A Random Essay on the History of the Fashion Industry
At age 12, I was an impressionable adolescent. Unlike other girls my age, my puritanical mother never taught me how to put on makeup, create stylish outfits, or do my hair. So naturally, I turned to television and Seventeen magazine to learn why boys didn’t like me, how to wear eyeliner, and how to make my boobs grow bigger. I soon graduated to Vogue, where the possibilities of big city life to a small town girl like me were endless and glamorous. But I knew that would never be my life. I didn’t have the looks, the money, the name, the education, or the personality to live a life like they did in the magazines. Everyone in Vogue was light years above me. (Don’t worry - I no longer believe this since I am not 12 years old anymore, and have some semblance of self esteem.) They had names like Diane von Furstenburg the third and came from (or married into) royalty. They vacationed every other week in hoity toity destinations where only the rich go. They didn’t have to work. They went to school at exclusive boarding schools before attending college at an ivy. It was all so cool to me. I wanted to be those people. I dreamed of interning at a fashion magazine in New York City so that I could be around the clothes and the people. It didn’t matter they verbally abused or degraded me as a human being. It was all worth it in my mind. No guts, no glory right? (Ok, that didn’t really happen. Just in here for dramatic effect.)
Then, things started to happen. First there was that whole internet thing and people started to buy things online. In 2000, netaporter.com started selling designer clothing online. Outrage! Then, the birth of fast fashion. H&M opened it’s first store in the United States. Designer-esque clothes at mass market prices? Fast fashion retailers are able to design, produce, and ship goods in two weeks, door to door. It takes the rest of the industry 4-6 months. More outrage! Everyone started knocking everyone else off. And there was nothing anyone could do about it since US law doesn’t allow you to protect intellectual property on apparel. In the mid 2000’s, luxury brand names were branching out into new markets. They went global. Then they started making $300 sunglasses, shoes, scarves, jewelry. Now, anyone who had a couple hundred bucks could own Chanel, Gucci, Prada, Louis Vuitton. I don’t deny it, I was one of those people who rocked the labels even though I was working at my parents’ Chinese take-out joint for minimum wage.
Then another thing started happening. Rich and/or famous people were no longer dressing head-to-toe in one designer. They were now mixing designers, and even mixing price points. Oh my lord! In my mind, Sharon Stone started this phenomenon when she wore a white men’s button down shirt from the Gap with her couture skirt to the 70th Oscars. Then boutiques such as Scoop NYC, Big Drop NYC, and Intermix popped up and merchandised their clothes no longer by brand but by outfits whereas in department stores, clothes were always merchandised by brand.

Every brand started making all this stuff, and people were eating it all up. Americans loved it… until they didn’t. The supply was too much for the demand, and things wouldn’t sell at full price. Savvy consumers figured out the department store markdown dates (8-10 weeks after delivery) and waited for items to go on sale until buying. Begin markdown frenzy. A few years later (2005 ish), after the brand names had saturated those markets, high-end designers who had exclusive distribution deals with retailers such as Bergdorf Goodman, Neiman Marcus, and Saks Fifth Avenue started manufacturing diffusion lines and partnering with mass market retailers such as Target, Kohl’s, and Macy’s. They went from the priciest retailers to the most affordable retailers. Where were they planning on going next?
Fast forward to the economic collapse of 2008. All of a sudden, fashion isn’t so exclusive anymore. Fashionable clothing (ahem, designer knockoffs) are now available for less than $100 at your friendly neighborhood fast-fashion retailer. Where it was once impossible for normal non-industry and non-connected people who weren’t interning at a fashion PR firm to attend fashion shows at the tents, American Express started selling tickets to the oh so exclusive Mercedes Benz Fashion Week.
When -30% became the new flat in late 2008/2009 and one of the industry’s largest factors, CIT, nearly went bankrupt, something had to be done. So all the big names in the fashion industry meet up to talk about (where’s the representation from the rest of the industry?) how they can fix this mess. They basically agree that markdowns are not good for anyone in the industry (except the consumers). They acknowledge that something must be done about the knocking off. And then they come up with Fashion’s Night Out. Anna Wintour makes an appearance at Macy’s in Queens. Retailers and designers band together and agree not to entice shoppers to participate by offering discounts. Fashion’s Night Out gets a lot of publicity but doesn’t exactly catapult people back into spending money.
And that, brings us to today.
2 weeks ago
