Photo: Jeremy Moeller/Getty Images Last season, there was a lot of talk during Fashion Month about offsetting carbon emissions. This season, we have a sense of how much CO2 is emitted annually by fashion people and clothing collections moving around the planet: about 241,000 tons, or enough to power Times Square for 58 years.
The low point of this “Let them eat carbon” orgy of extravagance might have been Saint Laurent’s Spring/Summer 2020 show, which was illegally plunked down on a delicate California beach ecosystem. Somehow, parent company Kering’s longtime commitment to the environment hadn’t trickled down to the show’s producer.
The world that Fashion Weeks were created for — powerful department stores and glossy magazines — doesn’t exist any more. Buyers are going to fewer shows, because many of the runway pieces were created as an Instagram moment and probably won’t ever be produced. A fashion show used to also serve as an immersive experience that stroked the egos of editors, influencers, and editor-influencers. But even some influencers have started to feel the JOMO . They don’t need to participate in the frenetic Fashion Week schedule, because the brands’ publicists will send them everything they need to produce content from their own homes.
Erwiah is a seasoned luxury-fashion executive, but she found that when people heard her brand was made by artisans, they’d immediately assume it was a poorly designed charity case. “Me going to people’s offices, that didn’t work, because they have stereotypes and would put them on me or my collection,” she says. Producing a show and getting on the official calendar was the most efficient way for her to establish Studio 189 as a brand to take seriously.
SJSpellings Erwiah’s thought about fashion weeks alternating around the globe is similar to one proposed by Opening Ceremony ages ago. In effect: an Olympic bid situation, and one the brings tenfold other issues, mostly bribery, reinforcing elites. A useful and smart piece, thank you.