Observations...New York , London, Milan...Spring 2012

After having been through New York, London and Milan, once again what seems to be most annoying is the quality of the reportage and reviews which we read from the so called reliable news outlets. Yesterday WWD reported which Italian collections were the so called favorites of retailers from around the world. This is all well and good as everybody has an opinion, except for WWD who seemingly likes or loves everything. The 4 collections which were in the most favor were Marni, Prada, Bottega Veneta and Jil Sander. What happened to the collections that they actually sell? I defy any retailer or reviewer to find me 6 stores worldwide whose businesses depend on any of these collections as a measure of their successes. What is even more bothersome is the lack of knowledge that reviewers have when writing their seasonal assessments of any fashion brand anywhere, let alone that buyers are bean counters these days. It is disturbing that reviewers have no storehouse of fashion knowledge, their experience spans the last 20 minutes and that buyers are no more than accountants these days. When attending a show, there is an extreme shortage of “stores” yet there is an overabundance of “reviewers” and “fans.” Call me old fashioned but I think that the media hype surrounding a kid like Tavi is just disgraceful and what’s worse is that that her written word is taken seriously. I mean really, the child isn’t even finished with puberty and she has gravitas in the fashion world! It appears that no knowledge is a requirement for reviewers and buyers as past designer references within collections cannot be seen or attributed correctly, “inspirations” outweigh the end product, and ugly seems to reign supreme. The system and/or the players need to go back to school and figure out what this business is really about. At present, we have a “bible” which strictly panders to the wealthiest designers(who are really stylists), manufacturers and retailers and tons of young talent who go undiscovered while the cadre of “it” designers continually turn out ugly clothes for an invisible customer and are far happier selling perfume and handbags and loaning samples to celebrities rather than bolstering the business that made them famous. Speak up!