Fashion IS Relevant

[photo from nytimes]

“Even if, on some level, fashion is fantasy, the concentration of events that go into producing it and the resulting social spillover,” as Ms. Currid said, "can result in a huge cumulative economic advantage for a city."

This was taken from the New York Times article this Sunday entitled "Admit it. You love it. It matters." by Guy Trebay.  The quote above is from Elizabeth Curried, a professor at the University of Southern California and author of "The Warhol Economy: How Fashion, Art, and Music Drive New York City" (Princeton University Press). "One of the most startling findings of her research", Ms. Currid said, "was how powerful something as superficial, girly, bourgeois, unfeminist, conformist, elitist and frivolous as fashion can be in creating the intangible allure that attracts money, talent, beauty and enterprise to cities."

As we wait for tomorrow's big start, we want to remind you that, though fashion may seem frivolous and superficial, it is the very way we go about representing ourselves to the outside world.  It is a HUGE business and one that you shouldn't be ashamed to take seriously.  As Miuccia Prada said: "Even when people don't have anything, they have their bodies and their clothes."  Your fashion becomes part of your identity.  It is a tool that can be used to differentiate yourself and whether you like it or not, this Fashion Week WILL affect you in some way or another (the scene from the Devil Wears Prada is flashing through our heads when Meryl Streep informs young Anne Hathaway exactly where her blue polyester sweater came from).  We like the Economist, the New Yorker, and the Wall Street Journal.  We also like Vogue, Harper's Bazaar, and Vanity Fair, and we are not ashamed to admit to it. So, while celebritards and their escapades are usually NOT relevant to write about, we think that fashion is.

Tonight's party? Van Cleef & Arpels “Une Journée à Paris” at 7pm at the Hammerstein Ballroom.  Hosted by Alber Elbaz, Irina Lazareanu, Liz Goldwyn, Simon Hammerstein, Sarah Michelle Gellar.