Maintaining the Fabric ofLife, Work
Like every industry interrupted by the terrorist attacks on New York and the Pentagon, the fashion industry has been charting a new course during these past weeks for showing the spring 2002 collections in the United States and Europe. The Milan collections started this week with fewer executives and buyers attending.
In New York, Helmut Lang and his staff were unable to work out of their offices for four days. The designer, who moved his company from Paris several years ago, had planned to show in Paris on Oct. 6. He’ll stage and tape the show privately on the same date in New York instead.
“After the events of the last two weeks, I feel at this time that it is appropriate that I show my work here instead of continuing my previous plan to show in Paris,” Lang said in a statement. “I feel very strongly that the spirit and courage of the people of New York is a call to demonstrate our support in each of our various ways. Presenting the Helmut Lang collection here is our way of supporting business in New York.”
The collection will be presented to media and buyers via the Internet, CD-ROM, books and videotapes, and through showroom appointments in America and Europe.
Meanwhile, organizers of New York’s Fashion Week, which was stopped immediately after the Sept. 11 attacks, called off their plans to resume the shows Oct. 22-24 because many designers have since staged smaller presentations in their showrooms.
Fern Mallis, executive director of 7th on Sixth, recently announced that, “in light of most designers’ decisions to schedule presentations this week in the safety and security of their own showrooms, there is not a need to move forward with plans for alternative show dates in late October. All of our efforts and energy will now be focused on assisting the industry to get back on its feet, and toward making the February shows in New York the best showcase possible for American design.”
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Now that the 53rd Emmy Awards have been postponed by three weeks until Oct. 7 and plans for the red-carpet parade of celebrities have been toned down, fashion designers and other sponsors who hoped to reap valuable publicity from the event are scrambling to find new outlets for their promotions.
Several companies this year had already planned low-key tie-ins to avoid a growing backlash against the blatant commercialism that has lately consumed awards-show arrivals. New York’s Bergdorf Goodman announced earlier this summer a partnership with the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences that anointed the store the official fashion consultant of the academy and the Emmys. The designation made Bergdorf’s a source for Emmy attendees and academy members seeking fashion counsel. Now, as the store struggles with getting back to business as usual, the Emmys “have kind of taken a back seat,” said Ronald L. Frasch, Bergdorf’s chairman and chief executive. However, before the attacks and the Emmy postponement, Bergdorf was able to stage a fashion show in Los Angeles that featured its take on elegant fall formal wear.
Luxury Swiss watchmaker Ebel also hoped for Emmy-generated buzz for the U.S. debut of a redesigned women’s watch, the 1911. The company has already given each presenter and VIP a $4,600 gold, mother-of-pearl and diamond-bezel timepiece that was included in 125 gift baskets, the contents of which are valued at $20,000 apiece. Ebel President Dennis Phillips struggled this week to redirect the watch’s launch campaign, which relied heavily on the Emmy tie-ins. “We aren’t quite sure what to do with the Emmys going more low-key now,” he said. “The commercial aspect of it is probably distasteful now.” Most of his company’s other plans could be costly and hurt profits in an already compromised retail environment.
Phillips and other executives are reevaluating the effectiveness of ads and publicity as they attempt to gauge the consumer’s appetite for luxury goods--or fashion of any kind.
“There are a lot of questions,” Phillips said, “but very few answers.”
