Material World

Summer is over and it’s back to school! Which, in New York at least, always happens to coincide with back to fashion week! Which makes getting through September, for fashion moms, pretty much like getting through the straits of Messina: Scylla on one side, Charybdis on the other.

Not to complain or anything. Still, at the dinner table last night we discussed what our children were looking forward to at school, and it got me thinking about what I was looking forward to this fashion season, which begins in NY on Thursday. Here are what I expect to be the winning discussion topics over the champagne cocktails:

1. Best issue: Whether New York Fashion Week acknowledges 9/11

Ever since September 11, 2001, it never has done, even though NY Fashion Week always falls on 9/11. To me this has always been a shocking omission ; I’m not looking for an all-black show, just a nod, in the form of a show note dedication or a rose, to an industry-shaping event. Given this year is the 10th anniversary of the tragedy, however, and pretty much every other organisation in NY is doing something, it’s hard to see how it could skip it. However, there’s no release or notice of any planned memorial on the official web page. I just emailed Diane von Furstenberg, president of the Council of Fashion Designers of America, to ask about it: she told me that since her show was on 9/11 she would make a contribution to the families of 9/11 on the part of her company, and that the CFDA was a partner of Action in America, a 9/11 campaign with AOL. She says the latter news is going on the website today, so I guess we should wait and see if that clarifies things.

2. Best corporate development: The confidence-boosting effect of cash injections at Michael Kors and Proenza Schouler

Last month Kors sold a minority stake in his company that valued the brand at $2.5bn, making him the stealth success story of the past few years: the only designer of his generation to vault toward the billion dollar mark. This kind of vote of confidence has to make a difference on the runway, doesn’t it? Meanwhile, Permira finally sold its stake in Proenza to New York uber-garmento Andrew Rosen, meaning the young designers now have a local partner/mentor as opposed to a far off private equity owner to help them vault to the next stage, as well as renewed security and control (they have retained ownership of half the company). Such confidence tends to be expressed in clothes. At least it’s pretty to think so. After all, another Rosen-directed brand, Helmut Lang, is having its first runway show this season in four years.

3. Best creative change: New Look Balmain, Galliano and Paco Rabanne

The departure of Balmain’s Christophe Decarnin, the man who put legions of women in shockingly expensive ripped jeans and broad shouldered jackets, the exit of John Galliano and the relaunch of Rabanne means that two designers are making their womens’ wear debut in Paris this season and one is taking the helm of a new house: Olivier Rousteing at  Balmain, Bill Gaytten at Galliano and Manish Arora at Rabanne respectively. The questions to ask are:

• Can the Balmain aesthetic, which has worked so well, be sustained, or will Rousteing, Decarnin’s number two, set a new course for the house (and will it sell?)?
• How will Gaytten, whose Galliano men’s wear was well received but whose Dior couture was panned, hold up?
• Will Arora be able to revive Rabanne credibly, or will it seem like historic costume?

4.  Best target for sarcasm: Yoga installation, Rachel Zoe collection, Hello Kitty

There’s always a through-the-looking-glass element to fashion weeks: the towering shoes! the fur in 70 degree heat!) and so far I have identified a few: in New York, Vivienne Tam is creating a “yoga installation” in Lincoln Center to show off her new activewear line and Rachel Zoe is launching her eponymous collection (I’m not sure how to review through the celebs and paparazzi).  And in Milan, Hello Kitty is having a runway show. That is not a typo: Hello Kitty. It is showing a fashion line that  is “made in Milan by top Italian designers.” The mind boggles.

5. Best shopping opportunity: Target?

Set loose in different cities without families and breakfast to make, editors often descend into a sort of consumer carpe diem frenzy during fashion week: shop now, because in a month you will be back on desk duty! Everyone has their favourite go-to places (in Paris, I make seasonal pilgrimages to La Maison de Savon, the Alaia sale shop, Du Pareil au Meme, and Merci) but I fully expect swarms to hit Target this week when the Missoni for Target line launches. A close rival, however, may be the pop-up shop of Nicola Formichetti, aka Lady Gaga’s stylist, aka artistic director of Thierry Mugler. He’s promising “a preview of what is to come in his own body of work and the future of fashion with a real-time virtual collaboration” down on Walker Street in New York.

I can’t wait.