It’s a brisk March evening, the cold air bites as women in cigarette pants, pumps,and shimmering black fur file into an unremarkable building on Bleecker Street. Inside, the Veuve Cliquot is poured while the buzz begins to grow. Names like Suno, Spurr, and Swarovski are dropped left and right. It’s the annual CFDA Award nominations and the word that’s flying around is ‘new’. The cocktail hour consisted mostly of obligatory schmoozing, until it was time to announce the nominations for the biggest awards in American fashion. Best in women’s wear and accessories flew by. Then room grew silent; this is the moment the people in the room were waiting for – The Swarovski Awards for the best in emerging fashion.
It seems as if we as an industry, as a culture, have forgotten those who paved the way, many of whom happen to be women, caring more for the pretty young things. The New York fashion scene began to emerge in the late 1970’s, with designers like Donna Karan and Anna Sui banding together to get something started on Seventh Avenue.
Mickey Boardman, Paper Magazine’s flamboyantly fabulous, ever-so-wise Editorial Director, has been covering the New York cultural landscape for over 20 years, seeing stars rise and fall. “[Back then] it was much more isolated. Fashion hadn’t exploded as global entertainment yet so you didn’t have the crush of people who really have no reason to be there but come for the spectacle,” said Boardman.
One name that was heard everywhere during those early years, a name almost forgotten, is Gemma Khang. High atop the bleak streets of New York’s garment district sits Khang’s surprisingly lofty loft, with its all white furniture and what seemed like remnants from Jay Gatsby’s ravaged post-mortem palace. A burst of energy, Khang seems neither sad nor flailing. I ask her to take me back, back to the days when 7 the walls fall. “It seems like yesterday. The industry was empty, there were a handful of designers, and a lot of them are no longer around.” Giggling, Khang described her fast rise, “My line was almost immediately successful, the first collection had a full page in Vogue and three seasons later my logo was on the cover,” said Khang. “Then people’s taste changed and in fashion if they forget you for a second you’re done.” I then asked if she ever felt abandoned by the industry to which she responded, “absolutely.”
Another designer who was incredibly of-the-moment in those early years was Betsey Johnson. In April 2012, Johnson filed for Chapter 11, shuttering almost all of her 65 retail stores.
“Them’s were the good old days,” reminisced Johnson. The designer does not have the same affinity for the landscape she once had. “Mass market rules and creativity suffers. Everything is about bottom line these days.” In today’s industry that is clearly part of the global economy, it seems that to survive, a brand needs to be bought out by a mega power like LVMH.
“The problem is that our industry is really only interested in the hot new things and the legends,” said Boardman. “It’s really hard for a designer in the middle-level to keep the excitement and buzz about themselves going.”
There is no doubt that fashion is a fast business and certainly if anyone is going to know what’s hip and in, it is the younger generation. However, in an industry that is seemingly so supportive, the original “New York designers” are almost all forgotten. Shouldn’t those names make a room full of fashion’s elite stand still with respectfully held breath?
Written by: Max Mccormack