Fashion Designer Isaiah Issac and New York Fashion Weak

In this episode we are happy to have fashion designer Isaiah Issac and we chat with Fashion Reverie Editor-in-chief Editor William Gooch to talk about his article “New York Fashion Week: How Did We Get Here?” But, let’s start with Fashion News.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:21):
Welcome to Fashion Reverie Talks. I am Tiena Ibrahimovic.

Speaker 2 (00:26):
And I'm Christopher Fraiser Fillian for the lovely miss Sicily Daniels.

Speaker 1 (00:30):
Fashion Reverie takes you from the front line, so fashion
to the front row.

Speaker 2 (00:36):
All Fashion Review Talks segments are based on published content
found on Fashion referee dot com.

Speaker 1 (00:41):
So remember, if you want more information on the segments,
go to Fashion reverie dot com. And if you like
this episode, don't forget to subscribe and hit the like
button of this episode on YouTube. So in this episode,
we are happy to have fashion designer is Sayah Isaac
and we chat with Fashion Reverie Editor in chief editor

(01:03):
William Gooch to talk about his article New York Fashion
Week decline. How did we get here? But let's start
with fashion News. All of our new segments are based
on the fashion news alerts found on Fashion reverie dot com.

Speaker 2 (01:20):
Okay, let's jump in a current events. Tianna start us
off with Poker, Posy and the Gap.

Speaker 1 (01:26):
Yeah, so we love Parker Possy in White Lotus now
in its third season, super popular show if you haven't
seen it, but you will also probably love her in
the new gaps Field Gap Spring twenty twenty five campaign.
She is known for her roles in Hollywood's indie movies,

(01:49):
and she's very quirky and charming, so she brings all
that forward in her new Gap spring campaign. So she
is wearing T shirt and a little khaki pant. So
she's just looking great in the latest spring campaign for

(02:11):
Gap that's photographed by Amy Thrust.

Speaker 2 (02:17):
You know, I feel like Parker Posty is kind of
having a renaissance with the new season of White Lotus
and everyone talking about her again.

Speaker 3 (02:25):
I think so too.

Speaker 1 (02:26):
I mean what I think it is, it's a White
Lotus brings everyone forward because it's such a unique and
cool show.

Speaker 2 (02:35):
Well, speaking of renaissance people, legendary fashion writer and critic
Robin Gavaughn now has a biography out about the legendary
fashion designer Virtual Ablo, who was a founder of Off
White and was also the first person of African descent
to be mentor director for The Weis wetan Abla was
an absolute living legend in his own right, and his

(02:58):
just slightly over forty years on this earth breaking ground
is a renaissance man in so many different endeavors, from
music to fashion and art all. You know, he just
truly had his hand in almost every creative endeavor and
with the way he built off White and caught the
attention of Louis Vuittan's parent company LVMH, where their flagship

(03:20):
brand Louis Vatan named him their menswear director for several
seasons until his entirely passing. This biography delves into his
life from start too. It's very sad in early and
going from his growing up chaw he started to come
into his art endeavors and finally those last few years
he spent in Louis Reton.

Speaker 1 (03:42):
Yeah, I mean, he left a really big mark on
the fashion industry and it will be interesting to read
about it about the biography, so I will be.

Speaker 3 (04:00):
Doing that.

Speaker 1 (04:03):
So let's talk a little bit about some layoffs at SAX.
So it has recently been announced that SAX Global will
be laying off five percent of the US corporate workforce.
They were recently acquired by Nieman Marcus and so SAX

(04:26):
Global was the entity that was created. So this layoff
will affect employees in the finance, legal and operations departments
and there will be additional changes to their teams as
they continued to integrate Sex Global, So according to Bloomberg

(04:54):
Intelligent analyst Mary Ross Gilbert, she believes that Sex Global
might lose more sales to Bloomingdale's and Northstrom uh this
year as it readjusts and repositions to the newly merged units.
So that's something I guess to be expected for them

(05:15):
this year.

Speaker 2 (05:18):
Sex is also losing a lot of emerging designers with
their new ninety day playment plan, but that's a separate
story for another episode of Fashion Referee.

Speaker 1 (05:26):
Talks or for another article.

Speaker 4 (05:31):
That too.

Speaker 1 (05:31):
Tianna, Yes, well that was fun. Those were the Fashion news.

Speaker 2 (05:40):
And joining us on this episode of Fashion Referee Talks
is men's were expert Isaiah.

Speaker 3 (05:46):
Isaac Isaiah, pleasure to have you join us today here.

Speaker 5 (05:50):
Thanks for having me.

Speaker 2 (05:52):
So you've had quite an illustrious career in men'swear. Could
you start by talking you know, that's about your fashion journey?

Speaker 6 (05:59):
Yes, certain, So I started in New York getting my
education at AI and y C, and I've always had
an interest in men's wear there, so I nagged all
of my educators to basically help me. As I'm sure
you all know, it starts with women's wear mostly so
I kind of did everything I can. Took some classes
with men's wear and did a couple of internships there,
and then after graduating and doing some fashion shows at

(06:22):
Fashion Week, which I was so thankful to do, I
got a small CT at j Crwe did a couple
of years at Macy's, did some freelance work in between,
did some styling. I then went off to do some
work for Ralph Lauren. After that, I went out on
a wimp and applied to a job in Spain.

Speaker 5 (06:41):
You know, didn't think anything would happen.

Speaker 6 (06:42):
You know, it's kind of hard for Americans to get overseas,
but I somehow got a job at Zara and it
was a contemporary price point at the time in New York.
So I've had the thought like, you know, okay, this
is like the next level, and getting over there you
get to see, you know, how they make everything, how
to do everything.

Speaker 5 (06:58):
So that was a really great experience.

Speaker 6 (07:01):
After that, I did the men'swear for Tommy Hill Figure
I hit up their swim division, and then after that
I am where I'm at now is I'm at wgcent
as the men's were editor and trend forecaster. So it's
been a quick decade or so more in men'swear.

Speaker 2 (07:21):
So you've worked at a lot of major brands, from
j crud Azar and Tommy Hill Figure.

Speaker 3 (07:26):
What did you learn from working at each of these brands.

Speaker 2 (07:28):
I'm sure every experience was its own unique egg one.

Speaker 6 (07:34):
I think one of the main takeaways was maybe soft power,
and you could kind of translate that into people managing,
right is, although they hire a lot of people's talent,
of course, you know, that's kind of the prerequisite, but
it's important to know how to use that talent and
to talk to people in many ways and to even
manage up if you will, right, So that people managing

(07:55):
skills something that I definitely learned from both of those positions.
I would say mostly maybe from Zar and from Tommy
hill Figure as our big box and Tommy Hilder excuse me,
Tommy Hill Figure is more of a vertical. You really
have to learn how to take all that information in
and work you know, cross functionally and all the dimensional teams.
So yeah, a lot of people managing was kind of
the thing that I learned the most.

Speaker 2 (08:18):
So you currently work at WGSN, a fashion trend forecasting company.
Could you talk a little bit about that company and
what they do.

Speaker 5 (08:26):
I mean, certainly WGSN.

Speaker 6 (08:28):
I would say we're the leading trend forecasting company in
the world right now.

Speaker 5 (08:32):
We're kind of the best kept secret.

Speaker 6 (08:34):
A lot of brands that are our clients, they don't
talk to each other to let them know that they're
basically some subscribing to our services. But we take I
would say the political, socio economics, cultural, e commerce, retail
pat walk. We take all that information, we use the
data sets that we received from that, and we also
use our expertise. A lot of the people that are

(08:56):
working there right now as editors have tons and tons
of experience in the design world, so we're taking all
that expertise together. We're building reports for our clients, and
we're basically digesting that information for them and making it
very understandable so they can bring that information and put
that into their ranges for the next years to come.

Speaker 2 (09:14):
So what exactly does your specific position entail. You're the
Menswarre editor, you said.

Speaker 6 (09:19):
Correct, Yes, So I basically do a lot of client
enterprise calls. I speak to a lot of our clients
one on one, breaking down with all the reports that
we make for them to read and to look at
the images that we do with the street style, if
it's catwalk, if it's retail, and I work with all
across functional teams in materials and denim and trims and details,

(09:40):
and basically I'm taking all this information and I'm making
sure that through a men's wear a lens, it's very
understandable and they're able to adapt it. Now that works
for big box, that also works for luxury, So we
have like a breadth of clients that we have to
basically take that same information, if you will, and put
it into different vehicles, so that people are able to
understand it for the different price pots and consumers that

(10:01):
they have.

Speaker 3 (10:03):
We're just some upcoming trends in men'swear.

Speaker 5 (10:06):
I'd say what I've been seeing the most is a
return to work, and i would say relaxed suiting.

Speaker 6 (10:12):
Right after the pandemic, a lot of people during the
pandemic were into what we call pajama dressing and underwear
as outerwear. So you're seeing a lot of sweatpants, a
lot of hoodies, a lot of luxury lounge sets.

Speaker 5 (10:25):
But now we're seeing a lot of consumers moving into.

Speaker 6 (10:27):
The realm of going back to the office right but
what does that look like for a client or for
consumer that came from being comfortable for two or three years.
That's relaxed suiting. So you have these larger soiloettes, you
have more comfortable blazers, you have slouchy travelers, things of
that nature that can be appropriate for the office but
also very comfortable for the consumer.

Speaker 2 (10:47):
So with all your years in men'swear, what's next for you?

Speaker 5 (10:52):
What's next for me? You know, I don't know.

Speaker 6 (10:53):
I think I'm going to try and to see what's happening.
I'm really enjoying my job at WGSN. I'm enjoying kind
of reading the climate right now and understanding what's happening
in terms of all the movements. I'm sure you know,
so many designers are moving companies and going here and
going there, which means theesetics are changing. So it's a
really exciting time right now. But I think I'm going
to continue to kind of keep my head down, understand

(11:15):
what's happening in the climate, maybe do a little bit
more designing on the side, you know, keep my creative
brain working. I think it's very important to always take
that into effect and not kind of forget your roof.
So both of those things. I think it's going to
be somewhere really ending up in the future.

Speaker 2 (11:32):
Well, thank you very much for your time today. Isaiah.

Speaker 5 (11:35):
Thank you so much for having me. It was a book,
It was a pleasure. You have a great day now
you take care.

Speaker 1 (11:44):
So we have our editor in chief, William Gooch and
Christopher Fraser with us to chat about New York Fashion Week,
so and the latest about it. So let's start with
those that have experienced New York Fashion Week in the

(12:05):
past few years. I think it has changed a lot
from the glory days of the past. So William, what
do you think that contributed to the change of New
York Fashion Week.

Speaker 4 (12:22):
Well, before we go there, I want to thank Christopher
Fraser for being so gracious to fill in for Sicily
Daniels in these couple of weeks moving forward, because she's
in rehearsal for a new Broadway show, so she wasn't
able to do the co host some some episodes. So Christopher,
thank you so much for filling in doing a great job.

Speaker 3 (12:44):
Thank you.

Speaker 4 (12:45):
Okay, on to the question in hand. Well, first of all,
New York Fashion Week was an incredible art instill is
to some extent an incredible opportunity for people, for fashion
brands to tell their story. And what's happened in the
last few years is that a lot of designers are

(13:07):
not choosing New York Fashion Week to tell their story
for those collections for that season. And that's happened for
several reasons, one of the reasons being that we don't
have a central venue anymore. So it's a lot of
running around that some of the spaces don't work since

(13:29):
we lost Lincoln Center, from Brian Park to Lincoln Center,
to Clarkston Street to Monahan Station to Spring Studios to
Peer fifty nine. You see, we've had a lot of
different spaces. All of that is gone and people are
just running around. So this season, in particular, we had
designers like Tommy Hill, figure Ralph Lauren, you know, main

(13:52):
stays of American fashion choosing not to present in New
York and presenting in Paris and Malona, London. And so,
you know, I decided to come up with this story
on the decline of New York Fashion Week? How do
we get here? Because Christopher so brilliantly, Christopher wrote a

(14:12):
story about what needs to change, So I decided, how
can we write about what needs to change if we
don't write about how did we get here? So based
on so much going out into the the stratosphere around
New York Fashion Week, I know a lot of you
guys got that survey. It's New York Fashion Week? Did

(14:34):
I know some of y'all got it? Christopher, you can
chime me in. I know you guys.

Speaker 3 (14:37):
Oh yes, I definitely got that survey.

Speaker 5 (14:39):
I feel that like I had nothing else to do.

Speaker 4 (14:45):
And the big article in a Business of fashion is
the fashion we did in New York and London. This
whole article came forth with me and Christopher. We decided
to do these two articles. So how did we get here? Well,
the venue is an issue. Fashion is cyclical. It has changed.

(15:05):
We have a different consumer market, so that has made
some shifts from the golden era of the last twenty
five years to where we are now. You know, consumers
don't dress up and go out as much as they
used to. COVID really really changed that. So instead of
you having to go to work five days a week
and either five different outfits to where now you may

(15:26):
go in two or three days a week. Oh, you
may work at home all the time. So fashion in
retail are there's an inter a serious intersectionality there between
both markets. So that funnels down to fashion week. Also,
we have the the you know, we have new technologies
that didn't exist when during the during a lot of

(15:48):
the golden age of fashion week. We have, you know,
online publications, we have social media, so of course that
was going to effect fashion week and how we see it.
And according to what Christine knows said, it was a
wonderful producer of shows. She worked for thirteen years for
ig which is one of the sponsors of fashion Week.

(16:10):
There are a lot of people who wanted to go
back to what it was, but guess what, everything in
life moves forward. We can't go back to that. So
what we have is what we have now, and Christopher
will talk a little bit later about how we can
make it better. So that's what's happened. That's how it
all happened. A shift in consumer spending, a shift in culture,

(16:34):
a shift in technology, and just a shifting lifestyle. All
those things and some of the things that I talk
a little bit more in detail about in the article.
It's how all this happened and in some estimation caused
the decline.

Speaker 1 (16:55):
So Christopher in your article is New York Fashion Week bust?
What is your what are your thoughts how the disappearance
of central venue has minimized the appeal of fashion Week.

Speaker 2 (17:10):
People don't want to do all that running around the city.
I could tell you with someone who still does fashion Week,
but I.

Speaker 3 (17:16):
Don't go to as many shows as I used to,
and a large.

Speaker 2 (17:19):
Contributing factory to that is the fact that the shows
are so ridiculously spread out.

Speaker 4 (17:25):
For christ but you still go to a lot.

Speaker 3 (17:29):
Okay, this season.

Speaker 4 (17:31):
I maybe like you used to know, but excuse me.

Speaker 3 (17:35):
When I was a younger man. My age will not
be disclosed at any point in history.

Speaker 2 (17:41):
Well, once upon a time, when I was a younger
man in New York fashion Week did have central venues.

Speaker 3 (17:45):
I would be at like I would be at shows from.

Speaker 2 (17:47):
Nine am to nine pm, no problem. But it was
a lot easier when there was only a main venue,
or maybe just two main venues that were not that
far distance from each other versus now where you know,
you could have a show down to the Financial District
and then your next show could be approaching the Upper east.

Speaker 3 (18:08):
Side almost or in Brooklyn or in Brooklyn.

Speaker 2 (18:11):
Yeah, I know, several designers showed in Brooklyn this past season,
some major designers too, not just like some small off
the wall designers either, like Christopher John Rogers showed in
Brooklyn this past season.

Speaker 5 (18:25):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (18:25):
I think most people, unless they're provided they're ride that
are bigger editors, don't make it outside of the city,
that's for sure, if.

Speaker 5 (18:35):
It would be provided.

Speaker 2 (18:37):
Just the time constraints alone, Like you know, these shows
don't start on time. Even if your show is supposed
to start at twelve, probably doesn't start till twelve to
twenty five, fifteen minutes later. Okay, you're done twelve forty.
What you've got like? The next show's not going to
start on time either, But what you got like maybe
like thirty minutes if you got to go from Upper

(18:57):
East to Brooklyn or something.

Speaker 1 (19:00):
Right, So, William, in your article in New York Fashion
Week decline, How did We get here? You speak about
how many fashion insiders feel that the arise of social
media influencers has sourced the fashion week experience. What is
your insight on that?

Speaker 4 (19:20):
I think that well, we talked. I talked to about
four insiders in my article, which is more of an
op ed article, it's not really a lot of hard
data because it's kind of hard to find our data
around this. But so we're talking about how people who
have worked in the industry from Brian Park until now
how they feel. And Scott Frinch, one of the people

(19:43):
we interviewed, said that what the influencers have done is
instead of fashion Week being about celebrating the collection and
telling the story of the collection, the some of the
some influencers have made the stories about themselves and the
show is a backdrop so that I can talk about me.

(20:07):
So that's not bringing attention to the designer. And people
like Ralph Lauren have city. He said it last season
he didn't want any influencers at his shows, whether they
were influencers with lots of followers or not a lot
of followers. So I remember going to a show and
this influencer stood up in front of the presentation and
created her own runway show while we were standing there,

(20:28):
like what is she doing with And she had a
camera crew, and then she went to the bathroom and
then she changed clothes, and then she kept going back
and forth and the models were standing behind her in
this beautiful scenario, like what is what did she do?
And nobody stopped her. It was just she created. She
turned it into her own experience about her, not about

(20:49):
the collection that she was invited to to create a
story around. So it depends on who you talk to.
Sometimes the influencers are great because we in Christopher, you
can you can in on this. We have some fashion
brands that are Instagram fashion brands, they get their consumers
through social media through Instagram, so social media and those

(21:11):
influencers are great for them. Other brands it's an addition too,
So it depends on who you talk to. It depends
on how the brand uses influencers. But we don't want
what has happened where they're far too many influencers making
Fashion Week about them, not telling the story of the brand. Christopher,

(21:35):
I mean, what do you think.

Speaker 2 (21:38):
I think influencers are still very important to younger fashion
brands like I produced last September where we had a
whole section for influencers and it was a younger brand
and we had some of the highest social.

Speaker 3 (21:50):
Media reach we ever had ever.

Speaker 2 (21:53):
And we're starting the brand started to see that, not immediately,
but recently started seeing that start to transfer to clothing sales. Actually,
you know, with the department stoes not buying the way
they used to or taking ninety days to pay the
brands they are carrying, which might be fine for like
a major brand like a McQueen or a Baman, but

(22:15):
if you're an emerging brand with not millions or billions
of dollars of capital behind you, waiting ninety days for
pay can be very tough. So social media is a
way for and even influencer marketing is a way for
younger brands to go direct to consumer versus, you know,
cutting out the middleman or having to wait for a

(22:35):
big story to pick you up.

Speaker 1 (22:38):
Those speaking of stories, William you in your article also
talk about the decrease in media outlets. Yeah, it has
had a negative impact. What are your thoughts.

Speaker 4 (22:51):
About absolutely absolutely. If you look at the amount of
newspapers and I have the data in the article, so
I want people to really go to read the article
to get a lot more information. We look at the
amount of newspapers and publications that have closed that have
shared it in the last fifteen years, it's unbelievable. So
the amount of media that you would have that a
fashion and or even a major designer has decreased, you know,

(23:14):
and then we have a decrease in the space. We
don't have spaces in New York City. Now they see
thirteen hundred people and there's five rows of media. We
don't have that anymore. So, just the fact that we
don't have the media outlets, the traditional media outlets that
we used to have, really makes it more difficult to
tell the story of the collection, and it also makes

(23:36):
it more difficult for the desire to get the story
out there. So all that has an impact on fashion Week.
And as we've shifted to new kinds of media, sometimes
that new media isn't as a dept at telling the
story well as the more traditional media. So it's a
real hodgepodge of things that are just not working well.

(24:00):
And I think we're kind of in this period of
figuring out what works and what doesn't work.

Speaker 1 (24:06):
Hopefully something will be figured out. So what do you
think needs to be.

Speaker 4 (24:10):
Done, Chris Ronld. I'm gonna let you take that we
need to bring.

Speaker 2 (24:16):
A central venue back. Let's start with that, because that
was the biggest complaint I heard from everyone from editors
to buyers to stylists, like the lack of central venue
with New York Fashion Week. Has caused it to lose
so much of its luster. A lot of people felt
like we went from the penthouse to the basement.

Speaker 1 (24:37):
Anything else besides Central Venue, we've been talking about a
lot of anything else.

Speaker 2 (24:45):
Yeah, fashion We back in the day Fashion Week had
a lot more sponsors, so that put a lot more
money into even people attending having certain perks and comforts,
whether it was food, food, or free coffee or gift bags.
That really added to the allure of New York Fashion Week.

(25:06):
So I think we need to bring back sponsorships, especially
and also back in the day when Mercedes Benz was
a headliner for New York Fashion Week, pretty much it
was a whole different situation. We had the tents at
Brian Park, which everyone of that era always talks about
how it was a golden era than even the tents
at Lincoln Center, which people still.

Speaker 3 (25:25):
Had a lot of appreciation for even though they didn't
think it was as fabulous as Brian Park.

Speaker 2 (25:30):
There was still a lot of glamor in New York
Fashion Week, from perks like free stuff to even VIP
rooms for editors and a list celebrities who were attending.

Speaker 1 (25:40):
Well, Thank you William, and thank you Christopher for sharing
happy to be here and you're both great articles.

Speaker 3 (25:48):
Thank you, Thank you.

Speaker 1 (25:55):
Well viewers. That's it for this episode of Fashion Reverie Talks.

Speaker 2 (26:00):
We would like to thank Isaiah, Isaac and Fashion Referee
Editer in chief William and Gooch for joining us for
this episode.

Speaker 1 (26:07):
For information on these and other stories, go to Fashion
referee dot com. Don't forget to hit the like and
subscribe button. Thanks for watching and we'll see you next time.