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FASHION

Stockholm Fashion Week aims to buck the recession

Stockholm Fashion Week opens on Monday. Despite the impact of the recession on the industry arrangers are hopeful that buyers will be ready to open their wallets.

“It has been quite tough but now everyone is starting to see positive signs,” said Lotta Ahlvar, CEO of the Swedish Fashion Council.

The Fashion Council organizes the Stockholm Fashion Week which will feature a range of fashion labels displaying their spring 2010 collections.

“It is a decisive period. Companies that work with relatively prompt deliveries have reported that sales have improved in stores recently. Over the next week we will get a feel for how it looks across the industry,” Ahlvar said.

“I think that the situation will ease this time around and that buyers have the confidence to expand their budgets.”

According to Svensk Handel Stil, clothing sales in Sweden declined by around one percent during the first half of this year. More tourists and a weaker krona boosted sales during June.

Companies have less money and are therefore pooling their resources and cooperating around shows and showrooms during this year’s fashion week.

“Necessity is the mother of invention. When I talk to several of these companies there is a more positive outlook; they are not going to put on shows for a half a million but will instead be creative in how they display their wares,” Ahlvar said.

During the first half of 2009 the retail trade has seen bankruptcies climb by around 50 percent. This hits the fashion industry as the number of sales outlets declines.

In Denmark the crisis has been felt stronger than in Sweden and a number of Danish firms will hold joint showings at this year’s fashion week.

Turnover in the Danish retail sector has declined by five percent during the first half of the year, according to figures from sector organization Dansk Detail.

“It is primarily the stores that are having a tough time of it, and that has led for example to the bankruptcy of Baum und Pferdgarten and its subsequent takeover by Bruuns Bazaar,” Lotta Ahlvar said.

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FASHION

Paris exhibition celebrates 100 years of French Vogue

A new exhibition in Paris will tell the story of 100 years of French Vogue - from the post-war 'New Look' of Christian Dior through the sexual liberation of the 1960s to the dangling-cigarette waifs of the 2000s.

French Vogue celebrates 100 years
French Vogue celebrates 100 years. Photo: Thomas Olva/AFP

But as well as celebrating the magazine’s storied history, the exhibit comes at a time of turbulence for the publication.

Just last month, it was confirmed that its editor of 10 years, Emmanuelle Alt, was out and wouldn’t be replaced.

She was not alone.

Looking to cut costs, owner Conde Nast International has axed editors across Europe over the past year, and put international Vogue editions under the direct control of global editorial director, Anna Wintour, in New York.

New York-based Anna Wintour now has overall control of French Vogue. Photo by Christophe ARCHAMBAULT / AFP

Like much of the media industry, Vogue is struggling with tumbling sales and ad revenue in the digital era.

But the latest twist is also part of the endless push and pull between New York and Paris going back to its early days.

“The whole history of French Vogue is one of back-and-forth with Conde Nast in New York – growing more independent for a while, then being reined back in,” said Sylvie Lecallier, curator of the new exhibition, “Vogue Paris 1920-2020″, which opened this weekend after a year’s delay due to the pandemic.

The Paris edition was often the loftier, more bohemian sibling to its more hard-nosed New York version.

But it was also the hotbed in which much of 20th century style and womenhood came to be defined.

“Paris was the place to hunt out talent and content and bring it to New York,” said Lecallier.

The exhibition charts the evolution from art deco drawings of the 1920s through the erotic image-making of photographers like Helmut Newton in the 1960s and 1970s.

Its last peak was under editor Carine Roitfeld in the 2000s, who brought back a provocative Gallic identity by ridding the newsroom of foreign staff and becoming a fashion icon in her own right.

Her successor, Alt, was a quieter presence, though she still oversaw key moments including its first transgender cover star, Brazilian Valentina Sampaio, in 2017.

But internet culture has created “a perfect storm” for Vogue, says media expert Douglas McCabe of Enders Analysis.

“The first 80 years of Vogue’s life, it had the market to itself, it was the bible for fashion,” McCabe told AFP.

“But online today, there are so many other ways to get your information. Influencers, Instagram, YouTube — everyone’s a threat.”

In a world where new fashion trends can blow up around the world in seconds, it has become much harder for a monthly magazine to set the pace.

“It’s not that they can’t survive for another 100 years — but they will be differently sized,” McCabe said.

Vogue has tried to branch out into different areas, including events.

“I used to work for a magazine, and today I work for a brand,” Alt said on the eve of French Vogue’s 1,000th issue in 2019.

But the big money was always in print, and Vogue Paris sales are dropping steadily from 98,345 in 2017 to 81,962 to 2020, according to data site ACPM.

It is perhaps unsurprising that the new top job in Paris, redefined as “head of editorial content”, went to Eugenie Trochu, who was key to building the magazine’s online presence.

She declared herself “thrilled to be part of Vogue’s international transformation”.

For the curator of the exhibition, it is ironic timing.

“We had no idea it would end like this when we started work on the exhibition,” said Lecallier.

“Who knows where it will go from here.”

The exhibition Vogue Paris 1920-2020 is at the Palais Galliera in Paris’ 16th arrondissement. The gallery is open 10am to 6pm Tuesday to Sunday and is closed on Mondays. Tickets for the exhibition are €14 (€12 for concessions and under 18s go free) and must be reserved online in advance. 

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