Producing a fashion show is a notoriously stressful experience for designers.
“It’s sleepless nights and it is a lot of stress,” said Mia Vesper, 32, a New York City-based fashion designer whose fans include Beyoncé, Machine Gun Kelly and Pete Davidson.
She received a shipment of garments in October for what was supposed to be a ready-to-wear-collection – clothes that are mass-produced for consumption – only to discover that everything had been made with the wrong fabric.
And with a show just seven days away, Vesper said she had to scramble to find another plan.
“I just burst into tears and I was like, I can’t do this anymore,” she recalled.
New York Fashion Week kicks off on Friday, and is a period when designers unveil their ready-to-wear collections for store buyers, editors and influencers in elaborate fashion shows.
This year’s roster of over 90 participating designers includes a mix of big names like Jason Wu Collection, Ulla Johnson, and Coach, as well as newer brands like Theophilio – but it won’t include Mia Vesper.
And while Fashion Week’s glamour often makes headlines, for some designers like Vesper, the costs far exceed the rewards – which aren’t guaranteed.
A cornerstone of the fashion ecosystem
Industry experts interviewed for this article all agreed that participating in Fashion Week is a gamble for any designer. While they said it can serve as a launching pad or a publicity boon for an up-and-comer, they added that it can also be a financial drain and an enormous stressor, particularly for designers who lack hefty budgets.
Vesper said the bills, mental stress, and the inability to make sales while organizing her September 2022 Fashion Week show and a subsequent show in October made her reconsider participating in Fashion Week, even if it could potentially expand her brand.
“Participating in Fashion Week says that you are serious about your craft,” said Shawn Grain Carter, a professor at the Fashion institute of Technology who teaches…
Read the full article here
Leave a Reply