[Insert Fashion Here] | #3, 2020 | The fight for NYFW

Hi again!

I'm coming to accept that the way I like to make this newsletter is out of sync with the KinderSurprise that is freelancing. It's not just a matter of scheduling it and marking off the time, which I do. It's a matter of how I schedule it, which is currently into the corners of my week when although I may have a chunk of time, I have almost no energy or focus left.

I also often feel like I'm doing a replay of the past 2 weeks' IG stories, but not this week, because my latest KinderSurprise pushed me to take a bit of a break from social so I could buckle down and focus on a brief I had plenty of ideas and enthusiasm for, but not nearly enough time. Happy to say I miraculously got it done, and it will be in print in a month or so (I think it's an April issue). But here I am, making my way back toward balance, looking back over not 1 but 2 fashion weeks, so you're getting not 1 but 2 newsletters this week! NYFW is below, and LFW will be on Friday.

I thought I'd try to tackle fashion month a little differently this time around, skipping individual reviews for a bigger picture take. That's what follows, after the usual round up of headlines & happenings, also rearranged. Let's hop right in!

Collections & competitions

In the kind of news I'm enjoying getting used to, another South African has been shortlisted for the 2020 LVMH Prize! 2 for 2! What?!! Congratulations to Twyg Sustainability Award winner Sindiso Khumalo, an incredible textile designer whose work is an exciting point of view on the future of African print and pattern. Other exciting brands in the running include conceptual dress up ringmasters AREA, and modern tailoring genius Peter Do. I need to reiterate that making the shortlist alone is incredible, and you don't need to win for it to have an impact on your business. Just ask 2014 nominees Maki Oh and Orange Culture.

GoodGoodGood's latest collection features a beautiful textile collaboration with Benjamin Nivison. It's biodegradable, Woolmark Approved, 100% Merino Wool in incredible hues of blue, magenta, and gold. Woven in the Indian Himalayas, the fabric combines sustainable practice with Nivison's scottish heritage and GoodGoodGood's staple silhouettes. Get your preorder in asap if you want one; there's only enough of this special project fabric for 8 units per style worldwide!

(SPOILER ALERT)
The Frida Kahlo collection by Next In Fashion's Minju Kim is now available on Net a Porter, and I cannot — CANNOT — stop looking at it. I've never seen dainty florals look so fresh (helped along by thorny vines), functional separates look so dreamy, or desirable high fashion embrace such inclusive silhouettes. It's half sold out already and I hope YNAP keeps the brand on after the competition collection is done.

Recent news & good reads on NYFW,
Phoebe Philo, and Condé Nast in the 90s

[The CUT] It's been reported that the sky opened and angels sang when WWD published the first credible report of the return of Phoebe Philo. We fell in love with her through the lens of Chloe & Céline's house codes, and I am THRILLED at the prospect of who she can be without them. While seeing new ideas in clothing still excites me, every new brand announcement now makes me think about more stuff being in the world and all the plastic and fabric waste that comes with that, so I'm glad to hear she's thinking through the sustainability of it and will be focusing on quality essentials. Still no verification from the woman herself (which is standard for her), and so we wait.

[NY Times] Former Details editor Dan Peres' new memoir has the New York publishing world shookety-shook, and no one's even really read it yet. What they've read is this NYT article announcing that he is looking for a buyer/publisher that breaks open the time capsule the book represents: Condé Nast in the 90s, told from the jump off point of Dan's downward spiral through an opioid addiction. Drugs, drama, bad judgement and fake news. What a time.

[NY Times] Aside from the other issues it currently faces, NYFW is apparently the worst of the big 4 when it comes to environmental impact, according to the first report to try and quantify fashion week's carbon footprint, compiled by Zero To Market and Ordre.com. Data from fashion months (and the 2-month global trade show season in-between) was collected across +2600 retailers and +5000 designer brands over a year to trace impact back to fashion week's related wholesale activities, from flying to shows, to delivering ordered collections.

[SCMP] I wasn't aware that up until now, Hong Kong was fashion's key gateway into mainland China. That's changing, according to a South China Morning Post article detailing how instability and a retail slow down in this key city state have pushed brands to find work arounds for accessing the market that lies just beyond it.

[Vogue Business] Big tech is getting intimate with fashion. We all knew that Amazon Prime was Rihanna's partner on the Savage x Fenty show, but I don't think it was immediately obvious that Google sponsored the return of "JLo and the Versace Dress," a partnership possibly related to how that moment basically invented Google Image Search. Vogue Business explores all the ways partnerships are being formed, data is being leveraged, and opportunities are being exploited.

[W Magazine] Imagine ready-to-wear fashion, made to order, made to measure (using a 3D body scan from a phone app), in a small studio in New York. Now imagine that the brand selling it to you is actually a modeling agency. That's the story of E1972, a new line by Elite, the global agency that represents names like Kendall Jenner and Adriana Lima. Agencies have been looking for new sources of revenue for a few years now as the business of representation changes, and while others like IMG have gone into entertainment and influencer marketing, Elite is the first to start a line that isn't merch. For a more technical overview of the venture, read this piece by Vogue Business.

The fight for New York Fashion Week

No fashion week has had to fight harder to defend its relevance in the past few years than New York. Its native designers regularly and visibly leave, and have to be lured back. The great exodus could provide the exposure younger brands are so starved for when big budget brands take up all the shine, but not if buyers and editors stop coming completely.

Designers' faith in the platform's effectiveness is low, especially among the brands that are no longer 'ones to watch' but not yet household names, whose designers feel that their work struggles to break through the noise when it's not attached to a celebrity collaboration, tv competition, or lauded industry prize. Relevance is hard to defend when even CFDA chair Tom Ford took his show to LA to take advantage of the crowd and buzz drawn in by the Oscars, an award season staple with conflicting timing this year that cost New York designers quite a bit on opening day.

Of what was left, there was still a brilliant showing from old faves like Marc Jacobs and exciting upstarts like Christopher John Rogers. The clothes themselves exuded hope and optimism, alongside healthy doses of the modern pragmatic perspective that looks so good layered over American sportswear design principles, honoured or deconstructed.

New York has always been good at the elevated everyday, the excitingly wearable, and there was plenty of that to see this season. Sies Marjan and Monse provided two very different but equally compelling cases for it. Leading themes included New Americans at Brandon Maxwell & Tory Burch, technicolour joy at Oscar De La Renta, CJR, and Wes Gordon's Herrera, and modern pragmatism at Tibi, Partow, Peter Do and thankfully Proenza - Americana through a rustic lens instead of a polished one did not work for them and I'm glad to see them back in their killer lane.

Where to read about NYFW in review:
Aunty Robin at WaPo
Miss Vanessa at NYT
Cousin Tyler at Fashionista

Dassit! What do you think of the positioning model? Thought it up a while ago but hadn't used it yet — still not sure it communicates well but this is still version 1. Feedback very welcome! See you in a couple of days after I catch up on London, do a quick short course, and finally see Parasite!

As always, forward [Insert Fashion Here] to a friend if you think would like it.