The Wall Street Journal reports that ever since high end retailers like Neiman Marcus and Saks posted their losses in the last quarter, designers are said to have scaled back on the fantasy and zeroed in wearability to attract customers.

First of all, this seems contradictory of what happens on the sales floor. Given that I’ve cited a while back that runway shows are simply “for show,” the showroom collections differ greatly from runway and are actually designed to be worn yet not glamorous enough to be on the runway. Just take a look at Neiman, Saks, Bergdorf, Barneys and Net-a-porter. They all carry designer labels, yet only a few of them (as pointed out by Net-a-porter) are straight off the runway. The rest has never seen the light of day except by the eyes of retail buyers.

If the runway collections are, dare I say, drab this Fall, then what will buyers expect to see in the showroom? Even more drab clothing? I don’t understand this logic from designers. Buyers should know that runway is just for entertainment (to some end) and that the real business goes down in the showroom. If you can’t impress them on the runway, how can you even make them want to come to your booth at the showroom? Aren’t runway shows supposed to be fantastical anyway? One would think a great runway show will make you even more excited for the showroom just to see what the designer has in stock. Besides, aren’t buyers able to look past the glitzy parade and look for potentials in the clothes? Why would they be offended if there was a display of obvious luxury when they very well know that the real collections are nothing of the sort?

A good example of this is Alexander McQueen. Just take a look at his Spring 09  collection on Style.com, and then go to Neiman Marcus, Saks Fifth Avenue, Yoox.com, and Net-a-porter.

What one would expect in the retail stores

Less likely to see this	More likely to see this

Clearly some elements of the runway shows up in the inventory, but you also see pieces that were not on the runway in greater numbers on these sites.

What really interests me is the effect on the clientèle itself. If a runway show is said to be say,  offensive,  in a sense that it displays obvious luxury, how exactly will that affect sales? Shoppers won’t really see these pieces in store, so what difference does it make?

I believe price slashing (other than the recession) was a key move that could set back retailers in attracting clients to paying full price in the future. If a dress sells for $1500 and then sold at $300 (80% off), then what’s that really saying to shoppers? It sends such a negative message (from a retailer’s point of view) that shoppers can save money if they just wait it out. But how is this helping retailers in selling at full price in the future?

Even if designer clothes have suddenly been made “wearable” (eventhough it has always been wearable on the retail floor), it’s really the economy that will determine shopping behavior. The middle market that was once attainable  for high end retailers to attract are no longer biting the bait. Inventory will shrink and refocus on wealthier clientèle, and perhaps a new breed of “accessible luxury” will be created at more affordable prices than before. The question is, are high end designers willing to go that low? Or will a new breed of middle market designers emerge to cater to the now frugal masses? Perhaps bridge collections will have to be priced cheaper than before, or given an extra oomph in order to sell.

Whatever the case, year end results will give us a really good idea of how well the fashion industry has coped with the recession.

Image credits: style.com, net-a-porter, l’oreal fashion week

Au Coeur De La Mode Nov 16th, 2008

This fashion charity event will hold its bi-annual sale at Palais Des Congres, where the $5 entrance fee will be donated to the AIDS Foundation. Once again local brands will hoist up theirs goods with prices slashed above 50% off. You’ll find a good mix of local and popular European brands like Miss Sixty and Horst. It’s a huge sales floor, so you can be there for hours.

Ogilvy en rose Nov 19th, 2008

This yearly charity fashion event will be hosted at Ogilvy on Ste-Catherine promising schmoozing and entertainment, as well as a 15% discount (in essence, sans taxes) on items sold on the floor. There will be of course a fashion show, some local celebrities, and a contest to win some prizes. Tickets are steep, $100 each. Funds raised will go to the Quebec Breast Cancer Foundation.

Winners all year round

What can I say, this place is always on sale.

It’s no doubt that if the shrinking confidence consumers continue on, there are strong chances stores may close all together. Following lay offs in all corners of the market, one has to wonder who will be hit next. Even NRDC, owner of the recently acquired The Hudson Bay Company, will have to face some serious challenges in this dreary economic climate. On CNNMoney.com, Lord & Taylor recently replaced their CEO with a Neiman Marcus executive as they all brace for one of the worst holiday seasons in recent years. Bad economies could put the Hudson Bay Co. at risk of suffering more loses and reputation despite of their recent buyout.

Timing is of essence in business, and there are no worse timings than J. Crew’s recent store opening of their brand new high end store. Ouch. Let’s just hope Millard Drexler, responsible for launching The Gap into stardom in the 90s, knows how to weather this nasty financial storm.

Namely, it is a fashion magazine and online store rolled into one. Quite obvious I know, but a deeper contemplation made me realize that online stores in general do not necessarily have the written editorial to tout their new products in a magazine format. Think of reading Vogue and be able to buy exactly what they’re saying is the hottest item of the season on the spot, instead of dragging yourself to the store, hope the store actually carries the item, if not, special order, and go through all the hooplahs one might go through to get the item.

We’re a lazy generation. I admit that many of you probably enjoy the going through the entire “hunting” experience of getting what you want, but I think it’s becoming increasingly difficult to ignore our need for instant gratification.

Online stores like Saks, Neiman, Forever 21, Piperlime and Zappos display their array of products and merely announce new arrivals, not quite hyping them up like Net-a-porter does. It also helps that Net-a-porter suggests looks and combinations, and allows you to really zoom in and analyze in full detail parts of the garment since it isn’t possible to do so in person.

I’m not suggesting all stores should start posting online editorials – however, I wouldn’t find it too shabby as a strategy to get more people to buy the products, especially if the store is selling different brands. Holt Renfrew and Ogilvy could perhaps benefit of such a move, especially when Holts already establishes a relationship with their clients with their aggressive call-to-action weekly newsletter. If both stores could offer online shopping and free shipping delivery (for shoes to start), they could definitely boost sales in these harsh economic times. Shoppers tend to shift to online stores when the market is down, so it would only be natural to take advantage of the online medium to keep sales afloat.

With the right combination of marketing and savvy management of an online store and proper, relevant, editorial content, I think clothing stores should consider this as a Plan B.

Image Credit: Versace from Holt Renfrew

It’s a beautiful smoggy morning in sunny California

Yes, smog is a huge problem in the state of California. An hour away from LA I could already see the smog hazily hanging over the rolling golden California mountains. The traffic is incredible, I’ve never seen so many cars in one area. However, spending much time here can easily make you forget that there’s smog in the air since you have to really be on the outskirts of the city to see it.

The state lives up to its “California Casual” looks with beach sandals, flowing white shirts, floral prints, and sundresses. Beachwear is a must in Santa Monica, especially since you’re so close by the ocean. Unfortunately I didn’t have time to sift through the local boutiques to check out the fashion.

San Francisco was a different story and climate altogether. It was pretty windy and chilly in San Francisco. With such cold weather, fashion statements here were fleece sweaters, and zipped up hoodies galore if you’re hanging out near Fisherman’s Wharf. However if you wind up downtown near Union Square, the atmosphere is totally different. During the day, the sun is hot and temperatures rise to 25C-30C, while throngs of people hustle and bustle the fashionable streets. Surrounding Union Square are loads of brand stores including Macy’s, Neiman Marcus, Saks Fifth Avenue, and the usual luxury stores like Prada.

Being that Holt Renfrew can’t quite compare to Neiman’s or Saks, I took a spin in both store looking for my one purchase for my trip. In San Francisco, I noticed the styles were geared towards a slightly more younger crowd at Neiman’s than the one I went in Houston. Neiman Marcus had a huge selection, but I deemed it too old and the layout too cold for me to sift through the clothes. I ran over to Saks Fifth Avenue afterwards and enjoyed their store way more. At Saks, they put brands together side by side giving you a continuous round of clothe sifting instead of seeing each brand separated by a wall.

Don’t Mess With The Zoran

Having heard of Zoran in “The End of Fashion” by Teri Agins, this elusive designer has no website to speak of but commands a loyal following. Certainly a website can’t do much justice to garments in general since you can’t touch them or zoom in on the details. So when I came across his collection at Saks, I immediately examined and pawed my way through his clothes. What impresses me most about Zoran isn’t his designs (that in itself is quite unique, they’re one size fit all) but the fabrics he used to make them. Incredible fabric! I’ve never touched anything so special in my life, one of them was a vest or coat with shiny, shiny fur pieces  (so shiny I’m debating whether it’s real fur or a type of fine synthetic thread) overlapping in sections. It’s hard to describe, but the fact that these pieces were sewn or glued on to sheer fabric made it all the more impressive. So it’s no wonder his shawls and coats were over $3000 a piece, but I need something with a bit more pizazz.

Alaia

After making rounds on the floor, that pizazz settled on Alaia, which I’m assuming is the brand that belongs to Azzedine Alaia. Now honestly, I don’t know much about Azzedine Alaia, neither of his shoes or his designs, I have no idea who this man is or what his design concepts are about. This is unimportant (in this case) as I don’t buy into brands anymore and don’t have loyalty to any particular one. The dress and skirt that I had found at Saks in San Francisco at Alaia is nothing short but breathtaking.

I didn’t check the name while I was browsing, I was simply attracted to that pure white colored dress, the fabric was out of this world. I personally like stiff fabrics, it demonstrates to me that it’s durable, has structure and won’t wrinkle very easily. I can’t even describe very well how this fabric felt- it was like it was tightly embroidered in flowery patterns (all in white, so you can’t really tell unless you’re upclose to it) and lined beautifully. The dress was sleeveless, and the skirt was a little bell-shaped, and the back of the dress had dozens of small metal hooks and a seamless zipper. What I would have given to have the chance to try it on, but knowing at a price tag of $3200, there was no point in putting it on. There was a waist skirt made of the same material and priced slightly lower at $2600. *sigh* Here I am touching the cream of the crop of fabrics and I can’t afford these incredible pieces unless I wanted to forgo a few month’s worth of salary.

Dejected, I went upstairs to the bridge collections, and after pawing through the best of fabrics a level below, going to the more affordable bridge collections felt like a jip. Though I have to say that bridge collections are more youth oriented, hence why they’re more affordable, but the quality in many of these pieces just isn’t the same. I pawed through several pieces by Phillip Lim, D&G, Alice + Olivia, but no good…that Alaia dress had me mesmerized to the core.

Theory

This brand had the office look going on that I liked a lot, and pawing through the fabrics made me realized that this brand had not too shabby fabric for some pieces. I tried on 2 dresses, one was a white and silver stripped shirt dress and the other was a little black dress that tied in the back. I loved the shirt dress a lot, it really did look like it was just a really long shirt and forgot to put a skirt on, I felt sexy in it even if it I was covered up to my knees. The black dress was nice too except I was battling the zipper and it was very difficult to get into the dress itself (not to mentioned that it was dirty with makeup and other stains I couldn’t identify). I refuse to buy clothes that I have to fight my way in, so I bought the shirt dress and to my delight, it was on sale. Originally priced at $315, it cost me $210 (and made in the USA).

So this wraps up my trip to the US and now I’m back in Montreal surfing the waves of the internet. By the way, you won’t be able to find Alaia and Zoran on Saks Fifth Avenue’s website, I’m assuming these are very prestigious collections that will probably never go on sale, so their pieces aren’t available for purchase online.

Image credits: Alaia dress from arts of fashion, saks fifth avenue

Bethesda Area

This is another district in D.C. where old money rules and where you’ll find freestanding luxury brands like Louis Vuitton, Gucci, Tiffany & Co, and Cartier lining up the streets. Neiman Marcus and Bloomingdale’s reign over as the department store moguls, while the J.Crew and Banana Republic store windows display a large range of classic preppy American lifestyles. I realize that Montreal lacks free standing stores like these, I’m guessing there’s not much of a market for it.

Max Mara

There aren’t any Max Mara stores in Montreal…are there? I haven’t noticed. Either way it was my first time checking out this brand in its marble settings. The style and collections weren’t quite of my taste, it was directed for an older demographer (30-45 maybe), sportswear consisted of linen shirts, business suits, earth toned colors, the cuts weren’t as tailored as I had hoped. Despite this, I expressed my opinion to Susan, the sales woman, and she was nice enough to tell me to check out Co-op Barney’s New York next door, and wanted to refer us to another store in Dupont Circle (she forgot the name though), for something more young and urban. It’s unusual to hear sales people refer you to the competition, so I appreciated that she wanted to help me. Now that’s service. I’m really starting to like the service in these luxury stores.

Co-Op Barney’s New York

At Susan’s recommendation, I indeed made a stop here. I had never heard of this branch of Barney’s, but after taking a look around, it was clear that even the almighty Barney’s has succumbed to the accessible luxury market and established a more affordable store for the young and trendy. Marc Jacobs (he’s everywhere I swear!), Helmut Lang, J Brand jeans, the lot. I did end up buying a strapless jersey dress with pockets by Velvet (made in the USA!). Only to find out later on that I could’ve gotten the same dress at Cusp for 10 bucks cheaper as it was “on sale”. However Cusp didn’t have the color I wanted, which was black, so I’m not too distressed for missing out on a $10 discount.

Tyson’s Corner and Tyson II

This is D.C.’s mega mall that’s split into 2 seperate buildings. Tyson’s Corner is your generic mall where the massive flock of consumers stroll, browse and crowd the walkways. You’ll find the usual fast fashion lot of H&M, Mango, Zara, etc. I wasn’t really interested in this mall since I could find most of these brands back at home, albeit much more expensive.

Tyson II or Tyson’s Galleria has all the expensive luxury brands you can think of – Chanel, Dior, Ferragamo. Saks Fifth Avenue, Neiman Marcus and Bloomie’s also made up as the major department stores. Surprisingly though, or perhaps I was expecting too much, these luxury stores don’t carry clothes, they’re mostly accessory stores which hold the items that people would be willing to splurge on – mainly bags, wallets, sunglasses, shoes and jewelry. If you were going to look for clothes you’re better off at the department stores. You can already tell that Tyson II has a smaller, more specific crowd. I’ve seen tall models walking around (was there an event going on?) and an overall different atmosphere. Clothes however weren’t of my taste, by demographic the buyers are well aware that the people who have the dineros are the baby boomer generations, so there wasn’t anything fit for a 20-something like myself at my size. I’m not much of an accessory person either, and I’d have to think twice before splurging on $500 shoes.

Overall there’s plenty of shopping to do in D.C., my auntie even suggested that I should visit Pentagon City (about one metro stop from, where else, the Pentagon!), however I didn’t have time to go all way there. There’s also the touristy Union Station for some outlet shopping. But my best bet if you’re ever in D.C. is to visit Georgetown, it’s just a lovely place to see and hang out. I was told that D.C. isn’t really known for any local designers (a shame), however the small boutiques bring in different international brands so there’s always something new to discover.

With an economic downturn for Americans, I wanted to get some perspective on what buyers were looking for this season. Many American buyers were refraining themselves from buying any European brands because of the weak dollar. London suffered the loss of Saks Fifth and Neiman Marcus’ buyers due to its strong British pound this year.

The two American buyers I’ve met while waiting in line for a show opened up to me about their situation. They’ve also nixed the European brands this season, except for one German label in which they keep good relations with, and wondered how the French designers were going to fare at the showroom since the euro is so high. Hence they’ve made a business trip to our home turf to look for some unique pieces for their older target market from 30-65, the baby boomer bracket. I asked what trends they were looking for and they squarely replied that trends weren’t what they were looking for. The baby boomer generation are over trends, they’re looking for practical clothing that’s both unique and durable. Interesting.

What was their opinion of the state of the fashion industry?

According to them, it’s downgraded quite a lot, especially for Americans. They’ve both been to numerous tradeshows across the country, of which New York was said to be pretty chaotic. “Everyone is trying to sell you something and it’s lost itself to business,” they said. Exactly the kind of scenario Teri Agins (author of “The End of Fashion”) had described a decade earlier and it looks like things haven’t changed. Tradeshows have become popular hotspots to host, “these locations are milking designers for their money” they said. There are so many tradeshows now that buyers keep seeing the same collections over and over.

Addressing fast fashion, what with the bombardment of new designs every month, fashion is spiraling out of control, what’s going to happen? “Well everyone would be running naked if it suddenly stopped!” they joked. But in all seriousness, they believed the industry will realize how ridiculous the pace its going and will rectify itself eventually. At least, that’s our hope. I’m thinking back on just how wacky the 80s were with their zany art deco and over-the-top accessories and styles. The early 90s answer to that was minimalism, I’m starting to think that the following decade in the year 2010, we’ll start seeing perhaps a hopeful return to quality goods, what with even Chinese manufacturing becoming more sophisticated than ever.

It’s hard to say what is true fashion these days, we always refer back to the masters of modern couture, but those were different economic situations, different mentalities, and different business models. Back then, a couturier was considered a type of merchant slash artist in its medium, not to make money but to make clothes. Now it’s a totally different ball game where the reputation of a company not only lies in its quality but its business (and marketing) model. In the end, it really comes down to a matter of choice of whether or not you choose to pay for higher or cheaper quality and your sense of style. After all, fashion is subjective with the times.