Contrary to Anna’s Wishes, Fashion Week Will Have More Shows This Season

Admit it — this picture makes
you just a little bit excited.Photo: Getty Images

The weeks leading up to last fashion week were so depressing. Labels canceled party after party and downsized show after show. But September Fashion Week, which is, terrifyingly, just seven weeks away, should be a different story. It might not be as fabulous as it was in 2007, but there will be a lot more going on. The schedule is set to be released Friday, and the Fashion Calendar’s Ruth Finley tells WWD, "There will be a lot more shows than last year. There are a lot of new people you have never heard of." Curious news considering Anna Wintour told us during Fashion Week in February the recession-induced downsizing pleased her because "a lot of people before were having shows that simply shouldn’t have been having them."

She continued, "I think a certain amount of winnowing out of who’s going to be on the runway and who’s not is not at all a bad thing. ... Last season we had so many complaints because it was just back-to-back shows, and to be honest, people that shouldn’t be doing it … it’s much better to see them in the showroom or more of a low-key presentation. It’s more realistic.”

However Finley noted, "Bryant Park is not completely booked yet." Many designers who moved their shows off-site last year to save money are staging shows off-site again this year. They include, Betsey Johnson, Monique Lhuillier, and Carmen Marc Valvo. Marchesa will also show off-site. All the while, shows for lines like Erin Wasson's RVCA collection are getting bigger — she's gone from showing in a Lower East Side apartment of questionable cleanliness with a taco bar in the back to showing in the tents for the first time this season. We wonder if she qualifies, in Anna's mind, as a person who should be doing that. Anna, after all, attended Justin Timberlake's William Rast show in February.

@nymag