New York Fashion Week
February 6th, 2009 by Simon Salt
New York Fashion Week, normally an event on which is to New York fashion design what the Detroit Auto Show is to American cars, is suffering a rash of designer cancellations. The show, which is set to start on February 13th this year, has so far lost Vera Wang, Betsey Johnson, and Carmen Marc Valvo, all of whom are sitting this show out due to the dismal state of the luxury retail industry.
A designer must spend between $100,000 and $750,000 to stage a full-scale runway production for the big event, and many designers are opting to keep the money in their own accounts for now. “We’re all suffering - we’re all taking a beating and every day when we wake up, it’s a new beating and it’s really kind of depressing,” said New York designer Marc Bouwer. Bouwer has seen his order decrease 60% over the course of the past year and now holds online shows instead of live ones. Betsey Johnson and Vera Wang will hold their own smaller, more intimate events to debut their spring lines this year.
- Posted in Clothing
