Fashion question | Golden Skate

Fashion question

Joined
Jun 21, 2003
This question jumped into my mind while I was reading the thread over on the Edge about fashion divas Michelle, Sasha and Johnny. I know a lot of you-all are into fashion (like our favorite skaters are :) ), so maybe you can help me out here.

When I see on TV these runway shows by famous designers, and the models come out looking like space cadets or something -- I never see outlandish costumes like that on the rack at Marshalls (hey, gotta support figure skating sponsors) when I go shopping for my wife's birthday.

So I have three questions. 1. When the buyers from the big stores come to these shows, is there a separate show that they don't show on TV of the actual clothes that the designers are offering for sale?

2. If they do not intend to offer these clothes for sale, what is the purpose of the show, other than for the famous designers to applaud and congratulate themselves?

3. Do designers and fashion houses employ ordinary sized and shaped models to actually get the fit right? The customers, after all, are not going to be 6 feet tall, 90 pounds.

I once saw a cute Chanel dress advertised at Saks, so I went in to inquire about the price (true story). The lady said, oh I think it's in the threes. (Well, come on now, $300 for a dress? That's a little steep, I thought. Oh, what the heck -- nothing's too good for my sweetie!)

So the lady said, I will call and find out where the size ten is -- I think it's either in Paris or Rio. (I'm thinking, wait a minute, did she say THE size ten?)

Actually, it turned out it was in the "fours."
 

Dee4707

Ice Is Slippery - Alexie Yagudin
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Jul 28, 2003
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Mathman said:
Actually, it turned out it was in the "fours."
Ok Math, you aroused my curiosity...........did you buy it???

Anyhow, I think fashion houses employ their own models.

Fashion shows are based on a theme. I don't know if you watch Project Runway or not but they would do themes and you usually have one show stopper.

I'm with you Math, I think the cost of clothes can be a real rip off, especially if there isn't quality involved. If I purchase anything that I've gone above my limit, I normally do an inspection of the underneath side. That's where the quality shows.......and yes, you're paying for that label. I could make you one for $150. :laugh: :laugh:

Dee
 
Joined
Jun 21, 2003
Dee4707 said:
Ok Math, you aroused my curiosity...........did you buy it???
I think it came to $4875 -- which coincidentally is the exact amount that my retirement account lost this quarter, as I just found out in today's mail. :frown2:
 

Piel

On Edge
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Jul 27, 2003
Mrs. MM is a very lucky lady, we knew that. You buy her Chanel:love: :love: :love: . Dee where were we when Math was available?
'
Since it is Chanel someday it will be "vintage" and besides Chanel is classic so it will never go out of style, but the price will go up. So consider it an investment, LOL.


Fashion shows that you are talkng about are showing couture....one of a kind. Designers usually have their favorite models. Most of the top models do all of the big shows. What happens in the fashion industry is that trends are picked up from the shows that trickle down into mass marketing. For example a designer may show all brown and sure enough in a year Marshall's fall line will contain a lot of brown. The designer has a "look" they are going for to best show off the clothes ot the idea he/she is trying to project. Again, in a year or so every 12 y/o will be wearing orange eyeshadow and fake fur headbands or whatever.


Runway models are usually 5'10" and up, size 6 and about 120#. My niece is
5'8" and a size 0 but was too short for a lot of modeling.
 
Joined
Jun 21, 2003
All right, all right, I didn't buy it. OK? :)

My niece, too, is very tall and thin, and she was always self-conscious about it. (Plus, the school kept pestering her to go out for the basketball team, when the sport she was really interested in was swimming.)

But that self-consciousness all changed when she got old enough to discover clothes!. Then she found that, with her figure, clothes just naturally hung from her shoulders as from a hanger, draping her body in such a way that fit was never an issue. While everyone else had to watch out for horizontal stripes, etc., etc., etc., she could grab any old thing off the rack and look great.

MM :)
 

Piel

On Edge
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Jul 27, 2003
That's OK MM we still think you're a great guy.:yes:
 

heyang

Record Breaker
Joined
Jul 26, 2003
I should know more since I work for the company that owns Calvin Klein for the past few years.

Yes - those one of a kind outfits are typically just for drama. There are other pieces in the collection that are sold only in our NYC Flagship store - currently, it's the only CK Collections store in the US. During the most recent fashion week, we were having issues with our licensees and people were frantically sewing in our CK HQ to get the garments ready in time for the show.

I work in IT in NJ - so, I only get over to the CK offices a couple of times a year. The offices are monochromatic - black and white. Even paper clips had to be black. Fortunately, we're allowed color in our offices.

LOL - I get an employee discount (30% and for 2 weeks of the year 45%) and it still doesn't make it worthwhile for me to buy a garment from out Collections store - I can only afford to buy in our outlet stores. One of the long time CK employees clued me in about buying some items direct from the vendor; so, I was able to purchase some CK bedding at 70% off for someone's wedding gift.
 

Longhornliz

Final Flight
Joined
Apr 1, 2004
I believe that there are seperate "fashion weeks" for pret e porte (ready to wear, or more mainstream lines that actually make it into stores) and couture lines which are the often outlandish one of a kind peices you probably associate with runway shows. The high fashion couture events are usually attended by other design elites, celebrities, fashion editors and hangers on. Whereas the ready to wear shows are attended by buyers and other industry folks.

Also many designers have a variety of ready to wear lines that vary in price point... Ralph Lauren for example has in addition to the main brand a line of higher end peices called "ralph lauren black label" and a line of more accessably priced casual wear called "ralph by ralph lauren".

A recent trend is for designers to license their "brand" or name off to a large scale manufactorer to be distributed in retail chains... a good example of this would be the Izaac Mizrahi and Tara Jarmon brands sold in Target stores. Izaac used to have his own fashion label in the 90's but subsequently went bankrupt. The target deal is a pretty good gig for him as far as getting his name out there, but I doubt he has little impact on the design of the clothes beyond developing the concept for each season.
 
Joined
Jun 21, 2003
Thanks for the info, plus I learned a new word, "pret a porte." :agree: What a great board this is!
 

Theatregirl1122

On the Ice
Joined
Feb 1, 2006
Mathman said:
3. Do designers and fashion houses employ ordinary sized and shaped models to actually get the fit right? The customers, after all, are not going to be 6 feet tall, 90 pounds.

My mother would tell you, and I'm not her so my info will be less complete, that yes, when they make mass-market clothes they do employ "fit models" to fit the clothes on. Sometimes you will notice that a brand has a really odd, and sometimes non-standerdized, sizing chart. There is a brand of pants that I buy where everyone I know has said that if you buy a size 5 (or whatevever) in the green, they are too big, in the black, just right, and in the tan, two small. I don't know why. It's the exact same pants but in a different color. If I get a chance I may ask for clarification on the whole idea from my mom, who worked in the industry for years and now teaches about it.
 

antmanb

Record Breaker
Joined
Feb 5, 2004
Theatregirl1122 said:
My mother would tell you, and I'm not her so my info will be less complete, that yes, when they make mass-market clothes they do employ "fit models" to fit the clothes on. Sometimes you will notice that a brand has a really odd, and sometimes non-standerdized, sizing chart. There is a brand of pants that I buy where everyone I know has said that if you buy a size 5 (or whatevever) in the green, they are too big, in the black, just right, and in the tan, two small. I don't know why. It's the exact same pants but in a different color. If I get a chance I may ask for clarification on the whole idea from my mom, who worked in the industry for years and now teaches about it.

How bizarre - last night this exact same thing happened to me - i was in a shop trying on the same pair of shorts but in different colours - the tan colour fitted perfectly but the blue has a tad snug, i tried on three different pairs in the blue and found thenm all to be snug...held the blue ones against the tan ones and there wasn't any kind of appreciable size difference...very confusing!!

Ant
 
Joined
Mar 14, 2006
WTH? Why would they do that? as if buying clothes that fit and look good weren't maddening enough already.
 
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