TOKYO, Japan – Just before the fashion world turned its laser focus on New York, a lesser known semi-annual week of fashion shows in Tokyo failed to garner much attention.

Not surprisingly then, a key activity during Japan Fashion Week is listening to other people grumble about Japan Fashion Week. Although Tokyo is one of the world’s most important fashion cities, overflowing with amazing daily dressers, avant-garde masters, and street fashion innovation, the organized collection week has yet to muster up a global impact on par with Paris, Milan, or New York.

And the problem is not just international reception: most of the cooler domestic Japanese brands aren’t even on board.

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NEW YORK, United States – While the rest of New York Fashion Week was caught up in its regular Bryant Park frenzy today, designer Marc Bouwer was busy blazing his own fashion trail, exclusively showing his S/S 2009 collection on his website, thereby giving everyone a front row view.

Of course, we have seen other designers, notably Stefano Pilati for YSL (first with menswear, and most recently women’s resort) and Husein Chalayan, create videos to showcase their collections. And, Giorgio Armani made history when he streamed his Armani Prive couture collection for Spring 2007 online, gaining kudos for democratising the storied world of haute couture. Net-a-Porter also innovated by putting up Roland Mouret’s RM19 collection in an online video and commerce site mere hours after showing during Paris Couture.

But Bouwer’s approach is a first for an independent designer without the clout of a YSL or Armani, nor the support of a major online retailer. So, how well did his experiment work?

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Last night I witnessed the intricate ballet of savvy PR and event-planning that has helped build Marc Jacobs into one of the only truly successful, global luxury brands that has been launched in the past 20 years.

It was evidence of the basic human psychological desire to be part of the cool crowd. You know those nightclubs that intentionally keep people waiting outside to give off the impression of being the hot spot of the moment? This was not all that different, except Marc Jacobs has been doing this for almost 20 years, and he has it down to a fine art. Plus, this is not just hype. He has a reputation for delivering collections that will inspire designers and consumers the world over as they adopt his take on of-the-moment coolness. Nobody wants to miss it. It is the hottest ticket in town

Here’s how the night unfolded.

9:00pm – Crowds of guests and press have formed outside the Armory, but nobody is getting in. People are pretty calm, given the show was supposed to  start at this time, except for a French woman who insists she must urgently get in now. She is promptly rebuffed.

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London Fashion Week has come and gone. And, it’s a bit like Groundhog Day because this season, yet again, everyone has been eagerly (and vocally) anticipating Giles Deacon’s latest turn down the catwalk.

You never know what to expect with Giles. Unlike many other designers, he isn’t overly focused on his "signature", the technique/look that a designer develops over his or her career to the point of near perfection, for which he or she becomes famous. Sometimes, a signature can lead to being pigeon-holed, but for a man with the creative depth and flexibilty as Giles, this is out of the question. Maybe its because Giles seems to be able to execute so well on so many different styles. One season it will be Elsworth Kelly’s geometric colours and the next it will be tight, sexy leopard prints. Why be known for one thing when he is so good at so many things? Giles’ way of getting around this, I think, is that he knows exactly who is designing for, where she will wear his clothes, and why.

With hype like this, and with Christopher Kane nipping at his heels for the title of the reigning King of LFW, there was much pressure on Giles to come up with the goods yet again. All the signs of the dizzying heights of expectation were there:

1. The sometimes pushy, sometimes friendly, eager jostling outside his show. Sharp elbows indeed.
2. The PRs outside were (politely) telling more than one person,  "I am really sorry, but you’re not on the list." People responded with everything in the book: "But I have been working on this show for months", "But I am with Teen Vogue", "But Giles told me to come".
3. Celebrities, fashion icons, buyers and editors packed the front row: Anna Piaggi, Thandie Newton, Jefferson Hack with Anouck Lepere, Lisa Armstrong, Suzy Menkes, Cathy Horyn, Hamish Bowles, Julie Gilhart, Ken Downing, Michael Fink, and more.

The sense of expectation was palpable, and people were literally sitting on the floor and security just gave up on trying to have people clear the aisles. So with all this pressure, the show finally began at 9:00pm.

Would Giles deliver?

It was all about birds of a feather. Giles worked with famous milliner Stephen Jones to create some of the most arresting (and yes, not commercial, but who cares?) headpieces to hit the catwalk, and given the number of hats we have been seeing this season, he had some serious competition. The collection started with leather and shearling pieces and slowly morphed into thick, heavy knits styled over top of more wearable dresses and skirts, followed by vivid short green and orange dresses that will definitely do the rounds of the celebrity party circuit, and finally into the feathery flights of fancy with some  eye-catching couture-style pieces, which seemed to float down the runway. In short, he did it again and the ovation at the end of the show (captured on the video below) underlined yet another creative coup for Giles.

Here are some shots from before, during and after the show.

BEFORE: The crowd waits. Patiently.

Mesh Chhibber of MO Communications slots in the guests in a way that only the smoothest and experienced fashion PR can. / Margot Stilley in her develish shades.

DURING: Let the festivities begin.


Jefferson Hack and Anouck Lepere look on.

Vivid colours.

Hard ruffles.

Evening delight.

AFTER: Backstage perspectives.

Giles Deacon is a fashionista magnet: Anna Piaggi. Dude in Beret. Thandie Newton. Jefferson Hack.

Postscript: So what of the business?

What remains to be seen is how Giles takes all of this talent and potential and commercialises it. Yes, there is the creative directorship of Daks and the new capsule Gold collection for New Look.  But, methinks there is more up Giles’ sleeve, feathered as it is with peacock plumes. Some designers seem to really want to build businesses and spend years building the necessary foundations for long-term commercial success. Others, focus on showcasing the lengths of their creative talents, hoping to be picked up as a creative director of an esteemed Parisian fashion house. Some, of the rarest breed, even manage to do both.

Osman Yousefzada’s A/W Collection bowed this evening in Selfridge’s 7th floor car park. For one thing, that must have made it easier for his sponsor, Saab, to get their sleek cars into the venue for the eyes of ogling fashionistas. A lot easier, say, than a 7th floor art gallery or church or museum.

Somehow, the edgy venue and refined collection came together very well in a sort of  modern elegance, best exemplified by a hooded-dress that looked stunning from behind. There were also Lily Cole’s legs in a short sea grey skirt with ruffly pleats. A stream a immacuately cut dresses and trousers followed, each with hints of embellishment (okay, sometimes they were more than hints) and draping. While still a commercial collection you could imagine in the boutiques , it was a stronger statement of Osman’s signature than the last collection, which lacked the maturity that the new collection demonstrated. Some of the skin-tight mini dresses didnt work as well, though they were well-executed.

Selfridge’s are actively supporting Osman, having provided him with a coveted Oxford street window during Fashion Week, provided the venue for his show, and securing exclusivityfor Osman’s collection in London. It is great to see the industry get behind a designer and support him. It benefits both parties – so everybody wins.

He Kaned it.

Christopher Kane, who only hit the London Fashion Week radar one year ago after winning the best collection award from Harrod’s during the St Martins MA graduate show in February, that is. His collection was a true tour de force, hitting all the right notes, and that included the music from his show going from soft Sunday afternoon in the park to a sexy club on a cheeky Thursday night. How could anyone make golf ball size swarvoski crystals work? Christopher Kane did.

I watched the video here: Christopher Kane, Autumn/Winter 2007.

Here are some photos I took at his graduate collection show last year.

I would never be so presumptuous as to think that my writing could even compare to that of the always insightful quasi-legendary Suzy Menkes.  But, when I read this article in the IHT this morning, I did notice there were some links between some points in her article on London Fashion Week and my rant picking up on the WWD article about fashion fatigue in New York.

You can read the article here:  http://www.iht.com/articles/2007/02/12/news/rlon13.php

This is this coolest new site to see the hottest fashion shows in London, Paris and New York, courtesy of the folks at Swarovski. This is a great find for me as I won’t be able to go to many shows this season – maybe one a day in the morning or in the evening, after work.

http://www.swarovskisparkles.tv

Season after season, Swarovski sponsors some of the hottest young talent by giving them free product to use in their creations and sponsorship money to fund catwalk shows. This year, as per usual, London is disproporationately represented in the list of designers. Now you can watch their shows, courtesy of Swarovski, in their full glory – not edited down to digestible bites (or bytes, if you prefer) like on Style.com.

So why dole out all the cash and free product to young designers? For the same reasons the MAC and Saab and many other large companies do the same. Apart from the satisfaction of supporting creative talent, Swarovski also gets its brand associated with hip young designers and the halo effect gives the brand the fashion edge it is aspiring towards.

I wonder if Swarovski will take the site any further after fashion week is over to make further links to the fashion space.

New York. London. Milan. Paris.

So the circus goes. For four weeks, twice a year, fashion journalists, buyers, photographers, models, bloggers , stylists and hangers-on do the circuit of fashion capitals. And every year it season it seems to get a bit crazier. There is so much noise that it is hard to sift through all the shows and separate the wheat from the chaff. With more than 200 shows during this year’s NY fashion week (which actually runs nine days), running virtually all day from 9am to 9pm, everyone is getting a bit of fashion fatigue.

Even WWD, the business bible of the industry led today’s paper with a plea for sanity going forward instead of other important goings-on, not least of which was the prospect of private equity investors talking to Peter Som, Jimmy Choo’s announcement of its move into fragrances and eyewear, and of course reviews of yesterday’s shows, including new collections from veterans like Michael Kors and industry darlings Proenza Schouler.

WWD’s challenge in covering all the goings on is mirrored by the choices that buyers and presss have to make every day during the shows. If there are 5 shows going on in one time slot, which one should they attend? Most likely, they will choose a designer they have been buying or covering for many seasons, as opposed to allocating their time to some unknown hopeful emerging designer.

So, if you’re a young designer, how do you stand out from the crowd? One answer is to bolt from the NY fashion week scene and show in a city that is less competitive. Milan doesn’t really seem to welcome emerging designers (there are all those Italian heavyweights and global brands to pay attention to) and Paris is a notoriously clubby place where getting a show slot from the Chambre Syndicale is notoriously difficult.

So that leaves London, the much maligned ugly stepsister of the other more important fashion capitals. For years now, London has seen its strongest London-based designers with the most commercial potential (Sophia Kokosalaki and Husein Chalayan to Paris, Alice Temperley, Matthew Williamson, ISSA and Luella Bartley to New York, etc),  flee Londontown for the commercial opportunities in NY or Paris (which has played its part in making New York fashion week the mayhem that it is).

However, of late, it seems that some of the more business savvy designers are choosing to stick to London Fashion Week. For example, Giles Deacon’s show is by far the hottest ticket during LFW and he gets the most attention from the worlds media and buyers, some of whom come for his show alone.  (Now, it is a fair point that not everyone comes to London, but more people are coming of late and the British Fashion Council is working – albeit slowly – on making LFW a more viable, commercial and efficient operation. Back to Giles, if he had gone to another city, he would not get the same attention that he does in London. He still sells the collection in Paris during Paris Fashion Week to ensure that sales follow on the great PR he gets in London. London is also part of Giles’ brand identity, so a London based show reinforces the quirky luxury positioning of his brand.

You don’t have to be Giles to get attention in London. Other lesser known designers also benefit from London’s knack in launching new names. Manish Arora, Christopher Kane and Marios Schwab all get signficant attention from their London shows. They would likely not get the time of day in New York or Paris — not because they lack talent, but because the compeition for attention abroad is so fierce,

It seems that some designers, of both the emerging and established type, are cottoning on to the benefits of showing in London. Nathan Jenden, the designer who works closely with Diane von Furstenburg in New York, is returning to London from New York this season to show his eopymous collection.  Last season, Armani got into the act and was the toast of fashion week as he threw an unprecendented extravaganza with almost 100 models to show his diffusion Emporio Armani collection in London to coincide with the re-opening of his Emporio Armani store. Marc Jacobs is taking a page from Mr. Armani’s book this season where he will close LFW with his Marc by Marc Jacobs collection to launch his new store in Mayfair.

These two shows were coups for the BFC because many editors and press are obliged to come to show their support for these legendary designers (and to ensure the continued flow of cash from their big advertising budgets!). But the BFC would be wise to use this strategy carefully as it is trying to position itself as a launchpad for the best young international talent. If too many big name commercial designers begin to show in London, it could detract from the core of what London is all about: nurturing the great talent that might go unnoticed elsewhere.

London Fashion Week begins on Monday. Lets see what great talents emerge this time.

How cool does this look? What a creative event.

Gentry de Paris is hosting a very special event at next weekend’s Salon de

la Lingerie.

In conjunction with the cult Parisian cabaret MurderSuicidePresents, Monsieur Poudre, our mysterious Master of Ceremonies, will be your guide into the curious and surreal dream of sleeping Joséphine de Beauharnais. Featuring Lady Bird in a silver cage and Miss Morte under a flurry of ostrich feather fans, Joséphine’s strange dream comes alive once an hour through a pink champagne haze provided by to our gracious sponsor Champagne Duval-Leroy

Elegant lines and opulent fabrics inspired by the Premier Empire feature heavily in the Winter 2007 collection. Our bra-panty-garter sets in luscious French silk satin jacquards come in pale, antique colors. Opulent silk satin solids make up our pyjamas and nightgown range.  Super soft viscose jersey wireless bras and boyshorts suit every budget.  And of course our Loro Piana featherweight cashmere comes in boxers, tanks panties and pyjamas.