Who Is Fashion Week For?
Given that it comes along like clockwork twice a year, and has done so for ages, it’s easy to feel as though Fashion Week has always existed, a part of nature, as immutable as the tides. Not so! Back in 1943, Eleanor Lambert organized the first event we’d recognize as a Fashion Week. She called the fashion show lineup “Press Week,” and it was meant to get the U.S. media to pay attention to New York–based designers at a time when Paris was unreachable due to war. A couple years later, the designers in Paris rejoined by staging a series of couture shows; Milan followed with its own Fashion Week in 1958, and London joined the parade in 1984. The point was always Lambert’s original one: to get fashion journalists to report on the shows, the better to entice retailers to buy the local designers’ clothes. And that system worked pretty well, until . . .
Now. What’s the point of Fashion Week, today? That’s the question everyone seems to be asking—reporters, retailers, designers, and, most notably, the CFDA, which has engaged the Boston Consulting Group to get a read on the current state of Fashion Week and propose a new model for seasons going forward. As the good consultants surely understand, it’s not that there’s no point to Fashion Week; what makes the situation so vexing is that there are many points. Editors still come to the shows to get a bead on trends, and young designers still look to those editors for endorsement and exposure. But many established brands see their shows as a means to speak directly to consumers, much akin to advertising—hence the proliferation of the show-as-spectacle, epitomized by Chanel, and the emergence of such seemingly oddball initiatives as that of J.W.Anderson live-streaming its Fall ’16 menswear show on Grindr. Meanwhile, designers such as Tom Ford and Burberry’s Christopher Bailey have announced that, come September, they’ll show current goods and sell straight from the catwalk.
The question facing the industry comes down to this: Who is Fashion Week for? Is it for people in the trade, who use the shows to plan editorials and curate the buys at their stores, or is it for the public, who appreciate the theater of Fashion Week and who want the shows to be shoppable? The answer’s up for grabs.
Have We Reached Peak Hadid?
Short answer: No. Everyone is still very psyched on Gigi Hadid, and rightly so. That girl is sexy! But also relatable! She gives great Instagram. And we totes adore her sister, Bella, too. Who could displace such a distinctive duo? Chances are, it’ll be someone who comes as far out of left field as Gigi and Bella did—but not from the same part of left field, some other part, where no one’s looking now. Along with Kendall Jenner, the sisters Hadid have got the reality-TV personality–turned–runway star niche all sewn up. Is there another category of person with some purchase on the pop culture who we’d like to see make the catwalk leap? Maybe an artist? India Salvor Menuez is in the new Miu Miu campaign, and Juliana Huxtable is increasingly name-dropped by designers as a muse. Or, who knows? The ladies on the U.S. women’s soccer team seem pretty cool. The interesting thing about casting right now is that we’re in the midst of an industry-wide rethink about what a model is supposed to look like, and what role she’s meant to play. Gigi and Bella augur a time when mannequins are truly out and interesting, idiosyncratic women are truly in. If that’s what Peak Hadid represents, let’s hope the era never ends.
Can New York Men’s Fashion Week Really Be a Thing?
Perhaps the best testament to the enduring importance and appeal of Fashion Week is the fact that new entities keep trying to get in on the action. Pretty much every city you’ve ever heard of has a Fashion Week, from Seoul to Sydney to São Paulo. Last season, New York Fashion Week: Men’s entered the fray. Can it gain a foothold?
If one key menswear designer decided to plant his flag at New York Fashion Week: Men’s, that would help make it a must-see for editors and buyers. When London seemed to be losing relevance as a fashion capital, Burberry moved its show from Milan to the city the brand calls home. The move happened to coincide with the emergence of an amazing generation of fashion talent in London—the likes of Erdem and Christopher Kane—and suddenly there were enough unskippable shows at LFW to give the event fresh ballast. If New York Fashion Week: Men’s is going to matter, it needs both those things—the flagship show and the outcropping of exciting young talent.
Thom Browne, a hard-core evangelist for American menswear, would seem predisposed to make his show a tentpole of New York Fashion Week: Men’s. But Browne shows in Paris. Indeed, he’s earned membership in the city’s Chambre Syndicale. Calvin Klein and Ralph Lauren, two of the marquee names in American fashion, are likely candidates for NYFW: Men’s tentpole status, but as of now, they have no plans to move their menswear shows from Milan.
One sticking point may be scheduling. This season, New York Fashion Week: Men’s ends less than a week before the juggernaut of women’s shows begins, which raises the question: Why not just combine the two? After all, the big trend in Europe is for gender-mixing on the runway—and so divvying up seasons between sexes may need to be part of the industry’s whole Fashion Week rethink.
Are You Ready to Party Like It’s 1999?
Get ready for late-’90s redux. Back in the day, Daryl Kerrigan was the designer cool girls went to for killer boot-leg pants; Tracy Feith was their go-to for boho dresses; and the Mayle shop on Elizabeth Street was where they’d lay hands on vintage-inspired blouses, tailored coats, and Billie Bags, the downtowner’s answer to the Fendi Baguette. Now Daryl K is returning with a denim collection for Madewell, Tracy Feith is set to debut his second collection for the shop Warm, and Jane Mayle is relaunching her label (after about a decade of her many ardent fans begging her to come back). Even Xuly Bet, the brainchild of designer Lamine Kouyaté, whose colorful, upcycled looks were a cult phenomenon in Paris circa the debut season of Sex and the City, is back on the scene. It’s officially time to get your chokers out of storage and fire up the TLC.
Is Zoolander Laughing at Us, or With Us?
Who cares? The Zoolander 2 premiere will be the party of the season, no doubt about it. The red carpet unfurls for Ben Stiller, Owen Wilson, et al on February 9—one night before New York Fashion Week starts—and thus the after-party will serve as this season’s unofficial kickoff event. Here’s hoping the invitees make good on the movie’s send-up of fashion types’ penchant for over-the-top looks—you know, the kind of ensembles we get but that make everyone else scratch their heads. Comme des Garçons’s Spring ’16 collection would be ideal for the occasion. Who’s in?
Will People Be Wearing Their Gucci Slides in the Snow?
The problem with satirizing fashion folk is that we’re so darn good at accidentally satirizing ourselves. To wit: There are 50/50 odds on it snowing during the busiest few days of New York Fashion Week; meanwhile, the season’s must-have shoe is, once again, the Gucci loafer slide. Fur lining notwithstanding, the slide is not the most practical option for tramping through snowbanks, but there’s a better-than-50/50 chance that showgoers will wear them regardless. Comedy gold.
Are You a Havana or a Havana-Not?
When the United States and Cuba re-established diplomatic ties and softened restrictions on travel, it seemed inevitable that going to Havana would become “a thing.” Cut to Instagram this holiday season: As the zillion or so posts from the island attested, fashion scenesters jetted to Cuba en masse over the winter break, all of them angling to get a look at the environs before chez Castro goes all capitalist and turns into the unofficial 51st state. Havana travel is sure to be a talking point in the front row this season, and for those who haven’t yet made the trip, the pressure is extra-keen to get to Cuba before everyone else has been. “Everyone else,” in this instance, referring to the lucky few folks who will be flying down to Havana to see Chanel’s Resort ’17 show in May. Ticktock, people! Après-Chanel, le deluge.
Are You Ready to Rethink Wearable Tech?
Also looking ahead to May: The Met Gala approaches! The theme of this year’s marquee Costume Institute show is a heady one: “Manus x Machina,” an exploration of fashion’s changing relationship to the handmade (manus) and the high-tech (machina, i.e., “the machine.”) Once upon a time, the distinction between haute couture and ready-to-wear was that couture was made by hand, whereas ready-to-wear was produced via assembly line, using machines. Couture was artisanal; ready-to-wear, a commodity. That distinction no longer holds. High-tech materials and processes have evolved their own language of fashion art: Laser-cutting, circular knitting, bonding, and 3-D printing are among the technologies employed by designers these days, and their effects can be as dazzling as all that lacework and embroidery.
Don’t be surprised if Fall 2016 turns out to be the season that designers finally reckon with tech—its influence on the way we look and the way we live. That engagement is overdue—it will amount to more than a passing trend.
Why Does It Matter What Hillary Wears?
Election season is in full swing. New Hampshire casts ballots in the 2016 presidential primaries tomorrow, and by the time fashion worker bees have returned from the shows in Paris, more than a third of U.S. states will have made their pick for the Democratic and Republican nominees. But there is an issue in this election that all we fashion folk must come together on, and right away. This is the issue of Hillary Clinton’s wardrobe.
The former First Lady and ex-secretary of state seems to have decided to make her fashion choices as much as a nonfactor as possible in her candidacy, the better to let her public persona rest on other aspects of her character. The temptation, as people who care about fashion, is to wish that Hillary Clinton showed some daring in her dress, a touch of MObama-esque savoir faire. We cannot succumb to this temptation.
As an industry, we need to make peace with Hillary’s ho-hum pantsuits. And beyond that, begin the process of mourning the end of the era of Michelle Obama, the best fashion exemplar to occupy the White House since Jackie Kennedy Onassis departed it. We have to find other ways of engaging with politics now—perhaps by advocating for issues close to the hearts of the men and women who work in the biz. Issues like fair pay and LGBT rights and immigration and access to high-quality medical care, including abortion. There are lots of ways of being a fashion booster. You can even do the job wearing a pantsuit.
How Can Rihanna Top Kanye at Fashion Week?
Rihanna! Is showing! During Fashion Week! Details of RiRi’s presentation of her Puma collection are only just trickling out, which is good, because it gives us the opportunity to speculate. What could she possibly do to top whatever Kanye’s got planned? She could summon a full orchestra . . .
At a top-secret special location . . .
On board the International Space Station . . .
At which she gives a surprise performance . . .
Alongside David Bowie . . .
Who is immortal.
The post Have We Reached Peak Hadid? Will Rihanna Out-Kanye Kanye? And More Pressing Questions From New York Fashion Week appeared first on Vogue.