Milan, Paris, London, New York ...

Press, 7 October 1987, Page 16

Milan, Paris, London, New York ...

By

BARBARA

BRIGHT, NZPAReuters, in Milan.

The women’s fashion industry is straightening its seams and taking a last backward glance at the mirror before the biannual ritual of designer showings in Milan, London, Paris, and New York. Women’s ready-to-wear shows, held for spring/ summer collections in the autumn and for autumn/ winter collections in the spring, have started in Milan. This week a crowd of 2000 fashion journalists and buyers, usually dressed in black, wearing low-heeled shoes and carrying huge black satchels stuffed with press releases, is on hand to praise or dismiss the lat-

est creations of Giorgio Armani, Krizia,. and Romeo Gigli. Six days later they move on to London to inspect the designs of Jasper Conran, Betty Jackson, Katharine Hamnett, and others at the four-day event at the Olympia Exhibition Centre. The scene then shifts to Paris, where 55 designers will show their collections at either three big tents erected outside the Louvre Museum, their own showrooms, or the city’s big hotels. Yves Saint Laurent and Karl Lagerfeld will be among the 33 couturiers presenting catwalk shows,

each costing about 25,000 dollars, in marquees in the Louvre courtyard. Other designers include Hanae Mori and Yohji Yamamoto from Japan, and new names such as Lolita Lempicka. The best collection of the week will be announced at the “Fashion Oscars” presented by French fashion industry for the second time at a gala ceremony at the Paris Opera House, during which fashion journalists and photographers will also receive awards. The new star among French designers, Christian Lacroix, will present a small deluxe line of only 15 models that he

ranks between ready-to-wear . and made-to-measure haute couture to be available only at 50 stores around the world.

Lacroix will present a full ready-to-wear line to be manufactured in Italy at the autumn/winter collections next spring.

The ritual ends in New York’s garment district on Seventh Avenue, where new designers like Michael Leva and Ahmed Akkad will show their collections during the last week of October. They

will be followed by wellestablished American names such as Geoffrey Beene and Donna Karan on November 6, the last day of the five-week fashion marathon. The New York Fashion Group also plans its fourth annual “Night of Stars” at the Waldorf Astoria hotel, honouring 11 designers including Issey Miyake, Zandra Rhodes, and Oscar de la Renta.

The fashion industry in Britain, France, Italy and the United States represents a yearly turnover of SUS3BB, according to industry representatives. It employs more than 750,000 people, and many

more work in ancillary industries such as textiles and cosmetics.

“The designers are the icing on the cake,” says John Wilson of the British Fashion Council. “They’re not the major exporters, but they attract many people to the country to see them.”

According to Denise Dubois, spokeswoman for the French Chambre Syndicale that groups the designers, the ready-to-wear shows started in Paris in 1975, with only 150 journalists in attendance.

Italy established itself as the second major European fashion centre the

same year when it moved its collections from Florence to Milan.

The New York shows have always followed the European designers. Cory Greenspan, a spokesman for the U.S. Federation of Apparel Manufacturers, says the New York showings are important for U.S. buyers, but that they carry more weight abroad.

"They get a lot of press coverage and create consumer demand,” he said. “But I’ve heard it said that any day is a market week on Seventh Avenue. At any one time there are 150,000 lines available.”