The Make or Break Season

This week I decided to read an article on www.nytimes.com about how the bad economy is affecting designers and smaller stores.

It was no big surprise to me to read that the fashion industry is struggling slightly. It seems that everything around us is crumbling down and it shouldn't be shocking that the fashion industry is too.

Fashion week has just started and designers are excited about getting the exposure, but are worried about the effect the economy will take on them once fashion week is over. Stores will not be ordering nearly the amount of clothes that they have in previous years because they don't have the money to do so. Less orders from stores means less money for designers. A lot of small companies and stores are also closing which means that designers will not have as many places buying their clothes.

Up and coming designers are some of the hardest hit. At this time, it is hard for them to get people to buy their clothes because they are expensive. People would rather buy from familiar designers because they feel more comfortable doing so. Buyers are also hesitant to buy from newer designers for this reason.

One major concern of stores is how expensive designer clothes still are and how well these will sell in this rough time. People are looking to skimp wherever they can and that includes how much they are willing to spend on clothing.

In order to save money, some designers are bringing back things from the past. Brian Reyes recently made clothes out of fabric that he had left over from another season. Most designers are trying to save money wherever they can. They can't afford to make clothes that people can't afford to buy.

I think that the most surprising thing in this article was the little part that said some designers that I have heard of have lost their financial backing. I would think that already established designers would have a pretty stable base but I guess in this economy, nothing is stable.