Wednesday, February 13, 2008

The Confusion of Fashion Week


The Confusion of Fashion Week
By Gamal Hennessy for New York Nights

I’ve never covered Fashion Week before, but one thing is clear. Trends are in the eye of the beholder. It doesn’t really matter in the end what designers throw down the runway, people see what they want to see.

Kate Betts of Time magazine saw designers
playing it safe and came to the conclusion that they were dressing women for the recession. I don’t think designers are really thinking about the subprime crisis when they are making clothes, but I could be wrong.

Robin Givhan at the Washington Post saw an industry ready to take
chances on new designers while established houses struggled to keep their fans. Taking a chance on a new product isn’t exactly the behavior of frightened consumers, but fashionistas might not make the best economists.

Other fashion writers didn’t read any gloom or struggle in the collections. The coverage of the
Baby Phat, Betsey Johnson and Anna Sui shows all focused on sexy, slinky and short. As the new kid on the block, NYN could only get into one show, Iodice, and we didn’t see anything pessimistic in the very short skirts. It looked like a party to us.

In the end, I guess fashion and style are just as much about what you bring to it as what you buy. It will be your attitude that makes you look good in the end, not the clothes.

Have fun.
Gamal

For additional coverage: See
Prince of the City 2: What I learned during Fashion Week.

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