CFDA/US finalists to sell in Paris showrooms

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New York goes to Paris to sell its young

September 7, 2011 6:41 pm by Vanessa Friedman



We all know fashion folks are unabashed about borrowing good ideas when they see them (how do you think trends happen?), but this doesn’t just apply to cut and colour: it works for money-spinning strategies too!
The Council of Fashion Designers of America is taking a page out of the British Fashion Council’s playbook and is bringing 10 of the past CFDA/US Vogue Fashion Fund finalists to Paris Fashion Week. The finalists will be able to use showrooms to help them “expand their international business and increase their presence outside of the United States,” according to Steven Kolb, CFDA chief executive.
The BFC has run a similar scheme for the past two years. The brainchild of Sarah Mower, journalist, BFC ambassador for emerging talent and contributing editor of American Vogue, it allows designers who show at London Fashion Week and often get squeezed out of international retailers’ schedules to be seen by big stores. It also gives them critical mass by uniting them in one place (instead of one retail team going to see one designers’ 10 garments, they could see 20 designers’ rails, a very efficient use of time).
In addition, says Ms Mower, it has taught the youngsters how to sell “time-after-time in front of their rails, and still be enthusiastic and polite and up for it – while learning how to take orders.”
Why does this matter? It is important because of the buying season. Since most young designers are dependent on wholesale orders, they need to get in front of stores, and Paris is at the end of the buying cycle. If a designer hasn’t got on a store’s order list by then, it will have to wait until the following season — but most baby designers can’t afford to send themselves and their collections to Europe. No wonder the American crew wants to be there.
Unlike the UK showrooms, however, which are organised by the BFC, the US showrooms have a corporate sponsor in the form of Tommy Hilfiger, meaning the new brands will have help with the cost of showroom space, travel, and so on. As to what’s in it for Tommy, I would guess it is a chance to reposition itself as a leader in US fashion under new owner PVH.
All of which sounds super-dandy, except for one thing. By making it easier for retailers to see young designers in Paris, it will mean they don’t visit them in NYC during the start of the season when their pocketbooks are fullest — or they visit them, but don’t place their orders because they want to see everything else first, and know they will get a second chance). This isn’t an issue for London designers, who usually don’t have the opportunity to be seen on home ground (many non-British buyers skip London as a matter of course, since they have to make choices about how much time they spend in Europe and, Burberry aside, most big brands are in Milan and Paris). But New York is a different story, and I wonder if by following London’s footsteps the CFDA will ultimately undermine part of its fashion week.
Even in the global fashion zoo, what is good for the goose may not be good for the gander.