."

What I saw out of Peter Som this past week was a textbook example of exactly that -- a young designer who presented a tightly focused collection at a really high level:

It's possible that the big names can continue to play in both worlds, high and low, but by catering to the low-end, mega-brands risk alienating the big spenders who are becoming increasingly well-versed in the difference between true luxury and brand image (see: Hermes vs. Louis Vuitton).

Which might work out just fine anyway -- the boutique designers will do what the Yves St. Laurents of the world used to do: show to a select group of loyal, dedicated, wealthy clients in their small shops, while the mass designer brands -- the Laurens, Jacobses, Armanis, Burberrys and Kleins -- might still produce wowzy collections but for runway display only, manufacturing the glitzy, high-end image necessary to push vast amounts of mass-market beauty products, clothing and accessories at the malls and big box stores.

But outside of the niche yet cash infused names that can afford to ride the daring edge, the designs trotted out were fairly conservative -- lush, yes, but definitely still conservative, with long coats and over the knee dresses in safe palettes of beige, gray, black and blue, revealing what appears to be a case of corporate nerves regarding the overall market.

But I wasn't the only one who noticed:

Muted luxury reigns supreme at NY Fashion Week -- "As fashionistas headed across the Atlantic to London's Fashion Week on Friday, the takeaway theme of New York's Autumn-Winter presentation was clear -- toned down luxury."

Michael Kors Fall/Winter 2010/11: variations on beige

New York Fashion Week: Playing it safe, but still luxe: "To look at the sheer amount of fur, designer boots and handbags being toted around the Bryant Park tents and on the runways during Fashion Week, you wouldn't suspect America is in the midst of a recession . . . (but) Retailers are more cautious these days about what they put on their racks, knowing that consumers want newness but are making their purchases more carefully. Designers, taking cues from that trend, are being discriminating, as well."

Cozy layers, wools set tone at NY fashion week: "Designers showed cozy layered looks in New York this week, wrapping thick scarves over chunky sweaters and rugged jackets in hopes that a trend of casual comfort will appeal to consumers coping with uncertain times."

Fashion Week hemlines reach for the floor: "Partially overcast by the recent death of British designer Alexander McQueen and concerns about the economy, the eight-day series of runway shows and presentations was no party, with looks that incorporated classic black and masculine styles. Midcalf, librarian-length skirts and dresses from designers like Marc Jacobs and Jason Wu contributed to the subdued mood."

Video clip below of the normally over-the-top Marc Jacobs show that, this time around, was so safe and subdued (long, heavy, buttoned-up 1940's influenced ensembles in gray, cream, brown, blue, taupe and beige) as to be nearly frightening to watch. Very retail friendly, but I couldn't help but think, "Just how scared are these guys?":

Where's the Yellow Brick Road?

It remains to be seen if anything labeled "Marc Jacobs" can hold its cache in an international luxury market hungry for the exclusive. My prediction? The diffusion line Marc by Marc Jacobs will be the main moneymaker for the label (if it's not already).

Another Cathy Horyn quote to wrap it up: "Some of these older companies, they should die in a way to create some room in the field. They're like dead wood in the middle of the forest...The people running those old labels didn't do a good enough job of managing and taking it to a younger generation. Chanel has been really good with that. Vuitton, Prada, Hermès. But there's a lot of people of whom that isn't true."

The industry put on a brave (albeit nail-biting) face this week in New York, charging into the fray of social media, inviting the public into the process via bloggers and shifting the emphasis to luxe materials and improved craftsmanship -- all good and valuable steps -- but the lines in the sand are only starting to get drawn.

The upcoming shows in London, Milan and Paris should prove fascinating as we see the full international range of designers and brands pull out their best song and dance routines in the audition for an evaporating pool of buyers.