Runway Shows Are Stopped in Their Tracks

In the most important city for American fashion and during one of its most important weeks, the gaily decorated pink tents at New York’s Bryant Park stand forlorn and empty of their glitzy patrons. A week ago, the fashion shows staged inside of them held the promise of reenergizing lackluster apparel sales.

But now uncertainty reigns as the multibillion-dollar New York fashion industry seeks to regain equilibrium like other major industries based in the city. Previews of spring 2002 collections in the tents were immediately canceled Tuesday after the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. More than half of the 127 runway shows and countless showroom appointments never happened.

Normally what happens is before, between and after the shows and parties, store buyers and executives from around the world kick-start the fashion cycle when they huddle in showrooms around Manhattan with designers and manufacturers booking orders for the following season.

With most of the showrooms and offices located about 30 blocks north of the demolished World Trade Center, the area escaped physical damage. But few could think of anything as seemingly insignificant as clothing. Instead, hundreds of businesses fought panic as they struggled to account for their executives, designers and publicists who were on rerouted airplanes or already working in New York. The Massachusetts-based discount retailer, TJX Cos., which operates T.J. Maxx and Marshalls stores, is believed to have lost seven employees on Flight 11 out of Boston.

Fashion designer Nicole Miller spent most of Wednesday explaining that she was alive. When the news broke that a passenger sharing her name was on the hijacked United Airlines flight that departed from Newark, N.J., and crashed near Pittsburgh on Tuesday, fearful friends worried that Miller was a victim of the worst terrorist attack on the United States. “I live downtown and fly out of Newark all the time,” she said.

In New York and Los Angeles, stores and fashion-oriented businesses quickly canceled events, including charitable benefits, that might seem inappropriate in light of the tragedy. In Los Angeles, designers were busy securing jewels, gowns and tuxedos for television stars to wear at the now-postponed Emmy Awards, which had been slated for Sunday, and last Tuesday’s Latin Grammy Awards.

In connection with the Emmys, Women’s Wear Daily canceled a Thursday night party in West Hollywood that was to honor 10 television fashion trendsetters, some of whom were unable to leave New York. French shoemaker Christian Louboutin will quietly open his new Beverly Hills boutique next week--without the planned Saturday evening party. Diane von Furstenberg’s Saturday afternoon fashion show to benefit cancer research is now impossible. Leah Forester, a von Furstenberg spokesperson, spent most of Tuesday sending e-mails not about work but that assured friends and associates that she was alive.

“People are walking through the streets crying, coughing, confused,” Forester wrote from her home a short distance from the towers. “The devastation physically and emotionally is far-reaching and only just beginning to be understood and digested. Doing a fashion show any time soon is just out of the question.”

Others found different ways to cope. “We’re full of rage and full of helplessness, and we want to do something,” said Lizzy Shaw, spokesman of Sarah Shaw handbags. “We can raise money.” They’re donating a portion of the proceeds from an already-scheduled sample sale on Saturday to the Red Cross.

Renee Bardot, a German designer with a La Brea Avenue boutique, is going ahead with a Monday night fashion show and benefit for the Design Industries Foundation Fighting AIDS. A press release said her show will “salute the strength of women circa 1920s Berlin, an era of sexual revelry and sensual decadence.”

“We feel at this particular time, we need to have some sort of levity,” said Brian Garrido, Bardot’s publicist.

The attacks caused many in the industry to question and reorder their priorities. “I think people are going to sit back and say this [the fashion industry] is so frivolous compared to what is happening in the world,” Miller said. “The tents [in Bryant Park] were the most frivolous because they were about air-kissing and movie stars in the front row.”

Miller, like others, had additional reservations. “I’m scared that it’s really going to get worse,” said Miller, as she planned to privately restage her canceled Wednesday show. “I think there are going to be a lot of repercussions. I think the economy is going to get hit and people are not going to be buying.”

Unlike Miller, Allen B. Schwartz, owner of Los Angeles-based sportswear firm A.B.S., predicted that consumers may find that shopping becomes “a healthy distraction.” He didn’t foresee an immediate financial impact from the attack, “but there’s a mental impact,” he said, adding it’s too early to predict how the industry will deal with the devastation. “The industry is in shock.” His New York associates described New York as a ghost town.”

Anyone who could leave the city by any means did so on Wednesday. Many were on trains, several rented cars, and others, such as Michael Faircloth, never reached New York. The Dallas-based designer was rerouted mid-flight and stranded in Durham, N.C. Faircloth had hoped to debut his first ready-to-wear collection in Manhattan and cash in on his newfound fame as the designer of Laura Bush’s inaugural wardrobe.

The five members of his entourage rented two cars and loaded his 51-piece collection into the trunks. “The long drive back is giving us time to think about things and give us a different perspective on all this pressure we were under to get everything completed,” he said from somewhere near Nashville. “It’s hard to even think about fashion.” However, Faircloth may return to New York when the postponed shows are scheduled to resume Oct. 22-24.

That may be too late for some. The cancellations and the chaos were seriously affecting buying appointments.

Young designers may also find themselves financially struggling. “They have so much on the line,” said L.A. fashion publicist Kelly Cutrone, who is in New York. The cancellations stand to be “incredibly devastating and financially draining” for one client, New York designer Michael Soheil, who had to postpone his debut presentation this week. A small presentation can cost $15,000; with paid models, $40,000 to $50,000, Cutrone said, and not all costs can be reimbursed for a rescheduled show.

The New York economy stands to suffer as dozens of bigger budget shows also vanished. Designer Miller estimated that most sizable companies spend $300,000 to stage a runway show at the Bryant Park tents, the largest of which costs $35,000 to rent. Models add an additional $150,00 to $180,000 to the budget, she said.

In the midst of the tragedy, many fear that buyers and the press may not return this season and may elect instead to concentrate their attention and budgets on the upcoming European shows.

The Parisian body that oversees the French fashion shows, the Chambre Syndicale, is planning to go ahead with its 10-day schedule beginning Oct. 5, said president Didier Grumbach.

Shows are also scheduled to start on Monday in London and Sept. 23 in Milan.

“We don’t intend to change anything but to be very security-oriented,” Grumbach said from Paris. The city and its fashion industry have weathered terrorist threats before. After a series of terrorist bombings hit Paris in 1995, show patrons were required to pass through metal detectors, undergo bag searches and provide passports to enter fashion shows in Paris that season. Despite the security, terrorists bombed a subway station during Fashion Week in October.

As it endures this national crisis, the fashion industry is being careful to avoid appearing self-centered. The New York show producers, 7th on Sixth, are also studying how the industry can collectively respond to the humanitarian needs in the attack’s aftermath, said executive director Fern Mallis in a statement.

While fashion may reach out to sufferers in New York and Washington, D.C., it is doubtful that consumers will reach out to fashion.

“I don’t think people will be looking for comfort from fashion right now,” said Cutrone. “They will be looking for love and safety.”