I thought I might weigh in on fashion shows today. Each season we do what is called the “front of the house” for eight to ten fashion designers in New York. In layman’s terms that means we coordinate all the invitations to the shows, the responses, seat them and handle the press interviews with the designers before and after the shows. It’s labor intensive, as it requires literally hundreds of phone calls, seating meetings (each person has an exact seat at each show) and of course, communication with the media so they get what they need to file for their publications or electronic media. We have been doing this for over 12 years, so we have many shows under our belt.
In the late 1980’s when I was public relations senior vice president of Calvin Klein, Inc. our shows were a far simpler affair. With all modesty, the shows Calvin put on were truly in the vanguard of what was going on in fashion at the time, but it was a smaller world then. Fashion wasn’t truly global and nobody, European or American had large businesses away from their own countries let alone continents. There were fewer media outlets…no Internet, a little television, newspapers and magazines. That was it.
We used to have two shows in the offices of the company on West 39th Street in Manhattan. We had the first show at 11:00 a.m. and that was the large circulation press, celebrities and friends of Calvin and the larger stores for sales opportunities. We had the second show at 2:00 p.m, which was attended by smaller circulation press and smaller stores carrying the brand. We were able to get a total of 500 people into both shows and never offended or excluded anybody who needed to come. Fade out 20 years later, and attendance at one show can easily swell to 700 and that means 200 or more are not invited who would like to come.
Now, the shows are up on the internet in almost real time and not only do hundreds of millions of people have access to the footage through Style.com, Elle.com, YouTube, and the like, there are bloggers going at it like mad. Then, the papers and television break the next day. The lifestyle magazines run the pictures the next week and finally the long lead magazines feature the runway photos closer to when the clothes are actually in stores. So there is an almost infinite number of ways these images get seen and even though people can’t buy the fashions in stores until months later, all agree that the shows do much to hype the idea of high fashion and keep the designers who show in the limelight.
Now comes the recession, and to put on a show is expensive. If you do it “cheap and cheerful” the minimum cost is somewhere between $150,000 and $250,000 depending on the price of the models and production. A lot of people in fashion are saying that the smarter way to spend that money is to do a presentation. No runway is present, a smaller venue is used and the girls come out in groups, get seen by the attendees and go back to change. So eight girls, three changes and you’ve shown 24 looks. Moreover, the presentations are usually held over a period of two hours so it’s sort of on a loop and people can drop in and out and not be held to the time constraints of a formal fashion show. With over 250 design houses showing during fashion week in New York this is welcomed because no one has an excuse not to get to a show they want to see. The presentation is a good solution in a time when people are being let go…it can save some wages.
However, to me the re-think has to be about when these clothes actually get delivered to the retailers. In times gone by fall or pre-fall collections are starting to get delivered in June. (Ahem. isn’t the first day of summer June 21st?) Fall is complete by September and I can remember some scorchers here in September. Now quickly follow…fall goes on sale in October, resort comes in November, all of it is on deep markdown in late December. January signals the first deliveries of spring (it’s January as I write this and it will be 5 degrees tonight in New York). The same daisy chain goes on…spring is complete by April, on sale in May and guess what? Just in time for first delivery of fall in uh…June.
We’ve done it to ourselves. We think that women out there are so eager to get their paws on the next season’s merchandise that she will buy it out of season at full price. Well I’ve got news for you gentle readers; she is buying clothes when she needs them and has gotten quite accustomed to buy it at half off or more, thank you very much. So everybody’s margins have been destroyed, stuff hangs in stores months before they’re bought or worn and the whole thing is coming down around our heads.
A Possible Solution… still hold the shows in the spring for the fall and vice versa. Only NOW don’t send the things into the stores until a customer just might possibly wear them. Deliver fall in September with maybe just a taste in August. Resort in December and ship spring in April with a taste in March. Simple. Easy peesy. How come we didn’t do this before? What have I overlooked? What is wrong?
I just don’t know…help me if you know the answer.
See you.
PW
