Fashion Landslide

Recently I had to write a 7 pager for my Writing class. Not surprisingly I chose to do it about FASHION. So, I thought I'd share it with you all, because personally I think it's pretty good. So, here ya go. And cross your fingers I get an A because she's a tough grader! And yes, it is relatively long. It ended up being 8 pages. Rest assured I included a works cited for the class but I won't bother y'all with that. Give me some thoughts about my thesis? Thanks dolls. Happy reading! =)

Fashion is an essential part of everyone’s life, you can’t walk around naked, it’s a violation of the law. There are many different elements that go into the clothes you select off the racks at department stores and specialized boutiques. The selection process is an essential part of personal fashion. Ever wonder why when entering a beloved store in the mall all of the stores are featuring the same color pallets? How about the styles one will find on the racks? Where do these styles come from and who decides they’re the trend to follow?
Certainly, popular magazines and style television shows help dictate the trends one find. However, fashion goes deeper than that. Fashion starts on a runway in places around the world such as New York, Paris, London, Tokyo and Milan. Trends including color, shape and general styles sift from these runways to the racks in every local Wal Mart, Macy’s and sometimes even Good Wills. They even make their way to the more creative ones who make their own clothes. Fashion is like a landslide, it starts at the top and slides down until it’s hit everyone in it’s path.
The Los Angeles Times recently published an article about what to expect in the stores this spring all based on the New York, Milan and Paris fashion shows. This spring we can expect to see some 1970’s throwback pieces all thanks to the one and only, Mark Jacobs. Hemlines are lengthening and heels heights are shortening. The future’s bright as vivid bright colors work their way into our wardrobes as well. All of these trends will soon find their way to front and center as last seasons trends make their ways to the clearance racks. All because of small things that started on a runway, possibly half way around the world. One floaty ankle length fuchsia skirt, paired with flat sandals will shape fashion trends for spring 2010, but how and why?
Retailers attend the shows and fashion buyers, literally buy pieces of clothing that mimic the styles and colors witnessed on the runways months before. Designers don’t just influence buyers from stores. They also inspire other designers and collections, the landslide effect rears it’s head, again. Fashion starts at the top, in this case the designer runway show, then slides to other designers until the whole fashion market is using a certain color. Therefore, the buyers attending the shows will see the color repeatedly and consumers can rest assured that stores will be featuring it next season.
“Fashion Buyers are the personal shoppers for retail apparel companies. A fashion buyer maximizes the company‘s profits by making sure that the products on store shelves appeal to consumers” (Zimmerman). Fashion buyers are the middle men between designers and consumers. They fall just under the designers in the landslide effect on fashion. Buyers work with fashion forecasters to make crucial decisions about what to sell in stores (Zimmerman).
Fashion forecasters are another essential part towards the top of the fashion landslide. “Fashion forecasters provide reports about trends expected to materialize a year or two in the future within narrow market segments… Reports include information about fabrics, color, silhouettes, and styling” (Zimmerman). Forecasters work as a sort of psychic for the fashion industry. It’s their job to know what the consumer wants to buy before the consumer themselves know (Blair). The job of a forecaster is never done, they are constantly doing research, as they walk down the road, as they ride the subway to and from work and even when they’re at the office. Their eyes are always open to see what is selling and what isn’t so predictions can be made for the following season. (Blair).
Fashion forecasters and fashion buyers work hand in hand with the designers. Forecasters let the designer and buyers know what will be popular so the others can plan accordingly. In this way fashion is not only a landslide but also an intricate web. Fashion forecasts also help to determine what one will find on the shelves at favorite stores.
In 2006 Meryl Streep and Anne Hathaway starred in a movie about a girl with no sense of fashion working as an assistant at a fashion magazine. In one scene, Hathaway’s character truly offends Streep’s character due to her lack of knowledge about fashion. “You go to your closet and you select out, oh I don't know, that lumpy blue sweater, for instance, because you're trying to tell the world that you take yourself too seriously to care about what you put on your back. But what you don't know is that that sweater is not just blue, it's not turquoise, it's not lapis, it's actually cerulean. You're also blindly unaware of the fact that in 2002, Oscar de la Renta did a collection of cerulean gowns. And then I think it was Yves St. Laurent, wasn't it, who showed cerulean military jackets? And then cerulean quickly showed up in the collections of eight different designers. it filtered down through the department stores and then trickled on down into some tragic Casual Corner where you, no doubt, fished it out of some clearance bin. However, that blue represents millions of dollars and countless jobs and so it's sort of comical how you think that you've made a choice that exempts you from the fashion industry when, in fact, you're wearing the sweater that was selected for you by the people in this room. From a pile of stuff” (The Devil Wears Prada).
This particular scene in this movie holds a significant amount of truth about how the fashion industry works. The story of the cerulean blue sweater puts into perspective the way the fashion landslide goes. Starting at the top of the hill is Oscar de la Renta who designed the cerulean gowns. The trend began to slide and hit Yves St. Laurent and eventually 8 other designers. But the blue didn’t stop sliding there as it eventually slides all the way to the department store and eventually a clearance bin.
Though some trends sparkle on the runway and shine on the pages of magazine’s most of them will never make their way into the closet of the millions of readers and watchers who are salivating over the looks. According to fashionista.com, when you see trends you love in magazines there is a good chance you will never find it in the stores because more often then not the trend is never put into production. “…The first problem is the fashion cycle. All of these companies are on this wild ride to present editors, boutiques, dept stores, international accounts the best, hottest most fashion-forward pieces. In reality, what sells in showrooms and at trade shows is either a more basic color of an item, a cheaper version of an item, wardrobe basics, etc” (Sherman).
The fashion industry is a fickle, delicate creature, though the biggest trends are show stoppers they’re not exactly people pleasers. The trends look spectacular and elegant or edgy on the thin perfect body models that wear them out on the runways but they just don’t translate to the everyday woman’s body. It’s more likely that one will see a pair of skin tight chartreuse, leather jeans pair with an off the shoulder black blouse accompanied by an orange fur shrug and a necklace reminiscent of chain metal on a runway than on the average PTA meeting attending mom. This example is extreme, but holds truths, trends that look amazing on the runway don’t often translate well on the every day person.
Another large issue faced by the top dogs of the fashion industry is supply and demand. “Even if there is interest in an editorial piece by a boutique or department stores’ buyers, if the demand doesn’t reach the minimum they need to produce, it just never gets made.” If the demand for the product isn’t there then the supply will never be needed. This also helps facilitate the lack of one of a kind outfits. Fashion like every other industry is a numbers game, it all about the Benjamin’s in the end. “The buyers are pure number crunchers…” (Sherman).
According to Sherman, another part of the puzzle is the public relations part of the fashion industry. Their job is to present editors with one of a kind pieces that will make readers want to see more from the designer. Magazine’s are also often working months ahead of time and fashion being the fickle industry that it is there is no guarantee that by the time the magazine hits shelves the piece will still be a part of the collection (Sherman).
Pieces are often dropped on a whim at the very last minute for a multitude of different reasons. Designers can change their minds and choose to take the collection in a completely different direction (Wisegeek). What may have started as a nautical, sea-worthy collection, could easily be changed into something on the whole other side of the fashion spectrum thanks to a change of mind or new inspiration. As soon as the designs are finalized and make their way to the sample sales and runways editors see them but unfortunately a lot of pieces will be too expensive to be mass produced (Sherman). The problem here is, “often the sample was very expensive to produce and companies just don‘t have the dollars to produce mass amounts of them if there is no assurance it will sell” (Sherman).
Online blogs and websites also help to affect the fashion landslide process. Blogs can be written by anyone about anything and fashion is no exception. Popular newspapers and magazines often have websites featuring articles about everything including fashion. For example, The Huffington post has an entire website dedicated to New York City fashion including shopping tips, articles and blogs alike.
On The Huffington post’s webpage Linda Grasso wrote a blog featuring Paris’s fashion week and how it could be transferred into an everyday woman’s closet. Grasso chose small but important things that she saw prominently on the runways and as she walked around Paris. To reinforce the ideas Grasso included pictures of the trends she was promoting.
It’s safe to say that blogs like this exist by the thousands, if not all by reliable sources such as The Huffington Post. A simple Google search of ‘blogs about fashion’ will reveal the extensive amounts that exist and the different fashion centric topics authors of the blogs choose to write about. Blogs and web pages fall in the middle of the landslide. They’re not at the top of the chain because bloggers have to have something to blog about to begin with and their subjects are the top of the landslide.
Everything can be done on the internet these days and lots of people rely on internet stores for their fashion needs. This helps with the problem of seeing a fabulous magazine look and not being able to find it in stores no matter how hard you try. “The rise of online fashion retailing raises the question of whether this formula can be directly translated to the online world. This is a world of information, where runway shows are streamed live as they are shown, and anybody, anywhere, can have access to the entire online marketplace with just a few clicks” (Cordry).
Online stores present solutions and problems for the everyday fashion shopper. An easily identifiable benefit is being able to shop whenever and wherever. There’s no worry about hours of business because online stores never close and are ready at your convenience. The entirety of the stores offerings is right at your fingertips. What’s the disadvantage then? The inability to try things on in an online store for one and the hassle that comes with returning items that aren’t what they appear to be on the screen.
Online stores work the same way as traditional stores, though. Stores are merely puppets while designers and buyers the puppet masters behind the curtains pulling the strings. Stores aren’t the only ones whose strings are being pulled though, all consumers of the trends that are being promoted are having their strings pulled as well. Trends are sent down the runways only to make their way to the closets of consumers everywhere.
Huffington Post blogger, Elizabeth Cordry sums this process up nicely, “Twice a year, buyers, editors and everyone else worth their salt in the industry convene at the major fashion weeks to preview next season's collections. After the collections are shown, during market, buyers place their orders, acting as curators, boiling down the season to the pieces and stories that would speak to their customers. This selection is then ordered, produced and delivered to the shop floor in time for the customers to buy their new pieces for the season.”
Fashion and trends erupt like a volcano and fall like a landslide. One can run, one can hide but the effects of the landslide will eventually hit everything and everyone in it’s path. Fashion trends do not only affect the clothes on ones back, they also affect other trends such as home furnishings; paint colors, furniture styles and fabrics, and lighting. Being unfashionable is a choice, as Streep’s character points out in The Devil Wears Prada. However, even the most unfashionable outfits started out on a runway and were then picked up by a buyer and translated to an everyday look for the masses.