In this week’s Styles, The New York Times looks into the changes that smaller fashion labels are making this season as the recession continues to hit all areas of pop culture.
With fashion week right around the corner, smaller labels are making tough choices about where to place resources and how to survive the tough economic climate that is being experienced.
In the days before Fashion Week, which begins Feb. 13, a similar story has been playing out in showrooms around the city, as designers adapt to a new reality, one in which talking about new clothes means talking about the new economy. You could sense the dread at a meeting last month between show producers and newspaper reporters to discuss the recession’s impact on Fashion Week, when Paul Wilmot, a leading industry publicist, said, “We need to come up with talking points!” He already knows the question: Who can afford these clothes?
This question that had been asked more tongue in cheek in past years, but this year sounds unusually disarming.
Whereas in past seasons designer’s had carte blanche to let their imagination dance on the catwalks in the form of show pieces, this season is shaping up to be more somber.
Indeed, later in the article Daniel Silver, one half of the industry lauded Duckie Brown label, seems to give answer to the aforementioned question.
“We cannot afford to make clothing that people cannot afford to pay for,” he said.
link: Small Fashion Labels Go Into Survival Mode in These Hard Times – NYTimes.com
