Recession on the runway

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From Women’s Wear Daily today comes word that Valentino will opt out of the men’s runway shows in Milan and Paris. Marni, too, is foregoing the runway.

Valentino, whose namesake founder stepped down a year ago, is facing financial challenges like so many fashion brands now. In fact, on the canapé circuit in the past few days, people have been talking of little else — how Vogue’s Anna Wintour is having to be price-conscious for the first time in her career, how Harper’s Bazaar’s Glenda Bailey is planning a $500 or less issue, how Diane von Furstenberg and Vera Wang are “rethinking” whether to show on the runway, how there are “For Lease” signs up and down Madison Avenue in New York, how nobody is having any holiday parties and on and on.

Emanuel Ungaro did have a party for its young designer, 24-year-old Miami native Esteban Cortazar, on Wednesday night at the Chateau Marmont. And the starlets dutifully showed up in their borrowed frocks. But one couldn’t help but wonder how he’s going to make it. Emanuel retired in 2003 and the brand has been in turmoil for a while now, with three different creative directors before Cortazar took over in December of last year.

The brand was purchased in 1995 by the Silicon Valley-based venture capitalist Asim Abdullah, who had no prior fashion industry experience. The very charming Abdullah was at the buffet dinner the other night, and he even admitted the economy is stinging and that the Ungaro women’s collection isn’t where it should be. To that end, he’s bringing in people to help, including a top name from Balmain. Abdullah added that he believes Cortazar has the potential to be a “rock star,” and that he is learning quickly. Still, it’s difficult to be convinced.

Cortazar’s first show in March was pretty enough — ethereal gowns, lots of pastels — but not groundbreaking. I missed his second show but it didn’t generate much buzz. But is it really Cortazar’s fault? It seems unfair to put a designer of his age and experience level in such a pressure cooker of a job, at the helm of a Paris fashion maison.

It will be interesting to see how the game of designer musical chairs and trying to make old labels new is going to play out now that the economy has gone south. As we embark on a new season of women’s runway shows in February, we will have new designers debuting at Valentino and Celine, plus the relative newcomers at Chloe, Gianfranco Ferre and Ungaro. And the stores can’t even sell what they’ve got on the racks now.

Then again, who knows how many designers will even show? It’s going to be a wild ride. And maybe, just maybe, it will cull the herd.

-- Booth Moore

Photo: Fashion designer Estaban Cortazar and actress Melissa George at the Chateau Marmont on Wednesday night. Credit: Splash News / Rush Einhorn