Why Fashion Week Matters: It's More Than Just The Clothes

The festivities are wrapping up in the Bryant Park tents today and people like me are a little disappointed that Fashion Week is over.

Fashion Week gets a lot of flak from outsiders. They say that the models are too thin, the people are bitchy and isn't there a better way to spend all the money that goes into those shows? And not for nothing, but who even wears half that stuff?

Some of that may be true, but Fashion Week plays an important role in the mental and emotional economy of everyone who absorbs it.

For starters, Fashion Week encourages creativity. Those collections aren't created overnight. They represent months of work from a team of designers. That 20 minute runway show is the reward for suffering through the creative process, a process that has to come up with new and fresh ideas every few months. Very few people can do that, and the ones that can should be lauded for it. As a society we're comfortable praising a painting in a museum or a piece of music at Carnegie Hall. Fashion is no different. The artistic process to create it is one and the same.

That creative process is an important one. More people should embark in it. Granted, not everyone who walks out of those shows goes home and tries to design a ball gown. But I know that I've been inspired while watching the shows. After all, if those designers can put together an entire collection, surely I can go home and spend an hour working on my novel. Creativity begets more creativity. It's what New York is all about. Life would be drudgery without it.

One cannot overlook the social aspect of Fashion Week, either. The point of the front area of the tents -- besides being a convenient place to pick up shwag -- is to booze and schmooze. There's an open bar and a sitting area and I've found that simply saying hello and asking people what brought them to the tents can start wonderful conversations, not to mention an exchange of business cards. Life is all about connecting with other people. It's how friendships are formed and deals are sealed. If nothing else, Fashion Week is a great place to brush up your small talk skills.

Make no bones about it, though: Fashion Week is 80% theater. Those tents are people-watching gold. Everyone knows they're on display and much effort is spent on those first impressions. Not that there's anything wrong with wanting to looking good. We live in a country where people regularly leave their homes in velour sweat suits and the equivalent of pajama bottoms. It's a refreshing change of pace to be in a place where people are trying to put out the best versions of themselves. Say what you will about the vapidity of the fashion industry, but at least they do it in style.

Most importantly, it's an escape. It's a time to take a commercial break and stop and smell the Chanel. Inside the tents, it's okay to indulge in a little fantasy. Most of us do that anyway when we go to the movies or pick up a romance novel. It's just in a different form on the runway. And it's just as worthy of our time and energy.

See you in September.

Comments

[Aristedes]

Paris Hilton doesn't only 'Absorb' fashion- she makes fashion. Basically most Fashion snubs its nose at the plight of poor people & tends to elevate the status of Yuppies & Neocons-though not always. The overwhelming involvement of Fashion purveyors has already ruined a lot of the music business. I suppose we should Differentiate between apparel & Fashion. Real Art should be in the position of dictating Fashion, not the other way around.

[Dave24]

Fashion is wearable art. High-fashion is meant to tease the eye and make your skin empathize with the model who is lucky enough to wear it. Whether or not something is Good or Ugly is personal taste and warrants debate: not dismissive attitudes by people apathetic to the vision and talents of designers.

It's exciting to see the evolution of what we, as a species, wear; just like it's interesting to see the newest cars, movies, paintings, etc. etc. etc.

Models are too thin, I think, but blaming them for ruining women's self-esteem is absurd. Whoever says it does is averting responsibility for their own happiness.

[ConcernedAboutRFuture]

Let me tell you who "absorbs" fashion week....the same idiots that absorb Paris Hilton and Brittney Sprears news.

Fashion weeks is the demise of womens' self esteem, the creation of pathetic materialism and the destruction of style.... because in fact, only the idiots that "absorb" it may wear the clothes... if they can afford them... and those that look from their empty wallet size... on hope that they one day can aspire to wear masoginystic shoe designs and size 0 clothes that even manequins are too fat for.

[ConcernedAboutRFuture]

correction:.... "empty walled SIDE"....

[ConcernedAboutRFuture]

dear godddd... I can't type!!! last time... 'empty wallet side'....gah!

[blueraven]

Your post calls to mind the monologue Glenn Close delivered in "The Devil Wears Prada" to Anne Hathaway's character over Hathaway's resistance to fashion as serious business. No, most people won't wear what directly hits the runway. But as sure as I'm typing this, the hottest trends and colors at Bryant Park will trickle down to the department stores and even the anti-fashion snobs will confront them eventually, having to decide if it fits their desired image, even if that image is "bargain bin at Casual Closet".

[ConcernedAboutRFuture]

I love designer clothes....but only classics like Liz, Anne Klein, Jones and several others that make classic styles that never die. What is represented on the runways is the same thing that trickles down to 'bargain bins'..... for a year... and then you have to throw it out of your closet.

My Liz and Jones clothes.... are timeless.... and trendless. THAT is fashion.