Overnight Open Thread. “Economy Ends: New York Fashion Week Hardest Hit.” (genghis)

Has it really come down to this? How much more can this generation bear? It’s one body blow after another.

Sorry to bring this to you, but Newsweek is reporting that New York’s “Fashion Week” may soon come to an end. Or maybe downsize or something.

”It's the Tuesday night before New York's Fashion Week and the scene is pretty much what you expect. Robbie Myers, the editor in chief of Elle, is circulating around a room full of skinny young women who are holding glasses of champagne with one hand, while using their other hand to shoo away waiters carrying hors d'oeuvres. Modern rock music is pulsing; lights are flashing to a static beat and the white couches scattered around the room are crowded with New York socialites (The real ones, not those that you see on MTV's "The City."). All this begs some questions: Aren't we in a recession? Who still has the wherewithal to throw bashes like this?”

“The Answer: JC Penney.”

”Of course, clothes won’t go away. But the creativity and aspiration that comes from America's most, well, expensive designers -- the sort that Michelle Obama mixes with J.Crew -- just might. “They made me come to this,” groaned the junior editor as he watched JC Penney present their five new young-designer collections by Charlotte Ronson, Kimora Lee Simmons, Nicole Miller, Allen Schwartz and Michele Bohbot. “We have to start keeping our eye on the lower markets," the editor says.”

”As the junior editor (later identified as a Mr. Tom Joad) piled his belongings into a plain yellow taxi, on his way to a Lower West Side retaurant so hip and exclusive it doesn’t have an actual name, just a symbol, he lamented the fact his company had cut the dedicated town car service that had in the past made his epic lunch journeys slightly less arduous. Now he was on his own…the future uncertain. As the cab pulled away from the curb, he leaned out the window and pleaded “You must document this! Our story needs to be told! These are the clothes of wrath!” He shouted many other things as the cab stopped 50 feet down the street at a stoplight, but the story was already there. I turned away and a solitary tear rolled down my face. I hope he makes it.”

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posted by xgenghisx at 01:56 AM

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