NYC kicks off week of fine fashion

While millions of Americans celebrated Super Bowl XLI last Sunday, New York was hosting its… While millions of Americans celebrated Super Bowl XLI last Sunday, New York was hosting its own Super Bowl of style with Fashion Week.

As one of the centers of the fashion world, New York is responsible for churning out the latest styles and inspirations, and Fashion Week is a showcase of things to come. New York’s major event is one of the weapons that allow the city to vie for position as the fashion capital of the world, rivaling Paris, London or Milan.

In a recent article by The New York Times, couture legend Diane von Furstenberg was quoted as saying, “Everyone in the world looks at the kids on the streets here and how they put themselves together. Every designer in the entire world comes to New York to get inspired.”

In addition to inspiration, many designers come here to conquer the American market after being introduced in Europe. Many believe that going New York is like going international and relocating to a global stage.

New designers are taking advantage of this opportunity, like Yang Ziming, the first designer from mainland China to show at Fashion Week. “Honestly, I don’t have a lot of experience with New York, but I do have this sense that it’s the greatest fashion city in the world,” Ziming said, according to The New York Times.

As upcoming designers embrace new frontiers, famous fashion houses show how it’s done and issue inspiration and new insight. Fashion Week, which began last Thursday and will end this Friday, features 221 designers – a huge increase from the 91 designers featured 10 years ago. There is intense pressure to keep fresh and on top in this infamously competitive business: Out of the 91 designers ten years ago, only 32 remain in New York this week.

There is no end in sight to the growth of this fashion show. This year, there were more than 3,000 different media outlets requesting access, which attracts more designers. The directors of the fashion show are looking for a new venue in 2008 after outgrowing the famous classic white tents in Bryant Park.

A new venue would be a welcome change to a show that’s getting larger every year. As the show expands, its importance as a forecasting tool becomes more prevalent. This year, we can already make predictions of what’s to come.

For a lot of men’s designers, the clothing was an exercise in drab. Labels like Dior Homme and Jil Sander featured a lot of dark, slim clothes and neat, English tweeds.

With the most famous designers, the overall impression of men’s styling was manly and contemporary. Unlike some flashy new designers, who are out to impress with daring but impractical innovations, traditional men’s clothing lines like Yves Saint Laurent are showing perfectly executable trends.

So far, these are leaning toward close cuts, dark grays and careful texture. Even Louis Vuitton, who is usually focused on bright, rich cream and coffee colors, is giving attention to very dark green and red.

Women’s clothing at Fashion Week is much harder to categorize. We are seeing a lot of different trends and colors right now in New York. For example, Oscar de la Renta featured traditional black lace, while Calvin Klein’s show was from the future, with bright, plastic-y colors. Famous fashion idol Marc Jacobs admitted to looking to the high school prom for inspiration before offering glitzy glamour for spring 2007.

Such glamour is appropriate for Fashion Week, where only the stylish survive. It’s a big day for the designers, who can spend $100,000 on a mid-sized show. It’s perhaps an even bigger day for those hoping to break into New York and the world, and those who hope to make it back next year.