Circus tents. Fashion shows are being held in circus tents. That's the latest marketing idea from the New York designers. They would like to start exporting a lot more clothes to Europe, so they came together to stage their spring 1994 shows just like the Milan and Paris designers stage theirs - under the Big Top.
And are the Europeans impressed? Not noticeably. Fashion papers here are quoting them as saying New York is nice for sportswear, but for high fashion, the world will still look to France and Italy.American designers may not be generating the awe they'd hoped for overseas, but the U.S. fashion buyers, reporters and photographers are happy, at least, with the new arrangement: two tents in Bryant Park and a third decent-size space next door at the New York Public Library.
No one seems to miss traipsing all over town, from one designer's showroom to another, elbowing and name-dropping, trying for a good seat. At the 1994 spring shows, 41 designers are in the same spot, and all the seats are good seats.
Every spectator in the 1,100-seat Gertrude Pavilion tent was able to catch a glimpse of super model Naomi Campbell's new pierced-naval button during Nicole Miller's show.
Guests at Ralph Lauren's opening rubbed shoulders with nearly all his employees, as the designer seemed pressed to fill the larger space - after years of sardine-tight, 150-seat showroom capacity. (I sat next to a designer for table coverings.)
Calvin Klein made it a possible dream for anyone in the audience to join the runway crowd during his 190-model/non-model mob scene. The designer wanted to prove "everyone in America wears Calvin" so he hired next-door neighbor types to display his secondary CK line.
While designers acted out their fantasies, audiences were so appreciative of the new tent format that one designer predicted this season will be remembered for the site, not the clothes.
And what about the clothes? This year designers are waffling between artistic presentation, wearability and the outright outlandish.
Calvin Klein spoke to America at large with his casual sportswear renditions.
On the other hand, Richard Tyler, newly appointed head designer at Anne Klein, would have the namesake of classic chic tossing in her grave at the sight of his thigh-high skirt lengths under her label. (Longer versions will no doubt be available to department-store buyers.)
Jennifer George staged an informal showing her clean-line classics - in navy and neutral - accompanied by a string quartet and breakfast.
For little-black-dress designer Nicole Miller, the dress became more brief. Skirts barely covered the bottom. But legs were covered with thigh-high tights.
Adrienne Vittadine, known for her knits, heated up the ramp with boldly colored stripes of all widths in tees, tanks, wrap cardigans, shorts and pants of varied dimensions.
Ralph Lauren journeyed away from his fall line Russian emphasis - to Indochina, showing tunics, mandarin collars, frog closures and pajama pants. The multidirectioned designer also previewed a sleek, high-tech line of activewear called Polo Sport.
Because competitors Donna Karan and Calvin Klein have been so successful with secondary collections of casual clothes, Lauren decided to give it a try, too. Unlike Karan and Klein, however, he didn't hold a separate show, but opened his main show, on Wednesday, with his new Ralph line.
New York Times fashion writer Bernadine Morris loved the Ralph selections. "They were the hit of the show. They were decidedly informal, but stopped this side of sloppiness. They were young, but not out of bounds for the more mature woman," she decided.
Even 1,000 seats weren't enough to accommodate all those who wanted to see Todd Oldham's show. His were the hottest tickets in town. Before it began, Tuesday night, the line of ticket-holders stretched a block away from Bryant Park and the line of wannabe ticket holders stretched two blocks. Some journalists were complaining only Academy Award winners were admitted.
Cindy Crawford started Oldham's show wearing fire-patterned orange and black stretch jeans. What followed included spiderweb bras and short-shorts cut like underpanties and decorated with large, long-lashed eyes. "Mr. Oldham has a fondness for prints that look like no one else's," said the Times.
Anna Sui's clothes, too, are distinctive. Is distinctive the right word for silver-studded microkilts and diamond-encrusted dog collars? Orla Healy, writing for the New York Daily News seemed a bit mystified by Sui's collection, saying, that while Baby Doll frocks dominated, the look is not innocent but "suggestive of an upcoming season of sleaze."
She's not the first to notice the problem.
One month ago, when the French and Italian designers revealed their spring lines, fashion writers started commenting on the short skirts and sheer fabrics and ingenue looks. "It's not that the clothes on the runways aren't beautiful -or sexy or inventive or sensual or charming," wrote Linda Gillan Griffin for the Houston Chronicle. "But where exactly can a woman wear these clothes?"
"Do women really want to dress like Greek statues in the electronics age?" wondered Morris in the New York Times. "Do they want to dress for dinner in clothes so flimsy that dinner should be served in the bedroom?"
And Wall Street wonders, too.
Donna Karan is scheduled to go public with her stock in the fourth week of November. Meanwhile Stephanie Strom reports (for NY Times News Service) that questions Karan will field from potential investors will likely be less than flimsy. "Retailers report that sales of both her Donna Karan New York collection line and the more moderately priced DKNY bridge line, which is the real engine of the company, have sputtered since last Christmas, and analysts will probably want to know how the company plans to rev up revenues.
"The stock market's taste for apparel companies has soured over the last year as Liz Claiborne Inc.'s earnings dropped 33.9 percent in the first nine months of this year compared to the same period last year and the Leslie Fay Companies have been embroiled in an accounting scandal. Fall sales of women's clothing have been brisker, but no one is expecting them to break into a gallop any time soon."
Enter the tents.
The fashion show consolidation was the brain child of Stan Herman, president of the Council of Fashion Designers of America. New to the position in 1990, Herman immediately tackled the long-term logistic puzzle. With the help of CDFA executive director, Fern Mallis, widespread corporate financial backing and a consulting board of designers, the group formed a coalition called "Seven on 6th." The label indicates a geographic transfer, from Seventh to Sixth Avenue, of the fashion trend-setters.
Mallis is quoted as saying, "Fashion is the largest manufacturing industry in New York, and the largest employer." The New York Times reports a recent study for the mayor's office concludes fashion has an economic impact of $22 billion a year - counting fashion magazines, cosmetics, shopping bag producers, department stores, thread makers, real estate agents, and advertising.