New York’s fashion week has taken on a decidedly more corporate and commercial face.
Instead of sponsors that have an involvement with the fashion industry, IMG’s 7th on Sixth fashion show production division has added sponsors like pharmaceutical company Ortho-McNeil and Winston cigarettes to the mix.
Gone are former sponsors Moet & Chandon champagne, Air France, Sephora and Pantone, a color standards company. With these sponsors went the lounge with free-flowing champagne, daily makeup touch-ups and a newsletter on seasonal fashion color trends used mostly by journalists from cities outside of New York.
The economy is the prime motivator behind the lack of participation.
A 7th on Sixth spokesman said the costs of sponsorship haven’t increased under IMG’s aegis. However, it’s believed that because 7th on Sixth is now being run as a potential money-maker as opposed to a not-for-profit, as it was previously operated, there is pressure to bring in paying sponsors rather than in-trade sponsors that provide services or products.
Air France’s participation in fashion week is decided from season to season, said a representative from the company. As travel was the industry that was most negatively impacted by the Sept. 11 attacks, the airline’s bottom line was affected, as was its ability to sponsor fashion week.
Both Moet & Chandon and Sephora are divisions of Bernard Arnault’s LVMH Moet Hennessy Louis Vuitton. The luxury giant warned three times about missing its earnings for 2001. The reasons for the sliding earnings are numerous – lagging touristry industry, economic downturn and even champagne hangover left from the millennium.
Sephora also has been rumored to be a drain on LVMH’s balance sheet. With the chain’s stores being shuttered in Japan and Germany, the financial health of this chain is in question.
With Moet’s departure goes the Moet & Chandon Designer Debut, a showcase for three or four young designers underwritten by the champagne company. The discontinuation of this group show was a blow to young designers looking for help to show in the tents. Whether it will return next season is uncertain. Calls to Moet & Chandon were not returned.
A number of companies, including former 7th on Sixth sponsor Pantone, have taken matters into their own hands to have a presence during fashion week, and gone directly to the designers themselves.
Acuvue 2 Colours brand contact lenses, PETA, Ecco Domani and Pantone all contributed money to help defray the costs of fashion show production for a number of new designers. DuPont even went so far as to not only help Matthew Williamson with the cost of his show, but is also renting showroom space for the designer to work and sell out of in the coming weeks.