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NEW YORK: A bleak US economy has cast a pall over Fashion Week, with
even the most dedicated fashionistas distracted by bread-and-butter
concerns like paying the mortgage and filling the gas tank.
More than 80 designers will take part in the
semi-annual celebration of designer confection at this week’s show
of Spring-Summer 2009 Fashions, from edgy Betsey Johnson to classy
Carolina Herrera.
But the fashion world is not expecting heavy
sales orders from the designer extravaganza, which starts on Friday.
“Most Americans are too busy choosing between
food and fuel to worry about foulards versus fan pleats,” wrote
one commentator in the New York alternative daily, The Village
Voice.
More than 80 designers were to take part in the
week-long event, including some favorite standbys like Calvin Klein
and Oscar de la Renta.
With the US economy in the doldrums, design
houses know that consumers are far less likely to part with their
money, and when they do, they will be inclined to opt for safe
classic styles which provide a better value for their dollar safe.
“This is the most difficult Fashion week in a
long, long time,” said John Mincarelli, professor of fashion
marketing and management at New York’s Fashion Institute of
Technology, a training ground for young up-and-comers in the
industry.
Fashionistas were to head to a variety of sites,
including an expansive tent building in the midtown Bryant Park
where much of the action is centered.
Other shows will be held at catwalks and
exhibition halls scattered around New York City, and are expected to
offer some of the best celebrity watching of the season—even if
the attendees are more in the mood for looking than spending.
During last spring’s fashion week held six
months ago there were already hints of an economic downturn, as
Americans tightened their belts in anticipation of leaner times.
That effect is being felt even more keenly with
retail sales down, consumer confidence in retreat, and the jobs
market down sharply.
American fashion houses have put on a brave face
as they grapple with a weak dollar and the increasing expense of
imports.
One upside is that the current downturn favors
young designers hoping to elbow their way to the top of the fashion
world, who may not face the same overhead in mounting a fashion week
spectacle as some of the more established houses.
Fledgling couturiers from around the world long
have viewed the week as an unrivaled opportunity to access the
massive US market and capture some of the insatiable media attention
that comes with one of the world’s leading fashion events.
Adding to the air of uncertainty during this
year’s Fashion Week is the unsettled US political landscape, with
the winner of the election for the White House not to be determined
until November.
Fashion analysts said American women voters
often often look to the wives of the US president for fashion cues,
and this year are presented with two radically different style
alternatives in Mi-chelle Obama, the wife of Democrat Barack Obama
and Cindy McCain, wife of Republican nominee John McCain.
The marked contrast in styles —Obama, young,
black and hip and McCain classic high fashion and white—means that
US designers may have to wait until after November to know which way
the Americans’ fashion tastes will veer.
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