Fashion Seasons

I've been so busy with working, and so excited about the menswear, that I completely forgot that the couture collections for spring 2009 were occurring at approximately the same time. For those who aren't obsessed (me), as far as I can tell by being an outsider, there are a million schedules for fashion. Basically there are four different fashion show schedules: Ready-to-Wear, Couture, Pre-Fall, and Resort.

First, there are the ready-to-wear collections. These run spring/summer and fall/winter, like clockwork, every year. Generally, RTW is the stuff that trickles down to us as consumers and encompasses everything from stuff like High-Street (Topshop, H&M, nice chains, etc) and boutique brands which need buyers to pick them up to luxury RTW lines like Chanel, D&G that will be sold in both department stores and exclusive boutiques. Mens & Women's wear stagger, so that there are at least a couple of months between show seasons...

Second, there are couture collections. These are mostly for show, and there are only a handful of houses that do couture, which is supposed to signify hand-sewn, custom made luxury. In reality, it's both a designation by France to make a certain practice exclusive as well as an excuse for those brands that qualify to really stretch their imaginations as far as design is concerned. Only a small number of people in the world can actually afford couture clothing, but I beleive that the exercise in creativity almost makes up for this exclusivity. Some people may beleive that art has become more democratic, but I'm of the opinion that those who can pay, provide, and that it's just funneled in different ways now as opposed to, say, the 16th century. Couture also runs on a spring/fall schedule. I pay much less attention to it; although supposedly the lack of limitations on funding will spur increased creativity, I also beleive that it's more stodgy & boring than RTW.

Third, there are a handful of "other" seasons that have been invented to provide a continuous flow of new clothing to the luxury market. These include pre-fall, which shows in the December of the prior year, and Resort, which shows in May of the prior year. This gives people with a lot of money something to do when they're bored, and some way to spend their money. There are some nice transitional things about these in-between seasons, but generally they become rife with cliches. You can think of resort of always being comprised of kaftans and pre-fall with lightweight separates that are supposed to span seasons. It's funny to me, because although these "seasons" are somewhat new, it's really RTW that has become more seasonless so it almost seems more challenging to come up with something that bridges between S/S and F/W since the two have been switching expectations anyway........

So that's a primer on the fashion schedule - if I have some time, I'll look through the Spring Couture but we'll see ;-)