In Style No Matter What: Fashion Industry Issues

The funny thing about a recession is that some people appear to take no notice of it. While most retailers and manufacturers are trimming costs and laying off personnel, other concerns are apparently humming happily along as if financial woes were remote possibilities and not imminent disasters. Take the fashion industry, for instance, where extravagant runway shows and related marketing, PR, and celebrity-studded entertainment events have kept to schedule, showcasing designer apparel and accessories in New York, London, Milan, and Paris this fall.

Fashion houses insist that style sells, whether logo-emblazoned garments and bags or trend-setting shapes for skirts, pants, coats, and shoes. Styles and top designers' ideas are quickly critiqued as images of catwalking models are displayed via the Internet within moments of debut. The hype is always overdone, yet there is sometimes real enthusiasm for something novel or daring. Marc Jacobs' longer, more drapey dresses were matched with fanciful hats and other accessories, the ensembles looking fresh and bright. Vera Wang's spring 2009 collection featured layered dressing with assorted fabric mash-ups. Carolina Herrera's ruffled eveningwear and Michael Kors' focus on primary colors were also standouts. The Chanel show for the Paris fashion week also highlighted ruffles and sheer fabrics, while Versace stayed with shorter-length skirts and more subdued hues for its Milan fashion presentation.

Among some real-world issues affecting the industry are green initiatives, too-thin models, and counterfeiting.The greening of the rag trade revolves around ideas like sustainability, renewable resources, and other environmentally friendly practices. Using organic cotton fabrics in production lines is popular with apparel designers ranging from Stella McCartney to Calvin Klein. Jeans makers may never have felt so politically and ecologically correct.

Supermodel Kate Moss recently lamented the ideal slenderness demanded by the world of high fashion. However, anorexic waifs have been the norm for models for decades now. Attempts to address the situation, such as moves to mandate health certification for young models, have gained little traction. Some industry observers assert that the size-zero female runway model can only be produced by severe dieting and taking drugs.

Dress knock-offs and fake handbags plague most of the well-known luxury brands. Fighting back requires deep pockets and constant vigilance. Trace fibers for couture fabrics and holographic features for unique accessories are recent high-tech approaches to the problem. Sometimes, merely policing the outsourced manufacturers is all that is necessary to guard against overproduction and the potential for loss of brand cachet.

Perhaps the best thing to happen to the fashion industry in the U.S. is the recent Presidential election. Newcomers Barack and Michelle Obama, youthful and good-looking in addition to being newly powerful and prominent, are poised to support American garment fabricators and show off wonderful clothes at formal functions and everyday appearances. Michelle already favors American designers Narciso Rodriguez and Maria Pinto, while Barack likes suits from Chicago's Hartmarx.

So what if there's a recession: let's all strive to look good and dress sharp anyway!

Samantha Sault, "Where the Elite Meet", The Weekly Standard

Venessa Lau, "Ever Green", WWD Online

David Lipke, "Is Green Fashion an Oxymoron?" DNR Online

Hadley Freeman, "Fashion industry made me too thin, says Kate Moss", The Guardian

Cathrin Schaer, "Identifying fakes by hand", International Herald Tribune

Jill Radsken, "First O-bummer: Despite slipup, designers eager for bold choices," The Boston Herald

Sandra M. Jones and Wendy Donahue, "The next doll of the fashion world?" Chicago Tribune