The Tamesis
The opening of this season’s New York Fashion Week (NYFW) comes at a critical moment for the multi-brand retail industry in the United States. Many brands are still reeling from the Matches and Ssense bankruptcies and now face the reality that they are unlikely to receive any of the money they were owed before Saks Global filed for bankruptcy in January. That doesn’t change the main purpose of a fashion show (besides the noise): designers – many of whom are independent in New York – to stand in front of the people who buy, stock and sell their clothes.
Saks Fifth Avenue, Neiman Marcus and Bergdorf Goodman are all inviting buyers to participate in fashion month this season, the companies confirmed fashion business. Many brands will host these buyers at shows and appointments, adding cautious optimism to the retailer’s future under Saks’ new ownership. But some founders remain ambivalent. Others are opting for smaller order sizes for the time being.
Saks’ bankruptcy puts pressure on an event already strained by the tough economic climate. Each season, New York Fashion Week, which is largely populated by independent designers, sparks discussion about big-name departures (last year, Willy Chavarria joined a host of New York designers heading to Paris) and the possibility of running independent fashion brands and shows when financial and institutional support is already limited.
Still, New York designers show up as planned season after season because they know that a show (or presentation) is the best way to get in front of buyers who are in town for a week before setting off on a fashion month tour. This season, more than ever, brands are recognizing the need to diversify their wholesale offerings, who is coming to town to buy – and what are they looking for?
Who’s in town?
Despite retailers’ own increasingly constrained budgets, familiar American brands will still be present, including Bloomingdale’s, Moda Operandi, Net-a-Porter, The Webster, Mytheresa and Nordstrom. American boutiques such as Oakland’s McMullen and Atlanta’s newly reopened Jeffrey and Elyse Walker will also enter the city this week.
Jeffrey Kalinsky, founder of Jeffrey, only plans to take appointments and does not plan to attend shows. “I usually make a list of people I don’t know that I’d like to meet, and I’ll reach out and try to make an appointment a few months before the listing,” he said. “I just feel like my time is better spent in the showroom. I need to know the price of something, not just whether I like it.” Plus, Kalinsky said, since fashion shows are no longer just for buyers and the fashion press, he can do his job better in a showroom than from a show seat, where visibility is not guaranteed.
“They don’t necessarily come here for the fashion shows,” luxury goods consultant Robert Burke said of buyers in the town. “Showrooms like New York CD Network play a very critical role for brands.” He predicts that many showrooms will be very busy with store appointments for New York and international brands next week.
Emily Dawn Long, for example, is one of the brands that Nordstrom vice president fashion director Rickie De Sole is excited to see this fall, having recently launched the brand. Emily Dawn Long did not appear at New York Fashion Week, but will hold a ball at the Sub Mercer in Soho on February 13. (She also hosts appointments at her Lower East Side showroom—and not just during Fashion Week.)
Not everyone is coming to New York. Atlanta-based Ant/dote retailer confirmed there won’t be any buyers in town (founder Lauren Amos has attended New York Fashion Week in the past); neither will Los Angeles-based Maxfield.
