With just three short weeks to go until the start of New York Fashion Week, anticipation is growing for the big reveal. Winter 2011 was a fast-paced season of volatile trends, with plenty of surprises, and there is little doubt that 2012’s showing will be any different, much to the distress of the womens wholesale clothing manufacturers and ladieswear wholesalers that are forced to keep pace. The start of last season was all about the he high-octane glamour of the 60’s as it made its long-prophesized return to the catwalk in an explosion of exquisite fur detailing and sophistication, but the season’s styles quickly progressed into a more modern sartorial elegance as cutting-edge printing techniques gave jewel tones and metallics an overdue update for the 21st century.
As of the rest of the year, early indications for the fall and winter collections at New York Fashion Week 2012 point to a shift toward a darker, more somber palette and a return to classical shapes and tailoring processes. This new maturity will certainly comes as a contrast to the playful floral patterns and Paisley prints that will surely be a hit among ladieswear wholesalers and ladies wholesale clothing manufacturers this spring, following their popularity at fashion weeks throughout last year.
The original New York Fashion Week began during the Second World War, created as a diversion from the French fashion that was inaccessible to buyers, journalists and the industry throughout the war. Since then, it has become one of the biggest fashion weeks in the world alongside it’s siblings in London, Paris and Milan and now occupies 17,000 square feet of space at the monumental Lincoln Centre for the Performing Arts with sponsorship from transport and automobile giant Mercedes-Benz.
The decadence of the event has come under criticism since the recession and the revelation in 2009 that a single quality runway showing will cost upwards of $750,000 to produce and present and many designers responded with collections that were truly ready to wear and be worn long into the future. American designer Vera Wang championed dresses that could be worn as a turtleneck in cooler months, but unsurprisingly the pieces failed to capture the imaginations of the hedonistic fashion glitterati. With more and more designers now deciding to stop releasing collections seasonally, and modern technology now deeming attendance at the shows to be unnecessary, it’s certainly a possibility that the time of the fashion week is coming to a close – and this can only be considered a loss for the commercial creative industry.
