Fashion Week Meets the Weak Economy

New York Fashion Week is here again, only now the semiannual bacchanal of fantastic excess and hard-nosed haggling takes place amid a weakening economy and spreading insecurity. The fashion tribe has to be wondering: Will anyone buy our $10,000 dresses and $3,000 handbags?

The spring 2009 collection of designer BCBG Max Azria is modeled during Fashion Week in New York,...

The spring 2009 collection of designer BCBG Max Azria is modeled during Fashion Week in New York, Friday Sept. 5, 2008. Given the slumping economy, some are questioning whether anyone will actually shell out the cash to buy the expensive clothes debuted during Fashion Week.

(AP Photo/Richard Drew)
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For many of the designers and retailers who swarm Bryant Park during Fashion Week, the answer is chilling. Even Vogue, the bible of the spend-anything aesthetic, is bannering "Value-Conscious Chic, When to Spend, Where to Save" on the cover of its September issue.

"There are some people out there still buying clothes, but it's a smaller pool and there's more competition," says Araks Yeramyan, 34, who has been showing her ready-to-wear collection, Araks, at Fashion Week since 2006. "This is the first time where I'm really getting scared."

No wonder: Showing under the tents is hugely expensive.

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"It's a fortune — $28,000 just for the tent!" exclaims Mara Hoffman, 31, best known for creating memorable frocks for Sex and the City. "It totals maybe $70,000 for everything — it's nuts."

Plus, sponsorships have dried up, Yeramyan reports; now the fashion companies have to pay for alcohol, catering, makeup and hair styling for the runway shows. "I can't have the same markup, because if we used the same price that we pay for some fabrics from Europe, customers would freak out," she says.

But few designers, established or up-and-coming, can afford to sit out Fashion Week. "It's an investment in brand awareness," says Hoffman. "It gets press, it reaches potential customers, it really helps your sales."

Fashion needs all the sales help it can get these days. "Buyers are definitely skittish and price-conscious," says designer Rebecca Taylor, 38, a 10-year veteran of Fashion Week. "People are not buying as many things as they once were, and what they're buying is versatility — like a T-shirt that is beaded so they can wear it with jeans or black pants."

Aware of their customers' anxieties, buyers for department stores will be looking to buy deep rather than wide, says Nicole Phelps, executive editor of Style.com, the online home of Vogue.