|
|
NEW YORK: THE NEW CENTER OF THE FASHION
WORLD
By Jasmine Caccamo
New York is far from self-conscious.
This city’s sense of reality, and its perpetual problem with conservatism, is what has built its identity as the center of fashion for decades.
By their nature, port cities such as New York are always affected by diverse influences, such as New Orleans, Los Angeles, or San Francisco. But unlike those cities, New York takes that diversity a step further, encouraging contrasting cultural elements to meet and create fresh, new styles.
Francesca Sterlacci, chairwoman of the fashion design department at the Fashion Institute of Technology in Manhattan, was on Eighth Avenue the other day when she said she had a “New York moment.”
"Here are these two girls walking down the street topless,” Sterlacci said, adding, "Just strutting naked from the waist up, and no one was turning around. Try to get away with that in Kansas City.”
There is no better place than New York City to make new fashion statements and show off designers’ ideas and creativity.
"You can get away with anything here,” said Sterlacci, "Anybody can design the newest fitted ruffled blouse, but who is putting a sari together with a denim jacket?”New York's identity as a commerce capital is in largely in part responsible for its role as a fashion mecca.
Jan Glier-Reeder, couture specialist at Doyle New York in Manhattan, says that people’s sense of design and style come from the power they possess.
"Wherever the power, prestige, money, and culture are, so is the center for fashion and style,” said Glier-Reeder, adding, "People who are wealthy and want to show off their wealth do so sartorially.”
For as long as fashion has been based around money, New York has been equally criticized for its boldness in fashion statements.
Although New York is often criticized on the way it promotes its fashion, the clothing is admired and acknowledged. With that criticism, comes admiration. There is no other city that can gain such high ratings and make a platform of unwavering standards from designers in Los Angeles, to designers overseas.
People flock from all over the country just to get a glimpse of the new fashions arising in New York City.
Caroline Milburn, flight attendant for Delta Airlines, fashion historian, and author of New York Fashion: The Evolution of American Style, said that money and culture are critical ingredients for creativity.
"People used to comment on the men who ran posh shops in the village, sitting out without any neckwear or jackets, with their chairs leaning back and their feet up; that was the 19th century equivalent of walking around naked today,” said Milburn.
In the mid-1800s, the retail giant known as the Ladies' Mile, which is now the Flatiron District of New York City, was a forerunner of the city's fashion influence. It housed companies such as, B. Altman & Co., Lord & Taylor, and Wanamaker's. This prompted the King's Handbook of New York City in 1893 to declare that all of America goes to New York for their shopping. People are attracted to the fascinating, alluring, irresistible shops.
Still, while New York shone brightly on the 19th century style scene, it was not the center of fashion. That distinction was of the Europeans and the Parisians. French designers dictated the dress for America's wealthy, who traveled across the world for hand-sewn couture. Whereas back in New York, American manufacturers reinterpreted French fashions, altering them to the dressed-down American sensibility.
Imitating the styles of the Europeans was one of the many ways that designers gained hype and popularity.
Becca St. Rose, runway model for Donna Karan and graduate student at the Fashion Institute of Technology said that popularity is the most motivating reason for shopping.
“During the times when American designers copied European ideas, this was because of the hype for new and different styles,” said St. Rose, adding, “Europe was the place for new, fresh looks, and that is what everyone wanted, something different.”
New York might have continued on in this role, if not for the defining event of the 20th century, which was World War II.
By the late 1930s, with Europe isolated and going through hard times, American designers were forced to develop their own "American style,” and the place to do this was New York.
"American fashion became much more reliant upon itself,” says Glier-Reeder, "It became very inventive and creative.”
Designers like Claire McCardell, Vera Maxwell and Bonnie Cashin experimented with clean lines and relaxed styles, ushering in the postwar age of casual sportswear, and the idea that style and affordability were not exclusive.
"It wasn't until years later, with designers like Bill Blass and Oscar de la Renta, that the world's perception of New York changed,” said Sterlacci, "Only then did the world start taking New York designers more seriously, or seriously at all.”
From the 60’s to the century's end, New York continued its fashion forwardness by absorbing street fashion into couture designs.
"The hip-hop look is really quite an example,” Glier-Reeder said, adding, "That loose, baggy look has infected everybody's form of dress.”
Stan Herman, member of the Council of Fashion Designers of America, said that before September 11, New York designers were enjoying an unprecedented respect abroad, one they would have capitalized on in the months and years to come.
"In the last five or six years, American designers were being envied by European designers and companies in a way that was unheard of 20 years ago,” Herman said, adding, "Back then, if they hired an American designer, they hid him in the back room.”
Today, the tables have turned, and New York names have prestige.
"Go to London, go to Paris, go to Istanbul,” Herman said, "and all you see are Donna Karan, Ralph Lauren, and Calvin Klein.”