Gareth Pugh Spring Summer 2010 Film Installation

NEW YORK, United States — In recent seasons, digital fashion film has been gaining momentum as an emotionally charged and cost-effective presentation format. But this season is the first time designers have started using film in a way that tightly complements their runway shows and lets them extend their presence across multiple fashion weeks, in different geographic markets.

Yesterday evening, English enfant terrible Gareth Pugh, who has been showing in Paris for the last two seasons, established his first presence at New York Fashion Week by showing not one, but four short films. Created in collaboration with fashion filmmaker Ruth Hogben, the films set the tone and outlined the inspirations for Pugh’s upcoming Spring Summer 2010 collection to be unveiled on the Paris catwalks in early October.

After speaking with Ruth about her previous films for Gareth, I was especially excited to see what the two had dreamt up. Their stunning installation did not disappoint.

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Autumn/Winter 2009

PARIS, France — As the Autumn/Winter 2009 collections draw to a close, it’s time to share some impressions of the fashion week season that was.

Yes, there were some amazing fashions to behold, in particular Lanvin (which unfortunately I did not see in person), Junya Watanabe and Rick Owens in Paris, Christopher Kane and Erdem in London, and Marc Jacobs and Proenza Schouler in New York. There were also some delightful new finds (at least for me) in menswear from Patrik Ervell, Robert Geller and Tim Hamilton in New York, and in London from Carolyn Massey.

But fashion week isn’t just about the clothes. It’s also an informal, four-week defacto industry conference held in between the shows and at the end of long days of schlepping around four of the most exciting cities in the world. This season, though the overall mood was out-of-the-ordinary (part sombre, part denial, part confusion about the economy), there were still plenty of  things off the runway that seemed to come up in conversation over and over again.

This is what people were talking about in London, New York and Paris during the Autumn/Winter 2009 collections.

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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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The Japanese flag

Japan’s economy shrinks 3.3% (IHT)
The world’s second largest economy is experiencing its worst downturn in 35 years.

H&M sales boosted by new openings (Drapers)
Driven by new store openings, H&M’s sales rose 9% in January.

Sombre start to NYFW (Drapers)
“New York Fashion Week got off to a somewhat sombre start on Friday, according to reports from the US, with collection sizes reduced by up to 25%.”

New York week opens with an ’80s glam slam (IHT)
“Rather than leaping into the future, designers are looking back to a previous period when women were strong, powerful and dressed to suit: the 1980s.”

Forever 21 to Open Larger Concept in L.A. (WWD)
“Fast-fashion chain Forever 21 plans to launch a prototype in California this year that will double its average store size.” (Subscription required)

VPL Runway Show, Autumn/Winter 2009

NEW YORK, United States — From the moment that I landed here in New York, the mood has been decidedly sombre. I bumped into a buyer from a major London fashion boutique at the baggage carousel at JFK who told me that “nobody is coming” to New York this time from the major UK fashion magazines. Budgets have been completely slashed.

A few hours later, the CEO of a up-and-coming US fashion business predicted that one third of the young designer businesses that have popped up in New York in recent years will go out of business, especially if they are financing themselves through bank loans, which are harder and harder to come by in this tight credit environment.

The next day, another CEO complained to me that boutiques like Georgina in Long Island are dropping like flies or trying to cancel orders at the last minute, unable to finance their operations (and pay their bills), creating daily headaches about how to respond. On top of all this, parties have been canceled, shows have been downscaled and goodie bags are few and far between.

Will the fashion industry ever be the same? Well, I think not. And neither, apparently, does Anna Wintour — at least for the time being.

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A difficult balancing act

Karl Lagerfeld Discusses Luxury Internet Sales with European Commission (WSJ)
“The explosion of online retailing leaves fashion houses with a difficult balancing act between exclusive image and exposure.”

Fashion Sees The End Of The Runway (Forbes)
“The catwalk’s diminishing presence doesn’t come as a major surprise considering how much the role of the runway has changed over the years.”

Inside a Fashion Label’s Scramble to Survive (WSJ)
The Wall Street Journal profiles Five Four, a menswear label that is, “scrambling to survive.”

Nike’s ongoing restructuring (Just-Style)
Nike’s 1,400 job cuts are due to its restructuring plans rather than the economy.

Image courtesy of Rad Hourani

MONTRÉAL, Canada – It’s been a year since BoF last spoke with stylist-turned-designer Rad Hourani. Since then, his collection has been taken on by fashion-forward boutiques Joyce and IT in China, Cache in Bulgaria, Seven Boutique in New York, and Canada’s Holt Renfrew and Reborn.

All the while Hourani has continued to use photography and film to express his razor-focused personal aesthetic, built around the colour black. This captured the attention of Hywel Davies, a contributor to London-based SHOWStudio, a collaborative online fashion community that fuses fashion with interactive online projects, film and live performance — a perfect fit for Rad’s craft.

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Saks Signature Bag

Saks Upends Luxury Market With Strategy to Slash Prices (WSJ)
Saks’ deep discounting before the holiday season will have a long-term effect on the consumer psychology.

Fashion Walks a Fine Line (WSJ)
During New York Fashion week, you’ll see dour and spunky on the runways, the magic blend that will court customers.

Retailers feel credit squeeze in India (FT)
“India’s biggest discount retailer said that hundreds of its stores had been attacked at the weekend after it failed to pay its security guards, in a sign of the potential socio-economic implications of the credit crisis hitting the sector.”

Shows must go on (The National)
In New York, despite the series of upheavals in the industry just before fashion week, “shows must go on.”

Daniel Silver and Steven Cox of Duckie Brown; Lisa Mayock of Vena Cava; Andrew Buckler; Sophie Buhai, courtesy of the New York Times

The Make or Break Season (New York Times)
“The age of the young designer, however, may be coming to an end.”

Zara’s Inditex latest to join the stampede to open India stores (The Spectator)
Zara, the Spanish fast fashion chain, will open in India.

Monique Lhuillier’s New Lower-Priced Gowns (WSJ)
Responding to the requests of retailers, Monique Lhuillier will now offer evening gowns that will retail around $2,500.

Lauder to Cut Jobs, Restructure (WWD)
“The Estée Lauder Companies Inc. plans to reduce its payroll by 2,000 employees – 6 percent of the workforce.” (Subscription required)

Scene on Madison Avenue, courtesy of the New York Times

On Madison Avenue, Shops Pack Their Hand-Tooled Bags (New York Times)
“New York’s most elegant shopping corridor, the Gold Coast of Madison Avenue, from 57th Street to 72nd Street, is pockmarked with vacancies as retailers flee sky-high rents.”

Mango’s sales rise 8% (Drapers)
Beating the downward retail trend, Mango’s sales rise 8 percent.

Industry Reacts to Lincoln Center Move (WWD)
Lincoln Center’s Damrosch Park is New York Fashion Week’s new location, and not all industry players are happy. (Subscription required)

Berlin Fashion Week | Very ‘Project Runway’ (The Moment)
“Instead of distilling a powerful German aesthetic and developing the public relations and commercial infrastructure necessary for real success, people are more focused on blowing Champagne kisses and indulging their caviar dreams.”

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