S/S 2010 Buyers Reports

So surprised at the number of Proenza Schouler mentions- I thought that collection was abysmal! That said, whilst the collection was awful, I suppose there were some okay pieces, and as far as buyers are concerned, pieces are all that matter.

Milan was by far the best overall city this year, glad to see the pros agree!
 
i am actually glad Proenza Schouler got so many mentions!
saw it in the showroom and it is unbelievable. one of my favourite for SS10.
the blow up fish print is phenomenal!
 
i am actually glad Proenza Schouler got so many mentions!
saw it in the showroom and it is unbelievable. one of my favourite for SS10.
the blow up fish print is phenomenal!
Those prints looked amazing in photos, so I can't imagine how gorgeous they were close up.

Were they actually printed on the fabric, or was the pattern woven into it?
 
i am actually glad Proenza Schouler got so many mentions!
saw it in the showroom and it is unbelievable. one of my favourite for SS10.
the blow up fish print is phenomenal!

Leyla, how did McQueen and Balenciaga look in showrooms? Price point wise?:flower:
 
to be honest i did not look in detail but i would say it is printed.
i did not see mc queen nor balenciaga as i do not buy them :smile:
i can only recommend Proenza Schouler for SS10 as every single piece from the tees to the dresses to the jacquard jackets looks fab!
 
From the designers I've seen, Peter Pilotto and Ohne Titel (both nominated for the Swiss textiles award this year) stood out as promising independants, both with distincitvely different point of views and aesthetics.

I really enjoyed Peter Pilotto's more structured, tailored shapes this season, they've done great things with corsetry and draping as well as inside-out tucks that made up for some interesting and most importantly, flattering shapes that work for a diversity of sizes. Hopefully they will find a way to advance in a direction slightly more 'grown up' than short party dresses, I'm really annoyed to see a lot of womenswear collections catering to (an idea of feminity suited to) a girl in their twentysomethings to early thirties that I do not see at all being able to spend big bucks on expensive dresses (even if all those Trainas, Lezarks and Hemingways were all over New York to Paris... likely dressed by the designers themselves).

Ohne Titel's collection luckily went into a more 'adult', non-fussy territory that's been missing since the departure of Helmut Lang, and I'm feeling Haider Ackermann is tapping into a similarily 'real', conceptual sense of design that does not lack sensuality. There's a somewhat sinister, fetishist undercurrent with Ohne Titel's collections, I really like their monochrome silhouettes and intricate knit textures, as well as this season's drapery. I don't like 'special ocassion' designer-dressing and then being just jeans-and-t-shirt-with-some-random-designer-accessory as a daywear solution, at Ohne Titel, they had the kind of lean but easy to wear knitted shift dresses and lightweight suiting that I think feels 'dressed-up' but not minimal in a Raf Simons for Jil Sander way.

Finally, despite the fact that the collection looked horribly resort/holidaywear like on the runway, I really liked Hussein Chalayan's collection in the showroom. He's had some great staples with a distinct Chalayan twist, I loved all those loose cotton batiste shirts with soft drapery as well as those highwaisted capris and shorts, the denim was definitely a lot more thought-out and refined this time as it had been in the seasons past. He also nicely continued with the bonded neoprene pieces that he started working with last fall, this time, however with some incredibly draped coats and jackets where the foam was fused with silk chiffon. I am joining the sentiments that people like Chalayan (and back then, also Viktor & Rolf) are at their best when they succeed in making clothes that are conceptually thought-out, but also accessible to wear. This I'm sure will sell like hot cakes to a diversity of women.
 
good read....but so many of these buyers seem to be just clones of one another.
 
Ok so again does anyone know where the London report is please.

I getting really sick and tired of London Fashion Week always being ignored.
 
Quite the opposite, they just remembered that most women have no need for expensive party clothes and evening gowns.

It's about what people are buying, and apparently party dresses aren't it.

You know, I'm a bit mystified about this. Barneys seems to buy almost exclusively evening wear from Lanvin, even thought they do daywear as well (sometimes hard to tell from the runway) ... which I find most irritating. There is certainly no call in my life for ballgowns, and if I'm going out in the evening, it's frequently after work, so I'm not wearing straight eveningwear for that usually ...

Apparently there is a customer for this ... but I would certainly like to see more daywear in stores.
 
Now that you mention it, you're right. A lot of the Lanvin merchandise in Barneys has been in the party dress vein. But I've noticed that with the fall collections there is also a good deal of separates at the NY store, lots of skirts, tops/blouses and outerwear for the most part. But I guess in the past Lanvin's dresses were what sold, and in a way that's what the label has become known for now. It's just recently that designers seem to be opening their eyes to the fact that party dresses and evening wear just aren't what women need right now.

Regarding this season I visited the trunk show last week and there was a decent amount of separates on view. I guess the showroom had more everyday options than the runway did.
 
^ That's good news! Hopefully true here too.

I would love to see the whole rationale and customer analysis behind the buying, but I suppose that is totally classified :lol:
 
^ Um yes. Why is that funny?

London has far better designers showing than half the crap in New York.

I don't get what the problem is. Is there an insiders joke I don't know about.
 
The fact is, buyers hardly leave large volume orders with London-based indie designers, it's different from New York where you have big, globally selling houses (Calvin Klein, Ralph Lauren, etc.) as well as an established younger crop of designers (Marc Jacobs, Narciso Rodriguez, Anna Sui, Proenza Schouler), next to young talent such as Jeremy Laing, Ohne Titel or Matthew Ames. There is also a significantly larger domestic market in the US than there is in the UK or anywhere else in continental Europe to back up on the significance of New York fashion week as a representation of a proper industry, rather than just a 'talent pool' as London is, from which the fashion houses can tap design consultants and future creative directors from.
 
From Imran Amed, Editor of The Business of Fashion

LONDON, United Kingdom — In February of 2004, writing about London Fashion Week in the Guardian newspaper, Charlie Porter declared: “It’s that old London fashion week conundrum all over again — wondering what’s the point, and failing to find an answer.” A month earlier, Porter said that London Fashion Week was in crisis mode.

Looking back, it’s easy to understand Porter’s lack of optimism. That February, London hosted 40 shows in a 5-day schedule. This was a decline from 50 shows in September of 2003. Style.com only reviewed 13 of the on-schedule shows in London, or about 33 percent. As a proxy for quality, this ratio did not bode well for London’s position amongst the major fashion capitals. Major editors were in short supply and international buyers were few and far between at the lacklustre event.

What a difference five years makes. It felt like three times as much activity was packed in to the same five day period during this London Fashion Week. With more than 75 on-schedule shows and presentations at Somerset House and other locations, more than 50 off-schedule designers showing at Fashion Scout and On|Off, plus a full day of menswear and even more events each evening, this was a jam-packed London Fashion Week to remember.

But more than sheer quantum of activity, the quality of collections also saw a marked improvement from that gloomy February five years ago. This season’s London collections were remarkably polished, confident and forward looking. London is increasingly the city to which all other fashion capitals look for fashion direction.

---
I would also add that the next decade will see a revolution in the way fashion product is promoted, sold and, most importantly, bought. Sure, in the old world, London, lacking an LVMH or a PPR, has been somewhat peripheral to the major international brands and buyers but in 10 years time how many of those businesses will still exist (at least in any recognisable form). London is increasingly where future business opportunity lies and brand investors would do well to cotton on. In the old world buyers and press necessarily followed the branding dollar/euro to it's fashion capital source so creating the status quo today but the digital, democratised fashion landscape will be a different terrain altogether. Some of the old guard, many perhaps, will fail to navigate the new world and will perish. The driver of change will be digital brand promotion. Having an established brand may, or may not, be a competitive advantage. For many 'old' brands positively not. Return on investment on web based campaigns will vary wildly with the gap between hit or miss widening exponentially as net networks map down and solidify. A brave new world indeed and one in which where you are physically will matter less and less but a world in which if you don't get it, you just don't get it.
 
Thanks tricotineacetat for your reply :flower:

It's disappointing but I understand how it goes.
 
The comment I would have loved the most as a designer was Julie Gilhart's that she dreamed about Rodarte :heart:
 

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