There are, on average, 152 fashion weeks that take place throughout the world every year according to a recent New York Times report.  Showing at each of the fashion weeks are anywhere between twenty to one hundred twenty designers.  It doesn’t take complicated math to calculate that these statistics make the average number of individual fashion shows around the world per year a well over 9,000.  To blow your mind even more, that number doesn’t include any fringe or independent shows that are produced but not associated with an organized “Fashion Week”.

Gabrielle Chanel: working with a private client, at her fashion show, celebrating with her models

There is no doubt that fashion shows are big business.  Customers spend their hard-earned money on clothing and accessories to the tune of $300 billion dollars a year, and designers are constantly competing for their share of the market.  it is a contentious and cutthroat environment that feeds a designer’s fears of being overlooked in a sea of supply that inherently demands for fashion shows to become bigger, better and more memorable with every passing season.  But, it wasn’t always this way.

Designer presentations have been going on in some form since the first designer had a garment to sell.  In the beginning, it was a more proper yet casual affair.  The designer would invite her clients and other friends in the trade to her atelier to view their newest creations. The presentation could consist of just a handful of looks or it could be a wardrobe full of options.  The number of looks wouldn’t really matter.  What mattered was the quality of the garments, not the quality of the show.

Models would casually float around the salon in the specially made frocks while the client admired the designer’s careful craftsmanship and romanticized about the adventures she would have while wearing the garments.  If a client saw something that she fancied, she bought it.  From inception, clothing was designed with an intimate knowledge of the customer, their wants and needs.  The system was elegant, straightforward and it worked.

Those were the couture days.  As ready to wear clothing became more popular in the 1920’s and the majority of people bought their frocks off the rack from retailers, more and more designers were born, all with the goal of fulfilling their own niche within the public’s ever expanding catalog of preferences and tastes.  To make a name for themselves a designer has to stand out from their competition and capture the consumer’s attention, so, naturally, collection presentations became extravagant productions with a touch of healthy narcissism.  Bigger was better.

Today we’ve gone beyond the “show” and have begun presenting full runway spectacles.  Complete with actors slash models, directors, producers, publicists, marketing and sales people, stylists, set designers a sound track and of course – costumes.  Fashion has borrowed from the theater and shares most everything in common.  All but the box office, at least for now.

Until recently, the seats in the Tents were occupied exclusively by buyers from large retailers, magazine editors from the top fashion publications, private clients, celebrity stylists and other industry critics.  The shows were given by the Trade for the Trade.  A runway show was the pinnacle of business in that at a single fashion show a designer could potentially gain several editorial features, sell the collection to major retailers, communicate with their customers through the media, sell one-of-a-kind pieces directly to A-list celebrities, nurture their private clients, and present their brand in their own vision thereby strengthening its chance of lasting success.

This year, Bryant Park will put up its tents for the last time before fashion week moves to Lincoln Center, and it is already being reported that in the once coveted and exclusive seats will be seated child bloggers, today’s hot pop singers, the new generation of young Holywood, and don’t let us forget our favorite reality “stars” including the cast of The Jersey Shore.  The runway is looking more and more like the cover of a tabloid magazine than a respectful showing of an artist’s work.  In fact, the people who will be profiting from all the media attention is no longer the designer but rather the pop-culture icon.

It just leaves me thinking that Seventh on Sixth made a fundamental mistake and they should move fashion week to Broadway or the Kodak Theater in Hollywood instead of Lincoln Center.  After all, in the name of the show the clothing presented on the runway is a dramatized version of their saleable realities anyways which actually makes them costumes.

Modern Chanel Fashion Show: recreating Coco's salon on a stage using huge accessories as the set

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?

Unbelievably, New York Fashion Week is here again and that means the haute topic for the upcoming weeks will be the grand shows, the celebrity sightings and the upcoming fads.  As far as carry-over trends go, you wouldn’t be mistaken if you confidently declared leggings, layers, chunky booties and drapey tunics to be the ultimate surviving trend.  But, you would be overlooking an even more important trend that has the Garment District struggling to hold onto.  Survival.  How does a designer keep creativity alive and put out a press-worthy collection that people will actually buy during an extended shopping slow-down.

Beginning tomorrow, designers will be flooding the tents to reveal the formula for success they’ve chosen during this recession and I thought I would offer up some of my own predictions.

Prediction no. ONE – Acute Arithmetic
Being that designers have had some time now to adjust their businesses to the depressed economy, I forecast that smart designers will send their lanky models down the runway in highly edited, thoughtful collections comprised of rich accent pieces.  I also expect that those pieces will be given a friendlier price-point.  Business math is simple, either make less profit per piece and sell lots of units or, make large margins per piece and sell fewer units.  Rather than taint their designer name with pedestrian prices, some brands will opt to launch a lower-end line in hopes of capturing a broad clientele and, if managed correctly, that business model may add up to huge profits once the economy rebounds and the more expensive label is, once again, attainable.

Prediction no. TWO – Evolved Chatter
Like clock-work, at the start of every season, fashion circles begin waxing poetic about all the same – ever so important – stuff.  Silhouettes are scrutinized, the season’s color is ordained, artistic inspiration is exposed and the evolution of trends and themes are explored.  I know I’m going out on a limb with this prediction, but here it goes.  I forecast that this year, fashion’s conventional chatter will evolve to include a deeper and more educated discussion of brand positioning, marketing, costing and quality.  Of course, girlfriends will still discuss how shoes can make an outfit and how to update your look with the proper accessories, but knowing that they have to edit their purchases more than ever, a brand’s quality, vision and creative use of social media outlets will become an important part of the conversation.

Prediction no. THREE – Genuine Style
I forecast that mere financial survival instincts will accidentally encourage those people who are accustomed to purchasing a brand new seasonal wardrobe to re-assess their current closets and do with what they already own.  And in doing so, this simple act of “suffering” might just help them to finally identify their genuine personal style.  It simply isn’t reality today to adopt a designer’s avant-garde definition of what today’s style is.  As we know, that vision will last a whole three months before seeming entirely ridiculous (and a pure waste of money).  Just watch an old episode of Sex and the City and you’ll see how following trends has an uncanny ability to date you to no end.  Dressing like “you” is always on trend.

Prediction no. FOUR – Responsive Renewal
It may sound silly, but the excitement created when store windows are transformed from season to season communicates that change, everywhere, is in the air.  It’s time to re-new and evolve.  The mere predictability of this metamorphosis stimulates a sense of comfort.  We know that life is moving forward, just as it should.  Everything is on track, and everything is fine.  This season, during a time when it seems there are too many unknowns to manage gracefully, empowering a sense of the status quo is more important than ever.  With the introduction of new frocks hanging on racks that have been cut into the latest silhouettes from seasonally appropriate colors, comes revitalized enthusiasm, a fresh source of inspiration and a feeling of optimism.  Regeneration becomes tangible and our spirits are lifted.  Even if we do more window shopping than actual shopping, we know that our world is on track and we’re moving forward.

Tom Ford, designer slash director

The television commercial actor from Texas who studied interior architecture in New York and eventually turned into a fashion designer is now dabbling in directing.

Tom Ford is hanging up his muslins and turning to film.  The designer who made a success of himself at the House of Gucci is now focusing his creative vision on the big screen with his directorial debut of the movie A Single Man.  I wish I could share a trailer, some clips, or even a few stills from the movie but it seems this film is being kept well under wraps, so a casual photo of the designer (slash director) draped in silk and sipping a single malt scotch will have to do.

Pardon me as I digress…

I suspect that Ford’s reluctance to reveal his cinematic creation in advance comes from his years in the fashion industry where condescending superiority is the norm.  And, where every-one’s work gets locked in a proverbial vault in fear that their cut-throat competition might steal their inspired ideas.  As someone who has worked and played in fashion for a while now, I can say with regrettable disappointment that arrogance, attitude, and a deity complex are widely believed to be the recipe for “success” in the fashion world.

I find it absolutely ridiculous that in order to be a mega star in luxury one must be an elusive and untouchable figurehead who’s duty it is to dictate to the pathetic, plebeians what to wear.  Or more specifically, what we should aspire to wear  (being that most people can’t afford their frocks which are falsely priced to create an illusion of brand value rather than priced for the value of the materials and construction).

After all, these design houses are obliged to create an image of exclusivity so they can price their goods at a profit of 4oo% else they can’t afford the beautifully styled ad campaigns, expensive storefronts, and impressive lifestyles that are a requisite in order to make them desirable in the first place.  It’s really a deceptive circle and we consumers are partly to blame for instigating the industry’s sickness.  After all we’re the ones believing that gilded ostentation equals success and status.

Don’t get me wrong, I certainly own my fair share of luxury goods and, most of the time, you can really feel and see the quality difference that fine materials and couture stitching make.  I’m just putting it out there that many independent designers can deliver equal quality for an honest price.  Leading to my final thought – shop with discriminating taste and choose uniquely special items that suit your individual style.  Don’t let brand names weaken your discretion and empty your wallet.

Aaaah…back to Tom Ford the director…

As a business person, I’ve always admired Tom Ford for his balls-out ambition and his talent for executing a clear vision.  He plays the fashion game well and has created a believable and intriguing designer character of himself.  I’m rooting the for him and hope he can translate his creative prowess to film and his movie is actually good.  Not just good looking.

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If you’re lucky enough to be in Venice for the Film Festival on September 11th you can catch the designer’s film and then leak all the gossip and goodies straight to me

For the curious, here are some basic details about the movie that couldn’t avoid being revealed before the release.

Cast
Collin Firth, and his sweetly charming smile
Julianne Moore, my fellow red headed NYC neighbor
Nicholas Hoult, the adorable “Marcus” from About a Boy
Giniffer Goodwin, the third wife of my favorite HBO drama series Big Love
Matthew Goode, the dapper English bloke from Matchpoint and Chasing Liberty

Synopsis
A gay man who, after the sudden death of his partner, is determined to persist in his usual routine, which is seen in the span of a single, ordinary day in Southern California.

Firth is the gay man, an Englishman and professor who feels like an outsider in Los Angeles. Goode is the boyfriend who dies in a car accident and appears in flashbacks. Moore plays a friend of the professor.

For the considerably curious, listen to the interview with Goode and Firth courtesy of Hollywood Outbreak where they talk about Ford as a director.