I personally haven't really had a taste of what a "real" trunk show is. I know that in New York City, designers often bring collections to retailers to allow them to take a look at merchandise before it is available for sale to the public. For example, I remember seeing Pnina Tornai do several trunk shows at Kleinfeld on the show Say Yes to the Dress (GREAT show, by the way!). I'm sure designers do trunk shows in Boston fairly frequently - I remember a Minnie Rose trunk show in one of the boutiques in Greater Boston, but it was way outside of my price range. Too bad, because I loved that ruffled shawl Kate Middleton was spotted wearing to the grocery store a few days after her wedding! That said, I likely am not in the target market for designers hosting trunk shows in my area.
I realized that I have actively participated in a type of trunk show, though. I sold lia sophia jewelry for a couple years, which entailed bringing jewelry to someone's home or other venue and basically run a party for a hostess and her friends to purchase jewelry. In fact, lia sophia jewelry is the whole reason I started blogging back in 2010! Lia sophia is a family owned company which publishes catalogs twice per year - the styles are very diverse, and quite a bit of fun!. I own a ton of lia sophia jewelry, but haven't purchased any for a while so I decided to take a look at the company's YouTube channel to see what's up for Spring/Summer 2013. I found this great video which touches on the themes they're using for the warmer months of this year, including wedding/bridal, springy floral jewelry, layering necklaces, and summery jewelry.
Competitor, Stella & Dot, also has several videos about their jewelry, trunk shows, and trend reports. You can check those out here. Let me know what you think of these two companies' similarities/differences! I'm personally still a huge lia sophia fan, but I have been known to purchase the occasional Stella & Dot item. I've even broken all of the rules and bought Silpada! All of these jewelry companies operate like trunk shows - a representative of the company offers to set up shop in someone's home, and that someone invites all of their friends and family to come shop the collection. There are usually incentives for the person hosting the show at their home, such as free jewerly and awesome discounts. Have you ever been to a jewelry party? Here are some pictures of what these various parties look like (lia sophia, then Stella & Dot, then Silpada):
I think these jewelry parties are important for fashion because they bring inspiration and advice to women who might not necessarily know how to accessorize an outfit, and they allow women to shop for jewelry in a comfortable home environment with friends they can trust for honest fashion advice. My favorite customers were always those who walked into one of my parties saying, "I don't wear jewelry," and ended the night with a $250 order. I learned a lot about the jewelry in the time I spent selling it, and found creative ways to wear some of my favorite pieces. I loved sharing those different ways with my customers. In fact, one of my all-time favorite necklaces can be worn nine different ways (keep scrolling for a link to the post!). All it takes is one well-trained advisor to help a shopper find their perfect piece of jewelry.
In the interest of exploiting my early blogging days and providing you with a good laugh, I will leave you with some links and old pictures from my early blogging days. I'm mildly horrified at how awful these photos are, but it just goes to show that this little old blog has come a long way!
When I began researching fashion show videos for this blog post, I felt like I was looking at the same stuff everyone else has already seen. After all, New York Fashion Week wasn't that long ago, and Paris Fashion Week just ended last week, so I decided to try a different tack. I Googled "important fashion show," and one of the results caught my eye - Versailles '73: The Fashion Show That's About To Be Everywhere..., a post on Racked.com. I will admit, I was intrigued by the title mainly because Versailles is somewhere I have always wanted to visit. Every time I watch the movie Marie Antoinette, I find myself looking up flights to France to see if I can swing the airfare, and I fell in love with Versailles all over again when Dior filmed their J'Adore commercial featuring Charlize Theron in a staged fashion show in the Hall of Mirrors at the Chateau de Versailles.
On to the important stuff - important video fashion show!
Versailles '73, also known as the Battle of Versailles (aptly named by the press), is a fashion show which literally defined a moment in fashion history. This was a fashion show hosted by France in 1973 which showcased five French designers and five American designers, and was originally intended to be a fundraiser for restorations for the Palace of Versailles."The French team included Yves Saint Laurent, Dior's Marc Bohan, Hubert de Givenchy, Pierre Cardin, and Emanuel Ungaro. The American side had Halston, Oscar de la Renta, Bill Blass, Anne Klein, and Stephen Burrows" (Folan). However, this fashion show became much more than just a fundraiser! The French endeavored to show couture, knowing that the American designers they invited would be more apt to display sportswear and figuring that this would make the French show the better of the two. Apparently, the French team created the most elaborate sets and denied the American team the same luxury. The French team spent 2.5 hours showcasing their designs, whereas the American team got it done in 35 minutes (Cuddy). One article I read, which I couldn't find when I got around to typing up this blog post, claimed that the French team made sure the American team had the worst bathrooms to use during their stay. Talk about petty!
What really made this show a historical event wasn't the designers, the sets, or even the apparel. It was the team of models the Americans brought which included 12 African-American models. This was monumental for the time period, since the Civil Rights Movement had only taken place a few years prior in the United States, from 1955-1968. Putting an African-American woman on the runway was unheard of, especially in France. Seeing an African-American woman strut her stuff down the runway in sportswear was unlike anything the fashion world had ever seen. "In that moment America stood its ground with the French and basically won the night. It established us in the forefront of fashion. Up until that point everyone wanted something French. They had the French fashion industry for three, four hundred years" (Folan). American sportswear finally got the recognition it deserved from the fashion world, and the French realized that Americans weren't just dabbling with fashion, but that they were a force to be reckoned with!
Stills of Stephen Burrows and his clothes from Versailles '73: American Runway Revolution Image courtesy of PaperMag.com
Since this show was put on in 1973, I couldn't find any video snippets to share on my blog. However, a documentary about Versailles '73 debuted last year - here is a link to the trailer on Amazon. My favorite quotes are toward the end of the trailer are, "American sportswear was something that had to be paid attention to," and "There are moments in history that change the course of history, and that was a moment in history that changed the course of the fashion industry." The full documentary is available for download through Amazon - I encourage you to pay $3.99 for the 3-day rental. It is worth it!
The film was actually screened at FIT earlier this month - did you get to see it? In an interview shortly after the screening at FIT, documentary director Deborah Riley Draper explained why these 12 African-American models were such a big deal, "There was a shift in thinking: 'Let's make them look the same so we can let the clothes stand out.' In that sameness, you lose a lot of flavor. The '70s was about experimentation, it was about self-expression, it was about freedom. It was about breaking the status quo, not just in fashion but in everything" (Folan). Unfortunately, this groundbreaking moment in history did not cement a spot for African-American women on the runway. Have you ever noticed how most Fashion Week models have a sameness to them? According to an article on Madame Noire, an audit of models on the 2012 NYFW runways revealed, "Fewer than 10 percent (8.1 percent, to be precise) were black" (Garcia). According to an article on Jezebel, at NYFW this year, "Black models were hired for 271, or 6%" of looks on the runway (Sauers). Here's an enlightening pie chart to give you an idea of the breakdown from NYFW 2013:
Wow! I would say that this is an opportunity being missed, and hopefully some savvy designer will jump on the "Models of Color" bandwagon and hire a more ethnically-diverse group next year. I didn't mean for this post to get so heavy, but there you go. I found this entire subject fascinating, and I hope you learned something from it and enjoyed it as much as I did!
To conclude on a lighter note, since I can't actually post the trailer for the documentary or any other videos about the Battle of Versailles, I thought you might enjoy the Dior commercial set in Versailles' Hall of Mirrors. Charlize Theron is stunning, of course, but I encourage you to keep your eyes peeled for other famous faces and let me know whom you spot!
(Also, I dare you not to groove along to the background music... the song is Heavy Cross by The Gossip.)
This is what happens when you get your tax refund, and thanks to school, it's a hefty refund. A small $70 treat for myself, and the rest goes to school loans. shopping DIET.
I love visual merchandising. To me, this is the last chance to pull in a sale from a customer. This is the opportunity to show a shopper, "You MUST have this outfit." This is the opportunity to merchandise something that maybe isn't selling all that well and turn it into something which will fly off the racks. I have always felt that incredible visual merchandising is the best way to influence sales, whether it's for a particular garment, entire outfit, or even just a particular color.
I took a quick walk through Copley Place (Boston, MA), and snapped a couple (understatement of the day!) pictures of some of my favorite windows.
To start, I really loved the windows at Louis Vuitton - the flying papers are what initially caught my eye, but the crisp white outfits have me dreaming of spring. White is one of my favorite colors to work with when planning outfits. I wouldn't normally go for a head-to-toe white look, but these Louis Vuitton looks have inspired me to give it a try this spring.
Next up... the Gap. Gap has become my go-to store when I need an instant pick me up, because their window displays always involve a lot of color. I snapped a couple different photos on my trip today.
First - Gap kids. I have a sneaking suspicion that pink will be popular for girls this spring, and navy blue for boys. However, there are flashes of yellow, teal, red and white. Pink is always a popular color for girls, so I think it's safe to say that pink will always trend for spring. Navy blue is very dapper for boys, and can easily be mixed with many other colors. However, because navy is easily paired with other colors, I believe navy could be considered a neutral, and neutrals are great for spring.
Also from the Gap world - Gap Body. Again, more pink. However, there are also flashes of a dewy green, lavender, light blue and royal blue for women. These colors get me jazzed about spring weather and running outdoors again.
Finally, a regular Gap window. I spy white, navy, a melon-y pink, and more of that dewy green. It's official - I CANNOT wait for spring! I'm so tired of my winter wardrobe!
A quick trip by Cache surprised me. I'm used to seeing plenty of color in Cache windows, so seeing all of this black and white was very different. Yes - white is present, but these windows aren't feeling very inspiring for spring. Black and white together are my personal stand-by colors for winter.
Three words: navy, white, nautical. If these three words don't scream "spring," I don't know what does! I love this Hugo Boss window, because the nautical colors are reflected in the nautical props. What you can't see in this photo are the pinstripes in the blazer. Nautical stripes... so much nautical in this window!
BCBG MaxAzria is a store I have never been to, so I was delighted to take a swing through to check out what's going on with color in there. The windows felt very springy to me. More nautical stripes, peach, lime, white, navy, denim blue, and a light/creamy teal mixed with light, floaty fabrics all tell me spring is coming.
Finally, my new favorite store - Michael Kors. Their windows are always the best. A few weeks ago when I was in the Burlington Mall, MK had a really fun window full of spring-colored handbags, which I posted to Instagram:
The Michael Kors in Copley Place had a similar look, but with more apparel. My favorite thing about this window is the Kelly green mixed with navy. Kelly green is one of my favorite colors, and it reminds me of when the New England snow melts and grass pokes through.
Thanks for taking a tour of what Copley Place has to offer for spring. Are you as excited for spring as I am? I'm dreaming of the days I can wear bright dresses with bare legs again!
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