October 17, 2017 • 18 mins
Last month, fashion lovers got a taste of what's going to be in this spring as designers and models took to runways from New York to London to Paris and Milan. But as customers look for instant gratification and retailers rush to get clothes on shelves faster, is New York Fashion Week as relevant and agenda-setting as it once was? Lindsey Rupp and Alex Barinka talk with Xcel Brands Chief Executive Officer Bob D'Loren, retail consultant Gabriella Santaniello, and Tricia Smith, the head of women's merchandising at Nordstrom.
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Nancy. When it comes to fashion, Paris is where it's at.
It's here they set the style and the rest of
the world watches them do it. In style fall, maybe
the fashion everywhere else but spring is popping up in Paris.
The fashion frenzy took center stage in Paris, and with
it came a frenzy of excitement. Second, Janice Dickinson did
(00:27):
that report in for American Journal. It's all about Paris
Fashion Week, and it's the same year that New York
Fashion Week rebranded under that name. It really hammers home
how powerful the event used to be. It was the
pinnacle of fashion inspiration and you could be sure that
trends walking down that runway would be seen in some
iteration in stores six months later. But lately fashion week
(00:51):
hasn't been the same event it used to be, especially
in New York. Designers from Rag and Bone to J
Crew skipped it this year. They decided they were better
ways to create buzz around their looks. For Rag and Bone,
its models took southies instead of starting down the runway.
Everything in retail is getting quicker fast. Fashion companies like
Zara and h and M rip off runway looks and
(01:12):
put them in stores weeks after their debut. While traditional
retail takes months to catch up, consumers expect one click
ordering and next day delivery. Retailers are trying to shorten
the time it takes for designs to get made and
then ship from factories in China to their stores in
the US. So what's changed for New York Fashion Week?
(01:39):
What the industry doing to stay relevant and modernize the event.
I'm Lindsay Rupp. I'm here with a special guest host,
(02:02):
I'm Alex Baranka, and today we're taking a closer look
at fashion. Semi annual event. New York Fashion Week drew
seventy nine designers this September and two hundred thousand attendees.
(02:22):
More than half of those were pressed, according to the
National Association of State Boards of Accountancy. That's not surprising
since lately fashion week has become a huge media event.
Designers spend anywhere from two hundred thousand dollars to one
million bucks on a show, and the amount they put
out for a listers to sit front row is reportedly
up to one hundred thousand dollars according to a study
(02:44):
by Style Light. The hope is to draw eyeballs two
million viewers watch shows live streamed. But despite these pretty
shocking numbers, retailers that sell apparel are struggling. Sales are
slipping at luxury brand and at mall staples like the Gap.
Some are starting to question whether New York Fashion Week
(03:05):
is still relevant to the industry and to its shoppers.
The death mail has not quite been driven into the
gmobial UH confident, but Fashion Week is becoming less relevant.
That's Bob to Lauren, chief executive officer of Excel Brands,
(03:25):
which owns names like Isaac, Msrahi, and Sea Wonder. His
company develops brands, markets them, and sells products using data
analytics to figure out how best to give consumers what
they want. The more trends are established in social media,
and the more companies really begin to listen and leverage
(03:46):
old the new technologies that are available, it will continue
to be less relevant. There will always be a need
for a great presentation or a great party, but this
is going to change the way it was done in
the past. Really doesn't work today. We can't push it
any longer. Consumer just doesn't want that m H. The
(04:15):
first US Fashion Show was held at a department store
in nineteen o three. From there, it evolved into Fashion
Press Week in a chance to showcase American designers and
innovation to fashion journalists who often ignored American makers in
favor of European styles. Fifty years later, the event was
(04:36):
consolidated and then renamed New York Fashion Week in before
splitting up into multiple independent producers in two thousand sixteen.
For much of its existence, New York Fashion Week was
really aimed at fashion editors and at retailers. Designers had
the chance to showcase their visions for the upcoming seasons
(04:58):
and to set the agenda for what they thought would
be cool months down the road. Magazines would write and
publish photos of the most exciting looks, getting consumers pumped
for what was to come. Retailers would place orders for
what they thought their consumers would buy in stores half
a year later. It was at a time when the
information flow was structurally very different. Gabriella santan Yellow is
(05:23):
the founder of a Line Partners, a retail research firm
that tracks fashion trends. The Fashion week originally started when
there were much longer lead times for manufacturing product, where
editors and buyers would sit in the audience and watch
(05:44):
the runway shows, which with the new product that the
designers were showing six months ahead of time. There wasn't
the internet obviously, so the editors would write about it
in the magazines. Um it would give the buyers time
to place orders, and then it would give the designers
time to manufacture the merchandise that would ultimately end up
(06:07):
in the retail stores. But that entire equation has changed
these days. Some new forces like social media, influencers and
online shopping are changing the retail scene. The balance of
power has shifted toward the consumer ushered in the era
of see now by now. That means some designers started
(06:30):
making select looks from their runway shows available to consumers
to purchase almost immediately, so no more waiting months for
that item to show up in a store, and that's
totally changed New York Fashion Week. Here is Gabriella again.
I think with social media and the instant gratification we
see from seeing product immediately wanting to buy product immediately,
(06:55):
we are seeing that reflected in some of the shows
that we're seeing at New York Fashion Week, which is
the designers providing the product immediately and addressing that It's
also fitting to me that we're seeing this evolution with
New York Fashion Week in particular. I don't believe we're
seeing it anywhere else London, Paris, Milan, because America sort
(07:17):
of represents that new frontier. We're sort of on the
on the cutting edge. New York Fashion Week also is
a little bit more commercial, so it also makes sense
that you would be able to buy something that you're
actually seeing on the runway, even if you just think
about three or four years ago, not even going as
far back, because I've been going to shows, I think
(07:37):
that's changed quite a bit. Tricia Smith is the executive
vice president and general Merchandising manager for women's Apparel at Nordstrom,
and she's been going to Fashion Week for about six years.
The fact that the customer has access in real time
to what is seen in those shows, I think means
that that the brands themselves have had to kind of
(08:00):
pivot a little bit and change the way they present
them and so, you know, I think the good thing
about that is they're much more creative about, you know,
kind of how the venue represents the creative expression that
they want to be able to tell for the season.
Um and then the attendees have changed a lot, and
you think about you know, influencers attending shows and being
(08:20):
able to get in touch with you know, their followers
immediately following the show. Their presence has become much more important.
And I think in the end it's it's great for customers,
um and I think it it makes it more relevant
in real time versus I think looking at something that
you're making buying decisions on that are coming in in
the next six months. But honestly, I think it's I
(08:40):
think it's a good thing. I think it inspires people.
I think they get access to more inspiration. And if
you think about as a retailer, um, the more people
get excited about fashion in general, I think as a retailer,
it's a really positive thing for us as well. You know,
I think everything always should evolve, But the idea that
(09:00):
it gives you an opportunity, both as a customer and
a retailer to get access to the creative expression of brands,
I think, Um, I think that's that's always going to
be important in the fashion industry. And I think as you,
as more customers get access to the world of fashion,
I think it it becomes even more relevant maybe than
less relevant. So I think our view is, yes, it
(09:21):
should continue to evolve, but now I think it is
much more balanced in the way you think about um,
you know, retailer's representation versus a customer's participation. In fashion Week,
Tricia saw more than twenty shows in New York in September.
She said, being able to shop the looks right now
has started to change the clothing accessories that designers and
(09:43):
veil on the runway. We've seen more looks that people
can wear in the current season instead of pieces of
design inspiration for six months down the road. At the
same time, designers have tried to sell a vibe. There's
been more focus put on everything but the clothes, like
turning the fact and shows into big spectacles. Catwalks have
been seen at crazy venues, their jam packed with celebrities
(10:05):
watching things like live music or models on motorcycles. But
you don't have to take our word for it. Anna Winter,
who's the editor in chief of Vogue and a New
York Fashion Week veteran, described a Kanye West show to
seth Myers in We were waiting for the Kardashians to
arrive on mass and Jay Z. So eventually they did
(10:27):
turn up and the Life of Pablo concert started and
the migrant chic fashion shows started, and they were both wonderful.
But after forty five minutes, I did happen to notice
that jay Z had slid away, so I thought maybe
I could sneak out after him without anybody noticing. But
I the immediate customer scrutiny from social media and urged
(10:49):
to buy now has pushed designers to put on a
show no question. For example, Ralph Laurence was in the
namesake designer's house with his vintage car collection this year.
In another seth Your segment, he remembers meeting Lord the
Singer at a Kanye fashion show, where the two celebrities
felt out of place. They weren't famous enough. We made
it a cool place, but we were like not cool,
(11:12):
not distinctly did not fit in. We were at a
Kanye West fashion show. We were and it was like
a very um fancy back day. Drake was back there
for Nordstrom's Tricia. She's less concerned with who's there, but
her job has changed as the shows have shifted. There's
maybe something a little bit more um casual in nature
(11:35):
to the way shows are presented in New York and
maybe that has to do with the venue versus you know.
I think particularly shows in Paris you might see them
at the opera house, you know, whereas in New York
you might see them in the meat packing um. And
so I think, you know, in general, the way New
York brands are presented in New York fashion we could
probably reflects more American brands um and I would say
(11:59):
pair as fashion Week probably reflects more of a point
of view around European brands. How retailers think about fashion
Week is likely to continue to shift as technology improves
and designers get to use Kanye's words better, faster, stronger
at reacting to what consumers respond to. Artificial intelligence and
(12:20):
data analytics have done a lot to help companies figure
out what shoppers like, and those are often much more
reliable tools than an artist's hunch a great designer's vision
of what Americans should want to wear. But it's a
big departure from what fashion culture has been for more
than a century. Companies are using technology in all kinds
(12:40):
of ways, whether it's heat mapping their store to figure
out what products people are spending the most time in
front of to examining how you fill your cart online
and when you abandon it. Even for the most tech
savvy of design houses, computers can't totally replace a great
human eye. Here's excel brands is bobbed to low and
again there will always be a need for great human designers.
(13:07):
There will always be in need for human overs to
look at what the machines and the data is telling
us to create something that a human being can relate
to them as opposed to a machine. So perhaps thirty
years from now, AI will advance to the level that
(13:29):
they can think like a person, but at least with
a foreseeable future, these technologies are the only things to
to help augment the skill of human designers and nords.
From Tricia Smith, you know, I think we have a
lot of questions of what's going to happen with kind
of see now by now strategies. I think is as
(13:51):
a retailer, it's it's a little bit difficult, um you know,
because shows are more customer facing, brands are rying harder
to make that product available to customer sooner versus waiting
for a typical buying cycle. I would say, you know,
on our end, as a retailer. It makes it a
little bit more difficult because we're actually purchasing that product
(14:13):
then before they actually produced the show. Um, And so
you know, I think we were just as motivated shortening
that that that buying cycle and be able to get
customers access to product faster. But logistically it's a little
bit difficult. Um when you think about what's entailed in
showing that product at a show and then quickly being
able to make it accessible to a customer. People are
(14:43):
still definitely going to see New York Fashion Week shows
and they're engaging online. The hashtag n y f W
was used thirty one point six million times in on
Instagram the most recent year for which there's data. The
question is do they still look to be show is
for what's going to be hot. I don't think it's
all of a sudden social media is going to take
(15:05):
over and just run away with fashion. I mean, I
do think a lot of it. It's not the end
of New York Fashion Week. I think there's gonna there's
gonna be an evolution and they're going to adapt and
you know, figure out how to how to manage this
new world of information. Below that was Gabriella from A
(15:25):
Line Partners. Again, in her mind, social media isn't a
threat to New York Fashion Week, but actually an opportunity.
First of all, it creates awareness. Second of all, it's
you know, these designers need should take it as sort
of a feedback on what's going to sell and what's
not going to sell, and there has to be a
way to use this to really maximize your profits and Okay,
(15:49):
maybe I'm not going to put that in the stores,
and maybe we'll just avoid that mark down ahead of time.
So there has to be a way for them to
just sort of harness that information and to see like, okay,
where is this going on, what kind of responses are
we getting, what are we going to do? And of
course you always have to have those layering pieces or
those pop pieces that are gonna sort of present the
image you want for the group that you're going to deliver,
(16:12):
But ultimately it would be great to know ahead of
time and to avoid some of the headaches that are
marked downs. I mean, there's a huge blood of inventory
out there that is just dead. They call it dead inventory.
Once it hits the stores and it gets marked down,
and it kind of goes through that cycle, so um,
it would be interesting to see what what the possibilities are.
(16:37):
Even if social media has been a big benefit to
fashion Week, like Gabriella believes, the industry still has a
long way to go in taking advantage of it. The
fashion calendar has always been based on seasons, and it
takes a long time for a dress to go from
drawing to design, from runway to rack. But customers don't
think about seasons anymore. I mean, how many times have
(16:57):
you needed shorts in late August and stores already stalking
sweaters for fall. Shoppers want instant gratification and to satisfy that.
Designers at New York Fashion Week are going to have
to rethink what kind of looks they present and win.
This year, we saw designers playing up their location and
set music and celebrity guests, but they're playing it safe
(17:18):
with the actual fashion. As the industry continues to adapt
to modern retelling, they'll need to decide whether the shows
of the future will be more like an extended ad,
a made for TV or Instagram event like The Victoria's
Secret Fashion Show, or if they'll be increasingly about making
immediate sales or simply places for the likes of Derek
(17:39):
Zulander and hanceled settle scores. Hey, I got a wacky idea.
What say we settled this on the runway. That's it
for this episode of material World. Thanks for listening. For
(18:00):
more Material World, find us on Apple Podcasts, Bloomberg, and
wherever you listen to shows like this. You can also
check out other cool Bloomberg podcasts like game Plan, all
about the dues and don'ts of office culture. For more
on what I do in my regular day job covering
initial public offerings, follow me at alex Brinka on Twitter,
(18:20):
and for retail news, Lindsay is at l c RUP.
Material World is produced by Magnus Hendrickson and Liz Smith.
Francesca Levy is the head of Bloomberg Podcasts. Material World
will be back in two weeks.
Nancy. When it comes to fashion, Paris is where it's at.
It's here they set the style and the rest of
the world watches them do it. In style fall, maybe
the fashion everywhere else but spring is popping up in Paris.
The fashion frenzy took center stage in Paris, and with
it came a frenzy of excitement. Second, Janice Dickinson did
(00:27):
that report in for American Journal. It's all about Paris
Fashion Week, and it's the same year that New York
Fashion Week rebranded under that name. It really hammers home
how powerful the event used to be. It was the
pinnacle of fashion inspiration and you could be sure that
trends walking down that runway would be seen in some
iteration in stores six months later. But lately fashion week
(00:51):
hasn't been the same event it used to be, especially
in New York. Designers from Rag and Bone to J
Crew skipped it this year. They decided they were better
ways to create buzz around their looks. For Rag and Bone,
its models took southies instead of starting down the runway.
Everything in retail is getting quicker fast. Fashion companies like
Zara and h and M rip off runway looks and
(01:12):
put them in stores weeks after their debut. While traditional
retail takes months to catch up, consumers expect one click
ordering and next day delivery. Retailers are trying to shorten
the time it takes for designs to get made and
then ship from factories in China to their stores in
the US. So what's changed for New York Fashion Week?
(01:39):
What the industry doing to stay relevant and modernize the event.
I'm Lindsay Rupp. I'm here with a special guest host,
(02:02):
I'm Alex Baranka, and today we're taking a closer look
at fashion. Semi annual event. New York Fashion Week drew
seventy nine designers this September and two hundred thousand attendees.
(02:22):
More than half of those were pressed, according to the
National Association of State Boards of Accountancy. That's not surprising
since lately fashion week has become a huge media event.
Designers spend anywhere from two hundred thousand dollars to one
million bucks on a show, and the amount they put
out for a listers to sit front row is reportedly
up to one hundred thousand dollars according to a study
(02:44):
by Style Light. The hope is to draw eyeballs two
million viewers watch shows live streamed. But despite these pretty
shocking numbers, retailers that sell apparel are struggling. Sales are
slipping at luxury brand and at mall staples like the Gap.
Some are starting to question whether New York Fashion Week
(03:05):
is still relevant to the industry and to its shoppers.
The death mail has not quite been driven into the
gmobial UH confident, but Fashion Week is becoming less relevant.
That's Bob to Lauren, chief executive officer of Excel Brands,
(03:25):
which owns names like Isaac, Msrahi, and Sea Wonder. His
company develops brands, markets them, and sells products using data
analytics to figure out how best to give consumers what
they want. The more trends are established in social media,
and the more companies really begin to listen and leverage
(03:46):
old the new technologies that are available, it will continue
to be less relevant. There will always be a need
for a great presentation or a great party, but this
is going to change the way it was done in
the past. Really doesn't work today. We can't push it
any longer. Consumer just doesn't want that m H. The
(04:15):
first US Fashion Show was held at a department store
in nineteen o three. From there, it evolved into Fashion
Press Week in a chance to showcase American designers and
innovation to fashion journalists who often ignored American makers in
favor of European styles. Fifty years later, the event was
(04:36):
consolidated and then renamed New York Fashion Week in before
splitting up into multiple independent producers in two thousand sixteen.
For much of its existence, New York Fashion Week was
really aimed at fashion editors and at retailers. Designers had
the chance to showcase their visions for the upcoming seasons
(04:58):
and to set the agenda for what they thought would
be cool months down the road. Magazines would write and
publish photos of the most exciting looks, getting consumers pumped
for what was to come. Retailers would place orders for
what they thought their consumers would buy in stores half
a year later. It was at a time when the
information flow was structurally very different. Gabriella santan Yellow is
(05:23):
the founder of a Line Partners, a retail research firm
that tracks fashion trends. The Fashion week originally started when
there were much longer lead times for manufacturing product, where
editors and buyers would sit in the audience and watch
(05:44):
the runway shows, which with the new product that the
designers were showing six months ahead of time. There wasn't
the internet obviously, so the editors would write about it
in the magazines. Um it would give the buyers time
to place orders, and then it would give the designers
time to manufacture the merchandise that would ultimately end up
(06:07):
in the retail stores. But that entire equation has changed
these days. Some new forces like social media, influencers and
online shopping are changing the retail scene. The balance of
power has shifted toward the consumer ushered in the era
of see now by now. That means some designers started
(06:30):
making select looks from their runway shows available to consumers
to purchase almost immediately, so no more waiting months for
that item to show up in a store, and that's
totally changed New York Fashion Week. Here is Gabriella again.
I think with social media and the instant gratification we
see from seeing product immediately wanting to buy product immediately,
(06:55):
we are seeing that reflected in some of the shows
that we're seeing at New York Fashion Week, which is
the designers providing the product immediately and addressing that It's
also fitting to me that we're seeing this evolution with
New York Fashion Week in particular. I don't believe we're
seeing it anywhere else London, Paris, Milan, because America sort
(07:17):
of represents that new frontier. We're sort of on the
on the cutting edge. New York Fashion Week also is
a little bit more commercial, so it also makes sense
that you would be able to buy something that you're
actually seeing on the runway, even if you just think
about three or four years ago, not even going as
far back, because I've been going to shows, I think
(07:37):
that's changed quite a bit. Tricia Smith is the executive
vice president and general Merchandising manager for women's Apparel at Nordstrom,
and she's been going to Fashion Week for about six years.
The fact that the customer has access in real time
to what is seen in those shows, I think means
that that the brands themselves have had to kind of
(08:00):
pivot a little bit and change the way they present
them and so, you know, I think the good thing
about that is they're much more creative about, you know,
kind of how the venue represents the creative expression that
they want to be able to tell for the season.
Um and then the attendees have changed a lot, and
you think about you know, influencers attending shows and being
(08:20):
able to get in touch with you know, their followers
immediately following the show. Their presence has become much more important.
And I think in the end it's it's great for customers,
um and I think it it makes it more relevant
in real time versus I think looking at something that
you're making buying decisions on that are coming in in
the next six months. But honestly, I think it's I
(08:40):
think it's a good thing. I think it inspires people.
I think they get access to more inspiration. And if
you think about as a retailer, um, the more people
get excited about fashion in general, I think as a retailer,
it's a really positive thing for us as well. You know,
I think everything always should evolve, But the idea that
(09:00):
it gives you an opportunity, both as a customer and
a retailer to get access to the creative expression of brands,
I think, Um, I think that's that's always going to
be important in the fashion industry. And I think as you,
as more customers get access to the world of fashion,
I think it it becomes even more relevant maybe than
less relevant. So I think our view is, yes, it
(09:21):
should continue to evolve, but now I think it is
much more balanced in the way you think about um,
you know, retailer's representation versus a customer's participation. In fashion Week,
Tricia saw more than twenty shows in New York in September.
She said, being able to shop the looks right now
has started to change the clothing accessories that designers and
(09:43):
veil on the runway. We've seen more looks that people
can wear in the current season instead of pieces of
design inspiration for six months down the road. At the
same time, designers have tried to sell a vibe. There's
been more focus put on everything but the clothes, like
turning the fact and shows into big spectacles. Catwalks have
been seen at crazy venues, their jam packed with celebrities
(10:05):
watching things like live music or models on motorcycles. But
you don't have to take our word for it. Anna Winter,
who's the editor in chief of Vogue and a New
York Fashion Week veteran, described a Kanye West show to
seth Myers in We were waiting for the Kardashians to
arrive on mass and Jay Z. So eventually they did
(10:27):
turn up and the Life of Pablo concert started and
the migrant chic fashion shows started, and they were both wonderful.
But after forty five minutes, I did happen to notice
that jay Z had slid away, so I thought maybe
I could sneak out after him without anybody noticing. But
I the immediate customer scrutiny from social media and urged
(10:49):
to buy now has pushed designers to put on a
show no question. For example, Ralph Laurence was in the
namesake designer's house with his vintage car collection this year.
In another seth Your segment, he remembers meeting Lord the
Singer at a Kanye fashion show, where the two celebrities
felt out of place. They weren't famous enough. We made
it a cool place, but we were like not cool,
(11:12):
not distinctly did not fit in. We were at a
Kanye West fashion show. We were and it was like
a very um fancy back day. Drake was back there
for Nordstrom's Tricia. She's less concerned with who's there, but
her job has changed as the shows have shifted. There's
maybe something a little bit more um casual in nature
(11:35):
to the way shows are presented in New York and
maybe that has to do with the venue versus you know.
I think particularly shows in Paris you might see them
at the opera house, you know, whereas in New York
you might see them in the meat packing um. And
so I think, you know, in general, the way New
York brands are presented in New York fashion we could
probably reflects more American brands um and I would say
(11:59):
pair as fashion Week probably reflects more of a point
of view around European brands. How retailers think about fashion
Week is likely to continue to shift as technology improves
and designers get to use Kanye's words better, faster, stronger
at reacting to what consumers respond to. Artificial intelligence and
(12:20):
data analytics have done a lot to help companies figure
out what shoppers like, and those are often much more
reliable tools than an artist's hunch a great designer's vision
of what Americans should want to wear. But it's a
big departure from what fashion culture has been for more
than a century. Companies are using technology in all kinds
(12:40):
of ways, whether it's heat mapping their store to figure
out what products people are spending the most time in
front of to examining how you fill your cart online
and when you abandon it. Even for the most tech
savvy of design houses, computers can't totally replace a great
human eye. Here's excel brands is bobbed to low and
again there will always be a need for great human designers.
(13:07):
There will always be in need for human overs to
look at what the machines and the data is telling
us to create something that a human being can relate
to them as opposed to a machine. So perhaps thirty
years from now, AI will advance to the level that
(13:29):
they can think like a person, but at least with
a foreseeable future, these technologies are the only things to
to help augment the skill of human designers and nords.
From Tricia Smith, you know, I think we have a
lot of questions of what's going to happen with kind
of see now by now strategies. I think is as
(13:51):
a retailer, it's it's a little bit difficult, um you know,
because shows are more customer facing, brands are rying harder
to make that product available to customer sooner versus waiting
for a typical buying cycle. I would say, you know,
on our end, as a retailer. It makes it a
little bit more difficult because we're actually purchasing that product
(14:13):
then before they actually produced the show. Um, And so
you know, I think we were just as motivated shortening
that that that buying cycle and be able to get
customers access to product faster. But logistically it's a little
bit difficult. Um when you think about what's entailed in
showing that product at a show and then quickly being
able to make it accessible to a customer. People are
(14:43):
still definitely going to see New York Fashion Week shows
and they're engaging online. The hashtag n y f W
was used thirty one point six million times in on
Instagram the most recent year for which there's data. The
question is do they still look to be show is
for what's going to be hot. I don't think it's
all of a sudden social media is going to take
(15:05):
over and just run away with fashion. I mean, I
do think a lot of it. It's not the end
of New York Fashion Week. I think there's gonna there's
gonna be an evolution and they're going to adapt and
you know, figure out how to how to manage this
new world of information. Below that was Gabriella from A
(15:25):
Line Partners. Again, in her mind, social media isn't a
threat to New York Fashion Week, but actually an opportunity.
First of all, it creates awareness. Second of all, it's
you know, these designers need should take it as sort
of a feedback on what's going to sell and what's
not going to sell, and there has to be a
way to use this to really maximize your profits and Okay,
(15:49):
maybe I'm not going to put that in the stores,
and maybe we'll just avoid that mark down ahead of time.
So there has to be a way for them to
just sort of harness that information and to see like, okay,
where is this going on, what kind of responses are
we getting, what are we going to do? And of
course you always have to have those layering pieces or
those pop pieces that are gonna sort of present the
image you want for the group that you're going to deliver,
(16:12):
But ultimately it would be great to know ahead of
time and to avoid some of the headaches that are
marked downs. I mean, there's a huge blood of inventory
out there that is just dead. They call it dead inventory.
Once it hits the stores and it gets marked down,
and it kind of goes through that cycle, so um,
it would be interesting to see what what the possibilities are.
(16:37):
Even if social media has been a big benefit to
fashion Week, like Gabriella believes, the industry still has a
long way to go in taking advantage of it. The
fashion calendar has always been based on seasons, and it
takes a long time for a dress to go from
drawing to design, from runway to rack. But customers don't
think about seasons anymore. I mean, how many times have
(16:57):
you needed shorts in late August and stores already stalking
sweaters for fall. Shoppers want instant gratification and to satisfy that.
Designers at New York Fashion Week are going to have
to rethink what kind of looks they present and win.
This year, we saw designers playing up their location and
set music and celebrity guests, but they're playing it safe
(17:18):
with the actual fashion. As the industry continues to adapt
to modern retelling, they'll need to decide whether the shows
of the future will be more like an extended ad,
a made for TV or Instagram event like The Victoria's
Secret Fashion Show, or if they'll be increasingly about making
immediate sales or simply places for the likes of Derek
(17:39):
Zulander and hanceled settle scores. Hey, I got a wacky idea.
What say we settled this on the runway. That's it
for this episode of material World. Thanks for listening. For
(18:00):
more Material World, find us on Apple Podcasts, Bloomberg, and
wherever you listen to shows like this. You can also
check out other cool Bloomberg podcasts like game Plan, all
about the dues and don'ts of office culture. For more
on what I do in my regular day job covering
initial public offerings, follow me at alex Brinka on Twitter,
(18:20):
and for retail news, Lindsay is at l c RUP.
Material World is produced by Magnus Hendrickson and Liz Smith.
Francesca Levy is the head of Bloomberg Podcasts. Material World
will be back in two weeks.
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