Seamless, a designer’s journey

I recently caught Douglas Keeve’s 2005 documentary, Seamless, on the Sundance Channel and I can’t stop thinking about it.  Not because the movie is extremely well made, or because it’s pretty, or even because it’s inspiring.  Actually the contrary.  It haunts me because of the rare insight it brings to the true life of America’s next top designers. And I’m not talking about the ones from Project Runway.  I’m talking about the ones you can buy at Barneys right now.

I would bet that everyone has heard of Ralph Lauren and Donna Karan, but which young designers will take their spots at the top once they retire?  Seamless follows fashion’s prestigious CFDA (Council of Fashion Designers of America) as they vet America’s next big stars and ultimately declare one hopeful the winner of fashion’s most coveted award.  I don’t think its too much of a spoiler to say that throughout the designers’ journey, we learn that the fashion business is less glamor and more grit.

As an independent designer, I’m no stranger to this sordid reality, and I don’t zip up my lips when given the opportunity to divulge the struggles that are at the core of a designer’s craft.  Straight up, fashion is a business of smoke and mirrors.  As the documentary points out, it’s the one business where “success” is based purely on press and the invention of an aspirational brand.  Not on profits.  In fashion, the very same designer who lands a well deserved feature in Vogue Magazine due to their incomparable work, who is celebrated by all the taste-makers in the business, is – in reality – quite possibly – broke.

That’s not to say that these designers can’t boast decent sales.  For most small businesses, annual sales of over $1m would translate into a hefty salary for the principals.  Or, at least it would mean they got a salary in some form.  In fashion, the fuzzy and prideful feeling you get when your favorite editor acknowledges your talent and when celebrities properly pronounce your name on the red carpet, is your compensation.  Literally.  You get paid in accolades, not in cash.  Any profits are better put back into the business for the sake of the brand if you’re to eventually reach the improbable status of wealthy figurehead of a designer empire (which, on average, will take 20 years to achieve).

In order to be successful in fashion you must look successful.  You need an impressive showroom.  You need to produce extravagant runway shows and hire notable models.  You need to shoot innovative and memorable campaigns – season, after season, after season.  With all the jobs an independent designer does, it’s a miracle they ever find time to work on a garment, but somehow they do.  Call it devotion, call it a hunger for fame.  Whatever it is, you can be sure that hard work, long hours, tempered ambition and effortless talent are behind it. Designers are high stakes gamblers betting everything they have that one day their unique abilities will afford them the very same lifestyle around which they’ve invented their brand.

So, the next time you stroll down Madison Avenue, think about the designers who have drawn you there, living in humble means with meager income.  Think about the passion that drives them and the talent that makes their dream possible.   Realize that the simple shift dress hanging on the rack at Bergdorf was likely boxed and shipped by the designer herself so it could be received by the fancy store on time and as per their shipping demands – after many tedious months were spent:  designing, sourcing, producing, inspecting, selling and marketing it.

Perspective is everything in fashion and, being that I’ve experienced the industry from the rough and tumble designer’s point of view, it was fascinating to see the business from the extraordinary perspective of the CFDA.  It’s simply stupefying to watch as Anna Wintour and her fellow powerhouses determine for the world – how we will dress, what we will look like and who will achieve the success of their dreams.  It leaves a girl to wonder, how do I score one of those coveted spots on the board?