Backstage tweet from Marc Jacobs show, courtesy of The Moment

NEW YORK, United States — As another fashion week season comes to a close, we’ve seen everything from intergalactic armour to a full-fledged ’80s revival on the runways. But when it comes to covering and commenting on the collections, one trend stands out. This time around, we came closer than ever to capturing and transmitting the real experience and energy of the shows thanks to fashion’s growing love affair with Twitter.

Editors at New York Times fashion blog The Moment, Women’s Wear Daily, SHOWstudio and our very own The Business of Fashion, among others, took to the “micro-blogging” service with enthusiasm, using their iPhones, BlackBerrys and laptops to broadcast haiku-length updates on what they were doing and thinking at presentations and parties from New York to Paris. For fellow insiders and fashion consumers following their  “tweets” this amounted to a captivating play-by-play delivered with immediacy and intimacy like never before.

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Yohji Yamamoto, Pied Piper of New York Fashion Week

NEW YORK, United States — New York Fashion Week is always a blur of meetings, shows and parties, and this week is no exception. But there is also something different in the air for Autumn/Winter 2009 — a palpable sense that some serious change is coming, and in some quarters, the slightest hint of optimism that we may be reaching a market bottom.

On Monday evening, Marc Jacobs scaled back his show significantly: there was no major set, almost no celebrities, and 1000 fewer guests than normal, which is a dramatic reversal from his show at the height of the economic boom in September 2007. The focus, instead, was on the clothes which were an explosion of colour compressed into 8 minutes of fantastic, over-the-top 80′s punk and high, shellacked hairdos.

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A little lightness to end the week here on The Business of Fashion. This 1930′s clip from Youtube forecasts cantilever-heeled shoes and transparent net as the fashion must-haves for the Year 2000. The video has had almost 100,000 views. Could Raf Simons, Marc Jacobs and Alexander McQueen been some of them? Have a look at their collections for Spring/Summer 2008.

The Latest in Fashion: Pink Slips (New York Times)
Eric Wilson chronicles the revolving designer doors at fashion houses from New York to Milan to Paris in recent years. Of course, the latest door revolved this week in Milan, where Lars Nilsson was quickly replaced by Tommaso Aquilano and Roberto Rimondi of 6267 as head designers for Gianfranco Ferre.

Luxe brands Follow the Money – to the Internet (WWD)
Several readers have written to alert us to today’s WWD article about the role the Internet can play in helping luxe brands ride out the recession, which US Fed Chairman, Ben Bernanke, all but confirmed yesterday. In what some are touting as the greatest recession buster for luxury companies, the Internet may (finally) be the next battleground in their quest for the luxury consumer’s dollars, euro and yen.

In what is what is likely a first in the fashion industry when it comes to the blogosphere, Marc Jacobs has joined the ongoing online debate raging about his supposed row with Suzy Menkes, the highly regarded fashion editor of the International Herald Tribune.

In his comment on Cathy Horyn’s On the Runway blog, Jacobs says:

I did NOT stick my tongue out at Suzy Menkes……I pulled a stupid face with my tongue out in happiness for being done with what has been a great but most stressful season for me. I am not stupid, childish or a vindictive person….I had prior to the show left a silly t-shirt and a nice note for Suzy on her seat. Why would I do anything to further upset her? Right after a show!!?? Cathy and all else reading this, I am surprised that anyone who knows me at all think that I am that petty or stupid! Anyone who has ever been on a stage would know you can’t actually see the audience. I made a face at no one in particular….I didn’t have a clue as to who was sitting there. Come on guys, give me a break!!!!!

Jacobs’ decision to respond to the backlash in a public forum, as opposed to using the normal channels of publicists and press releases, was a smart one. You can only respond to the blogosphere by going straight to the heart of the storm and engaging the community. Marc Jacobs’ choice to do this on Horyn’s blog also shows how On the Runway has become a formidable community with its own voice in the industry.   And the response from the community has generally been very positive.

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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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