All it takes is one look at the cover of Glamour magazine’s March issue, which touts the 500 looks for spring, to understand fashion’s latest conundrum.
The choices have become mind numbing at a time when there are fewer fashion sages to boil down the often-conflicting messages for the average shopper.
Even the professionals are overwhelmed. At Olympus Fashion Week, which starts today and runs through Feb. 10, retail buyers and magazine editors will be asked to attend a record 185 shows. That’s an increase of 30 percent from 1998, according to the Fashion Calendar.
While most attendees applaud the influx of new talent, they worry about the sheer logistics of the week. “I’m desperate to see Daryl K,” said Susan Rolontz of the Tobe Report. “But I can’t go, because Vera Wang is showing at the same time.”
She bemoaned the conflicts, which she said were greater this year than ever before and would require her to be at four shows at the same time on Thursday afternoon.
“This is why we need fashion directors more now than ever before,” Rolontz said. “Someone needs to digest all of this for the customer and tell them how to wear the clothes.”
Yet, several major stores are either operating without a fashion director or are in a period of transition, including Neiman Marcus, Bloomingdale’s, Bergdorf Goodman and Nordstrom.
The problem, some observers said, goes beyond the temporary adjustments underway at those companies and is the result of a long-term decline in the cultivation of merchants.
Store buyers, these people said, are trained today more like accountants, focused on making their numbers, than as fashion seers, willing to bet big on a new trend.
“We need the return of Diana Vreelend,” said David Wolfe, creative director of the Donegar Group, referring to the legendary Vogue editor.
“She was great at saying, ‘The one thing to buy for the season is. . .,’ ” Wolfe said.
“Instead,” he continued, “we get the 300 looks of the season. It makes you feel like taking a nap instead of going shopping.”
No sane woman would choose to return to the strict guidelines that governed fashion for most of the past century, when a girdle was required and denim was reserved for construction workers.
But the recent democratization of fashion – fueled by TV shows like “Project Runway” and the Internet, which will air live footage of the Bryant Park shows for the first time this year – comes at a price.
Even Glamour seemed to have trouble sorting out its 500 looks for spring, pointing out that white and black; gold and silver; skinny pants and wide; pencil skirts and full; short shorts and long are all in this season.
“Zeroing in on what’s ideal for you among these choices could be tricky,” the magazine warned.
Sparring styles
Fashion Week is offering a world of choice – cutting the work out for trendsetters.
In 1998
143 designers showed
Today through Feb. 10
185 designers will show
Source: Fashion Calendar