Claws out in clash of the Fashion Weeks

Twice a year the global pack of fashion buyers, style gurus and journalists trek across the world to scout styles for spring-summer and autumn-winter, stopping for eight days in New York, five in London, seven in Milan and nine for the finale in Paris.

But the 29-day Fashion Week calendar for September 2012 has been jumbled up in an unseemly game of musical chairs, with Milan overlapping New York by a day, and running over the entire duration of London's own fashion week.

The mix-up originated during the summer, when New York announced it was shifting its shows back by a week to avoid the Labor Day holiday weekend, which it says was harming business.

London duly slid its dates back to accommodate New York, but the dance ground to a halt in Milan, where the National Chamber of Italian Fashion flatly refused to budge.

Shifting them by even a few days, it argued, would put too great a squeeze on the production schedule for Italian fashion houses, making it impossible to get their clothes into stores in time for the spring-summer season.

Only Paris, which wraps up the fashion marathon, is so far unaffected with its dates following on from Milan.
As things stand, the fashion pack will have to choose between the capitals, a headache for journalists and buyers, and an even bigger one for models.

But for fashion houses, who invest heavily to showcase their collections before the global fashion pack, the prospect of sending out models to a half-empty room spells disaster.

In stark business terms, Milan weighs considerably more than London. So if next September's shows go ahead according to the current calendar, observers believe the British capital stands to be the main loser, with buyers deserting its shows to head straight to Milan.

Source: AFP