It’s impossible not to feel a slight shadow hanging over the conclusion of New York Fashion Week (NYFW). Carly Mark, the founder of the five-year-old label Puppets & Puppets, announced that she will no longer be attending NYFW and will be moving her activities to London. Monday’s show was her farewell gesture and the runway looks will never go into production. The theater, the irony and the playfulness of a Puppets & Pamp; Puppets shows were a real treat compared to the cynical, corporate-led posturing of many of the US industry’s most successful brands.
The glitz and polish, the prominent front rows at Tommy Hilfiger and Michael Kors shows attract a lot of press, but they are not representative of the future in a city as rowdy, thirsty and ambitious as NYC. The announcement of Donna Karan’s relaunch is hard to move on these streets, especially when Marc Jacobs has just celebrated its 40th anniversary and Altuzarra itself has been around for fifteen years. As the US enters an election cycle in which two octogenarians are vying for the highest office in the land, is it any wonder that fashion is reflecting this? Like a mammalian mother, New York Fashion Week abandons its offspring shortly after birth, selectively weeding out the weakest to ensure the strength of the strongest because it does not have the means to care for both.
Why is there no space for small independent creatives in New York?
In an article from the New York Times Commenting on Mark’s decision, titled “A rising fashion star who sees no future in New York,” Julie Gilbert, fashion consultant at Tomorrow Group, is quoted as saying: “The biggest mistake is that no one is really aggressively investing in young designers. “
Step forward, investors, because this city needs the youth, but the cost of running a young fashion business in this city is more than a joke. Most designers starting out often live where they work, have freelance jobs, consulting firms, family support, and use up whatever savings they have just to make their debut. The livelihood comes later. Designer Jackson Weiderhoeft of Weiderhoeft started with $25,000, made up of family donations and proceeds from sales of his Thom Browne retail uniforms on The Real Real. “A press and public relations PR consultant, but most of the money went into making 40 pieces of clothing,” he told The Cut magazine. “I had been saving fabric scraps over the years and friends would come to my house and help with the sewing. I said, ‘I can’t pay you, but you can sew rosettes and bows and I’ll take you to lunch.'”
The cost of pattern making, pattern making and sorting runs into the tens of thousands of dollars. Even if stores place an order and only buy small quantities but many models, designers have to pay a manufacturer’s surcharge for not meeting the minimum quantities. Manufacturing costs do not take into account the cost of raw materials or hiring a fit model to test the garment. Wiederhoeft broke down the cost of a jacket design: “The final price of the sample is $1,500 to $2,000, plus $300 for the model. Then $700 for the factory to make two models. That’s about $2,600, and that doesn’t even include the cost of making the samples.” A decade ago, it wasn’t unusual to get sponsorship for a $300,000 NYFW runway show, but this one Budgets are a thing of the past. Today, designers have to pay for the venue, seats, security, insurance and all permits, models, hair and makeup, and catering themselves. The value of getting a celebrity like Dua Lipa or Doja Cat to wear your clothes to ensure a viral moment that then attracts customers has proven to be an illusion at best.
NYFW is losing importance as a fashion center
Saint Sintra’s designs exude a youthful, sexy attitude that resonates with both the influencers who boast front row seats at their runway shows and Dua Lipa. However, founder Sintra Martins spoke about the double-edged sword of celebrity endorsement and how impossible it is for small brands to compete with established fashion houses. “They are able to ship thousands and thousands worth of goods because one of them can pay for everyone else,” she told The Cut. “It’s a volume game. At that time I didn’t have the necessary capital. I couldn’t afford to ship hundreds of thousands of dollars’ worth of clothes.” When a celebrity is photographed wearing a young brand’s designs, it’s a vanity project, a nice public vote of confidence. But it doesn’t keep the lights on. Saint Sintra’s most recent NYFW show was during the Fall 2023 season.
We wish Carly Mark and New York’s young talent the best of luck. For while London has always been known for cultivating and inspiring emerging design talent in large numbers, much of this coming from the city’s internationally renowned fashion schools, it has also been notoriously lax in nurturing that talent. Most young London designers move to Paris or Milan to pursue a respectable career, that is, to make money.
This translated and edited article previously appeared on FashionUnited.de