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Send the Trend

NYC's Fashion Industry Forges Ahead For the Next Generation

Last week during the CEO Apparel and Retail Summit Mayor Bloomberg announced the plans New York City has in store to revitalize the fashion industry and lay the groundwork for maintaining its strength for the future. The plan is an aggressive multiple point plan that will make the industry current and promote and cultivate new talent to lead the industry into the next generation.

The capital of the US apparel industry is New York City which employs 165,000 people and accounts for 5.5% of the city's workforce. With this being said, each year jobs and manufacturing continue to be moved overseas and out of the country so New York has reacted by developing a plan with the Mayor to preserve the heritage and industry that has played, and continues to play such an integral role in New York's economic structure and history.

The main points of the plan are as follows:

* NYC Fashion Fund, to help emerging designers gain access to capital and support services to produce their goods.


* Project Pop-up, an annual competition to promote new and original retail concepts. Temporary pop-up stores could be created to test some of the ideas generated.


* New York City Fashion Draft, an annual event to coordinate the recruitment of college students from the United States and around the world who are interested in fashion management.


* Fashion Campus NYC, offering business seminars led by industry executives, and networking opportunities to summer interns.


* New York City Fashion Fellows, which will recognize 30 rising stars in business-related fashion management who are now often overlooked when the industry hands out awards to those in the creative end of the business.


* Designer as Entrepreneur, to help emerging designers boost their business skills through a boot camp that focuses on business plans, financial management and e-commerce.

Although New York, followed by LA, is the apparel capital in the US there are several programs, funds and resources that have the same goal in mind. Each month new resources present themselves online and in brick and mortar. Being one such resource, MODEcollective will continue to use this same philosophy in an effort to arm young talent and students with as much information and resources as possible to become active participants in the US fashion and apparel industry.

Fairchild's WWD celebrates 100 years and brings 10 year old Style.com to join the group

Big events for two of the largest resources for the fashion obsessed.

WWD, a Fairchild Publication and an icon in the fashion industry, celebrates 100 years as a publication. This month in celebration of this momentous occasion, WWD published a large edition for their milestone, filled with images, photos and features highlighting the history of the industry that they have captured in the pages of their newspaper for the past 100 years. This is an edition not to be missed and I encourage fashion enthusiasts, industry professionals and especially students and young people entering the fashion industry to pick up a copy and read some of the features. Being a fashion enthusiast and professional myself I get so excited learning more about the industry I fell in love with. As you turn through the pages of the milestone edition you read about the outside influences of fashion for the past 100 years, the founders of the New York fashion industry, the history of the designers who lead the industry today and much, much more.

In addition to WWD celebrating 100 years Fairchild Fashion group also brought the fashion resource Style.com (formerly of Conde Nast) to their group. Mutually the two companies are very positive that this is the best way to proceed for the future of Style.com. Beginning last year and continuing this year, Conde Nast Digital has made other changes to their portfolio which included giving W and Vogue their own web sites. In addition the former Men.Style.com folded and became part of GQ. This leaves us with the question, "What is next for Conde Nast Digital?"

LVMH takes a 17% Stake in Hermes

Bernard Arnault

On October 25th WWD announced that LVMH acquired a 17% stake of Hermes. Hermes, founded in 1837 is the french fashion house which is the epitome of luxury and elegance. Receiving anything in an orange box, regardless of the size, is exclusive and absolutely divine.  Three days later on the October 28th WWD announces that LVMH could possibly be interested in buying more stakes in Hermes but LVMH has said it is not interested in seeking out representation on the board of Hermes nor is LVMH interested in taking over the brand at this time.  Hermes says they will battle if a takeover attempt were to be made.

So why would Hermes be so quick to say they would fight a takeover?  History plays a significant role.

In reality many of our favorite brands, designers and luxury houses are owned or partly owned by other major organizations. However, the significance in this case is the history of LVMH, the brain child of Bernard Arnault, the 7th wealthiest man in the world at an estimated net wort of $27.5 billion USD. If we look at the history of events and circumstances that led to the establishment of LVMH we will find that looking into the past may give us some insight into future intentions.

What is the history of the establishment of LVMH, the largest luxury conglomerate in the world and why could this be a sign of what is to come?

Let's start at the beginning, Bernard Arnault had a vision which employed his savvy business sense to acquire luxury brands and to acquire the best. At 37 years old, in 1984, Arnault began this endeavor by acquiring Agache Willot, a company who went bankrupt who had the valuable asset of Christian Dior and he also financed the once-hyped Christian Lacroix and aimed to build him up from square one. When it came to creating LVMH, Arnault had done his research and exploited the conflict between Moet Hennesy's CEO and the president of Louis Vuitton in order to merge the two. Arnault above all is a smart and shrewd businessman who capitalized on buying up brands he believed in who were in financial trouble, companies who experienced conflicts and he took advantage of companies whose stock prices decreased in market crashes. This was the beginning of years aggressively pursuing, almost like a predator, brands that he coveted as he began creating his conglomerate through hostile takeovers and buyouts.

Despite the polemic approaches Arnault used to create his masterpiece, he is also responsible for revitalizing, saving, bringing many brands to the levels of success they are today as well as giving opportunity to American designers and young, emerging and modern talent the like of Michael Kors, Alexander McQueen and Marc Jacobs.

Given this history one must wonder what the plans LVMH and Arnault may have for Hermes.