On NYFWM: Michael Bastian
So Michael, one week tomorrow until your fashion show at the inaugural New York Fashion Week: Men’s. Broadly speaking, how do you feel?
I’m so happy that it’s finally happening you know? This has been in the works for a while now, at least in conversation so I almost can’t believe it’s here, that it actually is happening.
What took so long?
Well I guess essentially, it’s a logistics thing: how do you get editors to add another stop, another trip, another week out of their calendar? Where are we going to get critical mass of designers? But we did. All the pieces fell together.
What does that mean for you as a designer? As a brand?
The main problem with New York men’s showing in September was our selling campaign was already over by two months. We have to turn in our orders by the end of July since everything is made in Italy and the factories there close down for the entire month of August! So the shows that we did were really just marketing, it didn’t help our sales at all. We really needed to change the whole calendar and now we’re showing in mid-July. It’s great. We can actually have selling appointments after the show; it changes everything.
Was there never a way to sneak a cheeky order in after the September shows?
No. We couldn’t go back. We’d sell what we could at market, and then months later we’d have a runway show, and people would see a different way of wearing these clothes: something that a customer feels one way about on the rack can form an entirely different opinion when it’s seen moving on the runway. Customers would call and say, “Oh, can we add that to our order?” and it really was too late.
Did that happen enough to make a significant difference?
We had a show, I think it was Spring ’14, it was our French Guy show and we opened with a guy in a pair of pineapple print pants. No one bought those pants in our regular market, I’m sure they were all a little scared of them. Then we showed them on the runway and all of a sudden everybody was calling for those pants, every magazine was shooting those pants and you know, we never put them into production because it was done and over, it was closed. It was really sad. We still get calls for those damn pants.
Do you think a dedicated men’s week during market will give American designers more market share, either domestically and/or abroad?
Hopefully it will. As you know, we’re still coming at the end: London, Milan, Paris and now New York, but you’re going to have a lot more eyes focused on New York Men’s for the first time, exactly what happened in London. We’ve got all the designers together and I think if you don’t see an increase this first season you will the next season.
How involved have you been in the process with the CFDA?
I was probably one of the more vocal designers saying we really do need this. I’ve always thought, “Look, I’m an American designer, my aesthetic is American and I don’t feel right having a runway show in Milan or Paris.” I always thought there must be a way we can figure it out. American designers: we’re showing in Milan, we’re showing in Paris, some were considering going to London and from my point of view it was really sad. It felt like we were losing our voice; it felt like American menswear was just being blended into those other cities.
Should designers just show in their own cities? What if another market is a better fit?
The thing is, it’s not just the shows, it’s everything that goes into the shows. It’s people supporting their hometown. Shows bring in money, they bring in tourism, and everything else that comes with that. The models that I want to use are here, the people I want to work with are here. I can only speak for myself but for me it made no sense to show anywhere else.
Excellent news. Finally, without giving too much away, what can we expect from Michael Bastian this season?
I really can’t give away much, but let me just say, we’ve got a couple of secrets up our sleeve: some big news coming out with this show. It’s going to be our biggest one, the most guests, the most everything.