When you think of Spring fashions, think futuristic. The Jetsons meets Blade Runner meets Star Wars. It was the robots who ruled the runways during fashion week around the globe. From Balenciaga and Hussein Chalayan in Paris, Gareth Pugh and Giles Deacon in London, to New York’s very own Narciso Rodriguez, the future is now. Let us no longer speak of fashion designers. Henceforth, we should refer to them as Wizards.

The technological revolution that has completely transformed our society is now making its mark on the fashion scene. We are starting to see exciting new styles that not only make use of technology, but fully embrace it. Spring collections are boldly incorporating new fabrics, new shapes, and new materials. Marshall Cohen, chief analyst for NPD group, said it best when he let Forbes magazine know that “wearable technology will soon be part of our everyday wardrobe.”

The award for the most magical and influential fashion show undoubtedly goes to Hussein Chalayan. He enlisted the help of 2D3D, known for their hi-tech displays and installations for diverse clients (from Jaguar to MTV to the McLellan Gallery). The special effects masters and Chalayan put on a show that left the audience as bewildered as they were fascinated. 2006 will go down as the year that the first remote-controlled dress appeared.

The best part of his show was one gown and one oversize white hat… but his pieces go far beyond their names. As if touched by a magic wand, the “gown” expanded and then immediately contracted. It turned into multiple mirrors, then completely altered its original silhouette to become a flapper dress. Simultaneously, the hat (suspiciously reminiscent of a flying saucer) took on the form of a visor.

How was this done, you ask? Chalayan was not present on stage to rearrange the outfit. Instead, he incorporated microchips into the dazzling gown and hat to accomplish the shape-shifting. Tag-teaming with 2D3D allowed him to satisfy his curiosity and passion:

Granted, Chalayan was not flying solo. Balenciaga, Lanvin, Giles Deacon, and Gareth Pugh (to name a few) had a similar ambience to their work. They also used at least a touch of technology in their collections, displaying patent, multi-layered, metallic, and armor-inspired collections. The clothing made innovative use of modern materials including nylon, latex, gore-tex, and spandex … even a newly concocted organza made of aluminum.

Fashion is spreading into all areas of our culture, and taking full advantage of the technological revolution. It is literally jumping out of magazine pages (and off the models’ bodies). As Giles Deacon told Pop, “in each collection there’s always some new technical thing to solve…to turn this thought/drawing/idea into a 3D piece that you can wear.”

Technology continues to give designers have a new toy to play with, and it’s only just begun. I wouldn’t be surprised if 3D glasses become a must at all fashion shows!

-Sarah Perpich

“In the same way people want to know where their chicken is from, they want to know where their clothes come from.”

- Averyl Oates, Harvey Nichols

PETA would be pleased. Finally, fashion has ventured out into nature. The catwalks all lead to the hiking trails now that organic cotton has taken the fashion scene by storm. Caring, conscious consumers are now not only buying organic food, but also organic clothing. Greenpeace-inspired garb is slowly but inexorably infiltrating the consumer’s social and moral conscience.

Organic food and beverages clocked in at a whopping $14.6 billion in 2005 alone. Fashion followed food’s lead, naturally, with organic cotton clothing: it carries no pesticide residues, and uses no heavy metals or chlorine in its dyes. And according to the Oakland-based nonprofit Organic Exchange, demand for organic cotton is running wild:

“Global sales of organic cotton increased 35% annually to $583 million from $245 million and are projected to reach 2.6 billion by the end of 2008. More than 1,200 retailers and manufacturers offer organic products to consumers, up from only a few hundred in 2001.”

Organic cotton isn’t the only material fashion designers are borrowing from nature. Other popular materials include hemp, bamboo, and a wide variety of exotic plants. Fashion designers are also incorporating recycled material into their collections by reusing old clothes, or even bottles from the local recycling bin.

According to the nonprofit group Sustainable Technology Education Project these trends fall under the category of Eco-Fashion, which is clothing that “takes into account the environment, the health of consumers and the working conditions of the people in the fashion industry.”

Of course, organic clothing is not a completely new idea… the very first clothes were organic. In recent times, though, LL Bean and Patagonia were among the first to use organic cotton in the early 1990’s. But Mark Zaroff, founder of organic fashion line Under the Canopy, argues that the organic clothing of the past was often made out of fabrics that were “crunchy-scratchy, and the styling was all wrong for the mass market.”

This time around, fashion designs and fashionistas have paired up to create and consume highly stylized organic clothing and accessories. Today, organic clothing is not only more comfortable, but also lasts longer. This increases its appeal to the major department and fashion retail stores. Events at London’s Fashion Week and Paris’ Pret-a-Porter also helped generate interest in organic clothing and social responsibility in fashion.

Less expensive stores including Walmart, American Apparel and H & M are on the same page as high-end retail stores such as Barneys New York, Holt Renfrew or Nordstroms on the matter. Shops are taking a cue from Whole Foods and tapping into consumers who are both environment-friendly and sophisticated. As Harvey Nichols’ buying director Averyl Oats said, “We’re of the opinion that you can be fashionable and care about the world.”

The organic clothing industry also has a presence in the celebrity world, which is fueling consumers’ product knowledge and demand. We all know Stella McCartney, who is infamous for never using fur in any of her collections. Two years ago, U2’s Bono and his wife Ali Hewson followed in her footsteps and started Edun. This all-organic clothing line supports moral and social values for the local workforce and their communities.

Bono also expanded the horizons of ethical clothing this year with his launch of Project Red, through which fashion retailers donate profits to a fund combating AIDS, malaria, and TB in Africa. And Project Red is just one of the new collaborations between designers and charities. Even Gap, one Project’s Red’s partners, just released a 60’s-inspired dress collection by famous Parisian designer Roland Mouret. After all, what is more appealing to a customer than to look chic and philanthropic at the same time?

Glamour has gone green, and not with envy this time. Finally, as much green as a fashionista puts into her clothes, she puts into her environment… one (green) hand washes the other.

- Sarah Perpich

Credits:

Top Photograph – NatureVsFuture ?
Plumb Obi Belt Dress – NatureVsFuture @ mightyflirt.com ?
Vegan Ballet Flats – Moo Shoes ?
Long Alpaca Scarf – The Green Loop ?
Under the Canopy ?

To invest in handbags with the underlying thought of having to carry the same bag for years was uninspiring. Wouldn’t it be great to fill my closet with a huge variety of handbags that I could carry at any time? Change color or style on a whim?

- Kara Richter, Founder of “From Bags to Riches”

Fashion is change. What’s “in” on Monday is “out” by Monday afternoon. Fashionistas are running a fashion trend marathon that has no finish line in sight. But this never-ending cycle of designers, collections, and trends results in quite the hefty price tag.

No longer. Now the trend addict can get her fashion fix by “borrowing” the hot new item. Why not carry the “it” bag while it’s “in” and return it when it becomes passé? Why not “borrow” a designer purse (or two) that would ordinarily break your budget’s back? And why shouldn’t we all be able to live like a celebrity and tote their bag for a few weeks?

Renting fashion is the monomania in contemporary consumer culture. Businesses that provide such a service are multiplying like rabbits. Two of the most popular sites are “Bag, Borrow, or Steal” and “From Bags to Riches.”

On “Bag, Borrow, or Steal,” renting a designer handbag or jewelry piece is as easy as renting a movie. The fashionable clients are charged a monthly fee, which depends on their membership level.

For $20 a month, a fashionista can join the “Trendsetting” club, featuring midrange designer labels such as Dooney and Burke or Piagonada. But the site also caters to the veteran fashion junkie: the “Couture” club grants access to the “runway worthy” (code for most expensive) handbags for $275 a month. This level of membership includes top designer bags like Gucci and Fendi.

“But,” you ask, “what if I can’t decide on just one bag?” Not to worry: a member can borrow up to three bags at a time, wearing each bag to complement her perfectly pre-meditated and thoroughly stylish ensemble. When she grows tired of the bag and what’s “it” becomes “out,” all she has to do is slap the prepaid UPS label on a box and return it. She even has the option to buy the bag if she falls in love with it!

“From Bags to Riches” works on the same principles as “Bag Borrow and Steal” but on a per-item basis. Instead of a tiered membership fee, they simply rent the handbag itself. You still receive a monthly bill, but the fee is based on the bag’s collection. Fees range from $19.90 for the “Madison Avenue” collection up to $72.50 for a “Monaco Runway” bag.

The borrowing trend has several benefits. Not only is it transforming this juggernaut that is fashion, but renting goods saves money and gives access to previously unaffordable designers. Designer products are no longer for the upper crust alone this is democracy at its best.

These companies have also satisfied the modern consumer’s ever-changing fashion needs. Milton Pedraza, Director of the Luxury Institute, comments in The New York Times that “with luxury goods, many people today are more interested in collecting experience then they are in actually owning the asset.” Dan Nissanof, writer and President of Portero agrees:

“We’re evolving from permanent owners to temporary owners. People are beginning to go out and buy, not thinking they are going to have it for the rest of its useful life The whole mindset is changing. Customers are no longer buying things to hold on to. The brands need to embrace this and retailers need to embrace this.”

The borrowing or renting of luxury has expanded globally and evolved into a successful (and incredibly clever) business. This latest bit of marketing genius has satiated the trend hound’s ravenous appetite. But remember: as fickle as fashion is, so it is with the true Fashionista. She must be in order to keep her place at the vanguard of the marathon of fashion.

-Sarah Perpich

Bag, Borrow or Steal ?
From Bags to Riches ?

“We’ve entered into a whole new phase of fashion-affordable fashion. It has changed the dynamics tremendously. It’s changed the rule.”

- Marshall Cohen, NPD Group

Affordable fashion? Who has ever heard of such a thing? But designers are getting smarter, and more in tune with their customers and business trajectory now than ever before.

We are familiar with the idea of fashion designers branching out from the clothing market with a line of accessories, beauty products, or home items.  But the recent buzz concerns a different type of diffusion: a designer’s secondary line sold at a lower price point. The secondary line may be as much as 60% cheaper, allowing the designer to reach a more diverse clientele.  Michael Kors’ Michael, Ralph Lauren’s Ralph, Max Azaria’s BCBG, Donna Karan’s DKNY, the ever-popular Marc by Marc Jacobs, and Armani’s A/X have all been around for ten or twenty years. Now there is a second coming of diffusion, and designers all over the globe who have made a name for themselves in “high fashion” are branching out into “street” fashion.

Who are these designers, you ask?  Alexander McQueen has created McQ, Dolce & Gabbana have D&G, Muccia Prada has Miu Miu, Chloe has See by Chloe and John Galliano has Galliano, to name a few. More and more designers are taking a ride on the diffusion train, and at breakneck speed.

And it’s not just a new ride on an old train, either. Quality in diffusion lines has steadily increased, driving existing secondary lines to keep up with the competition. According to Miles Socha of W Magazine the diffusion line of the past was created by designers who “were scarcely in the room when such collections were conceived… in those days, cheap fabrics, rampant logos and a basica approach to fashion T-shirts, jeans and the like were commonplace.”

Designers are directly involved with their secondary lines now more than ever. Also in W Magazine, Alexander McQueen noted that “Today, these secondary line have to be more complex, more of a full collection to include knitwear, denim, jersey and tailoring… Now the market is so big and the competition so fierce that you need to work on more than just the basics.”

Two of the best examples of the designer diffusion explosion are two of the most popular mass-market stores, Target and H&M.  Target is collaborating with big-deal fashion designers such as Luella Bartley, Behnaz Sarafpour, and Sophie Albou with her ‘Paul and Joe’ line.  And let us not forget their collaboration with Isaac Mizrahi, estimated by Forbes magazine to have brought in $500 million over three years.

Swedish mega-brand Hennes and Mauritz (H&M) has over 1,200 stores in 24 countries. “Fashion and quality at the best price,” they say.  Recently they have teamed up with fashion designers Stella McCartney and Karl Lagerfeld, and on November 9th they will feature the designing duo Viktor and Rolf. The collaboration is a big asset to both parties: very beneficial to the store’s image and profits, and also unbelievably successful for the designer.

A diffusion line expands the designer’s consumer base while also spreading their name across the country.  It’s one of the simplest answers for instant publicity. The customer learns about a previously unknown designer whose clothing they can afford, and also makes a connection that creates brand loyalty.  As Designer Dominico Dolce of Dolce & Gabbana commented in TEN Magazine, “They buy the Dolce & Gabanna dream at D&G.” Clearly marketing at its best.

Designer Alexander McQueen comments on the importance of creating brand loyalty among the younger, more accessible line McQ. “Main lines eventually become more sophisticated and price themselves out of this audience. And in my case, I like to keep part of the brand in line with the ‘street.’”

Oscar de la Renta’s new line O will be launched into Federated Department Stores for Spring 2007, and he is quite aware of the importance of creating brand loyalty early on. He thinks in terms of the future clients who will be more likely to buy his prêt-a-porter line when they get older. In WWD, he expressed his vision that his diffusion line will be “for an aspirational customer who knows the brand and who in the future might be able to afford Oscar [the main collection].”

In the end, both the customer and the designer win. It’s truly a symbiotic fashion phenomenon.

-Sarah Perpich

Links:
Michael Kors: Michael (shoes & accessories) ?
Ralph Lauren: Ralph ?
Max Azria: BCBG ?
Donna Karan: DKNY ?
Marc Jacobs: Marc by Marc Jacobs ?
Giorgio Armani: Armani Exchange ?
Dolce & Gabbana: D&G ?
Prada: Miu Miu ?
Chloé: See by Chloé ?
Prada: Miu Miu ?

Picture this:

A tall and thin twenty-something sporting a white pea coat, a tailored pink pinstriped blouse, booty shorts, white fishnets, and platform mary janes. She is wearing multiple gold bangles and charm bracelets on each arm, as well as two white tote bags on the left. To her right are four grandmothers. Each one is wearing an Easter pink, green, purple and yellow trendy skirt suit, complete with perfectly primped fluorescent hair, funky shoes, and an arsenal of long necklaces.

This is an ad featured in the New York Times for Juicy Couture’s new stores opening this Fall on Fifth Avenue. This is the zeitgeist of the fashion industry today. Everyone is wearing the latest trends regardless of age. For the first time, a 60-year old woman is wearing the same hip-hugging seven jeans and juicy hoodie as a 7-year old girl. This year we can finally say that fashion is ageless.

As the editor of Dansk reported, “Good style – even in modified versions – no longer has an age and depends on the wearer and the wearer’s attitude.” We are no longer subject to the unwritten rule that fashion should mature with age. Age should not (and does not) follow fashion’s religion. We should all follow Yves Saint Laurent’s prophecy : “Fashions fade, but style is eternal.”

At the end of the day, it comes down to self-possession. As long as grandma can wear her tapered, black, skinny jeans and cropped blazer with her head held up high, most people would not give her a second look (unless of course they were checking her out). Alexandra Shulman, editor of British Vogue, is of the opinion that confidence is the only thing that matters when deciding if a piece is age-appropriate. I completely agree.

When mothers and daughters go shopping today, they now shop on the same floor. We as a society have discarded the age-defined uniform. People of all ages are copping the trendy new looks.

Although the vintage look is always in style, women find themselves repeating many looks from their younger days. The return of Diane Von Furstenberg’s wrap dresses or the infamous black skinny jean/wide belt combo has many women coming back to their fashion roots and wearing clothes from decades ago. The phrase “appropriate dress” has practically lost it’s meaning in this context. Current fashion trends are adopted with utter nonchalance (and a sense of humor).

We close with a comment from New York Times fashion writer Guy Trebay : “Appropriate means about as little these days as do the formerly clear, now worthless, sartorial distinctions between the professions, between underwear and outerwear, between the seasons or the times of day.” I would add that age is no exception.
-Sarah Perpich

* images shown in order are: Juicy Couture Couture, Audrey Hepburn and Carrie Donovan

* John Galliano look, photo from STYLE.com

Fall continues to emphasize its previous season’s legacy: that quintessential body part, the leg. Designers sent a new seductive and strong woman, a Woman Warrior staking her claim, marching down the runways. These women were layered head-to-toe, stomping across the runway in black, heavy, platform boots and booties.

Whatever else these women were wearing, all eyes were drawn to the leg. Whether bare under a short shirt or encased in leggings and tights, the leg stole the show. With Fall’s plethora of voluminous tops and coats, its pencil silhouette ruled the runway. It complimented all of the deconstructed and oversize shapes designed for the torso and polished the look.

This Fall’s dominant trends include sweater dressing, the tailored suit, the micro minis and short trapeze dresses, the new oversize silhouettes for coats and sweater jackets, and most importantly, layering. The leg is the common ties them all together- it makes an extreme statement, it’s the exclamation point to any fashionista’s outfit.

Leggings were a huge trend for Spring and Summer. Alongside the layered look, champion of current trends, it is the next step for this leg trend to keep on moving. The leg therefore becomes not only the focus for the dresser, but it also seduces the onlooking admirer. It is the latest erogenous zone.

The fashion designers direct the eye with higher hemlines, but also with the plethora of tights, leggings, fishnets, hoes, ankle socks, and leg warmers. In addition to the hosiery and leg wear, the massive black, platform bootys and the shocking metallic patent platform pumps and boots simply added another reason to watch out for the leg. Director of FIT, Valerie Steele, duly noted “like a high-heeled shoe, there is a sense of eroticism packed into a skirt.”

As fashions change, the designers re-invent their approach to areas of a woman’s body and find new ways to flatter, conceal, or reveal. James Laver, famous fashion historian and designer, spelled it out when he said, “The erogenous zone is always shifting and it is the business of fashion to pursue it, without ever catching up.”

According to Laver, fashion cultivates and maintains an interest in the body by concealing certain parts of the body and exposing others to create “erotic capital- the thrill of seeing certain parts of the body.” As early as the Renaissance, designers followed this principle by focusing on the bosom with corsetry and bustier. And only a few years later, designers switched their focus farther down to the hips and derrière to fit into the hourglass silhouette.

Skipping ahead to the more recent “Quant-Sixties,” the Swinging-Mary erogenous zone was the leg. In the Seventies, the belly was the hot spot. The leg came back in the Rockin’ Eighties, but the Nineties saw a return to the breast as the center of attention. In our decade up until this year, the the belly was back, many thanks to mid-drift shirts, low-rise hip huggers, and Britney Spears’ infamous navel.

But the zeitgeist of Fall 2006 is, without a doubt, the leg. As researcher Linda Dyett noted, “When strategically surrounded by clothing, body parts function like traffic lights, stopping and starting points that directs the eye to a further destination.” In this case, a woman’s completed look depends on the leg, be it bare or covered.

As designer Mary Quant remarked, “A woman is as young as her knees.” We’d better show off while we still can!
-Sarah Perpich