Some resort 2011 shoes I didn't review: Erdem's beautiful printed dresses.
I have finished my Resort 2011 fashion show coverage. I think they are done, and even if they aren’t, I can’t do anymore. Covering fashion shows is exhausting, even if I am not attending them (it is even worse if you are attending.)
I started my resort coverage with Dior and Chanel, thinking there would be 6 or 10 resort shows in total. That was not the case, at all. It seems like nearly all the big brands (and many smaller ones) have done a resort show. There’s been so much press recently about how designers are complaining that there are too many collections to do, too much work to do, etc…, but now they still continue to add to their workload by doing another fashion show.
Reed Krakoff Resort 2011: a perfectly simple white dress.
Rumour has it that Anna Wintour is the reason why everyone is doing resort shows. The Wall Street Journal’s Christina Binkley tweeted: “Wondered why ‘resort’ is a big runway show season this year. Just heard Anna Wintour asked for them. Great for everyone but designers” and this was confirmed to me by another industry insider this week. I heard that Anna is trying to hype up New York City, and by forcing everyone to show resort there, it elevates the city’s fashion status.
Cathy Horyn likes the resort shows, claiming there’s a smaller audience, food and drink served, and more wearbale clothes “depending on your perspective, resort collections can have either things you’re bored seeing or gems you can’t seem to find anymore because everybody’s become such big shots that they can’t do straightforward things.” She also quotes Michael Kors, who puts some sense into the resort collections: “It’s the longest-selling period at full price.”
Richard Nicoll resort 2011: a perfectly balanced silhouette.
What’s the problem here? Firstly, if there weren’t SO many collections, and SO much stock on the shop floor, maybe clothing could be sold at full price for longer. Secondly, the problem is that Anna Wintour can convince designers to spend huge budgets on an additional fashion shows (usually across the Atlantic from their headquarters) just because she wants New York City to move up the fashion food chain. All these expenses are only going to add to the cost of the clothes. I’d like a designer to say, “I am only doing a look book. I am spending a minimal amount on marketing. I am not flying my entire team to NYC to put on a show in June. And my clothes are going to be 20% cheaper.” Just on principal, I would run out and buy this person’s collection.
The next problem is the continuous increase of responsibilities that a fashion company has. What happened to two seasons a year, two shows a year, and a lot of time to reflect, inspire, and design collections in between. This is gone, and now fashion is on a treadmill 52 weeks a year. I’d like someone to start a slow fashion movement, and only show twice a year. They can deliver the collections slowly, so it looks like there’s new stuff in store every few weeks, but really, its the same big collection, arriving bit by bit. There is too much going on, too many collections, and too much to see. It is just wrong.
3.1 Phillip Lim resort 2011: sexy retro looks.
What we need is less collections, and more imaginative ways to keep the customer interested. I agree you don’t want to walk into a store in September, October, November, December, and January, and see the same thing over and over again. But more strategic delivery dates, drops, or the delivery of one extra mini-collections a season (not a FULL resort collection, just a very small capsule collection) would make a lot more sense.
Anyway, I can complain about this until I am blue in the face, but it is only when the designers get together and decide they aren’t going to succumb to the pressure of Anna Wintour, and that two major fashion shows a year is enough, that we are going to see some changes. I am bored of all this fashion, and would like to go back to the days where each fashion week only had 30 or 40 shows, and designers could still sell their collections even if they didn’t have $100K to put on a fashion show twice a year. They were judged on their designs, and not their shows, celebrity support, and whether they had posed nude in an perfume advertising campaign.
Thakoon resort 2011: pleating genius.
Read all my resort 2011 show reviews here.
All images from Style.com.
