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From Catwalk to Closet, Faster
This just might be the boldest fashion statement at the shows so far—letting shoppers actually buy the clothes.
![[buydirect]](http://si.wsj.net/public/resources/images/PJ-AT657_buydir_DV_20100216160312.jpg)
Getty Images
After Cynthia Rowley unveiled her line on Friday, above, versions were sold at a Manhattan gallery, below.
Christian Hansen for The Wall Street Journal
Some
designers are chipping away at one of the industry's most elite and
stubborn schedules: the six-month lag it takes for runway looks to
appear in stores, if they appear at all. Driving the change, they say,
is a desire to stay a step ahead of knock-offs and to win over
consumers after high-end clothing sales were battered by the economy.
The Web is also helping, making it possible for some designers to
circumvent traditional retailers and reach their customers directly.
Designer Norma Kamali began putting her new collections up for sale
on her Web site immediately after her presentation Monday. The designer
Cynthia Rowley appropriated her own runway designs and put the copies
up for sale immediately following her Friday show. Limited editions of
dresses, skirts and handbags were printed with photographic images and
patterns from her runway collection and offered at an art gallery store
for $320 apiece. Ms. Rowley also offered for sale to the public three
of her 34 runway samples immediately after her show, including a tassel
shell with a hand cut lace skirt, a tassel dress and a lace dress, each
priced at $4,800 as head-to-toe outfits. As of late Tuesday, none of
her runway originals had sold, but some of her copies had.
"You can't go into it expecting it to be big numbers," said New
York-based designer Derek Lam, who intends to begin testing
fresh-off-the-runway sales to the public later this year. "It's just a
way to get in touch with the people who are watching" the show,
particularly on the Internet.
The "buy now" experiments, if they spread, could alter how the
fashion industry functions. In the past, stirring demand for a
designer's collection was the role of glossy monthly magazines with
long lead times, such as Vogue and Elle. The editors attended the
runway shows and would feature designers' samples in editorial spreads
that hit newsstands months later. Retail buyers, meanwhile, placed bets
on styles with the greatest commercial potential, and the designers put
those styles into production.
![[BUYJ2]](http://si.wsj.net/public/resources/images/PJ-AT648_BUYJ2_DV_20100216203045.jpg)
Halston
Above,
pieces from the Halston line were offered online the day after a 2008
runway show. Below, the first 50 of Rebecca Minkoff's 'Bada Boum'
shirts sold out in 24 hours.
![[BUYJ3]](http://si.wsj.net/public/resources/images/PJ-AT649_BUYJ3_DV_20100216203159.jpg)
Rebecca Minkoff
The
typical six-month gap has been blamed as contributing to last year's
11% decline in global sales of designer clothing, as measured by
consultants Bain & Co. Part of the problem, designers say, is that
copycats and chains like H&M and Zara, called fast-fashion
retailers, are able to quickly replicate styles and sell them at lower
prices. For instance, the sports bra, biker shorts and the so-called
"football" clutch purse all moved quickly from the Alexander Wang
runway to mass market retailers last year, as did Stella McCartney's
oversized silk blouses.
Fashion has "an industry problem," designer Donna Karan said,
referring to the delay. The solution, she added, is "redesigning the
whole system," though the difficulties of that are huge. Neither her
Donna Karan collection nor her DKNY lines sold styles directly from the
runway this season, and she said she has no plans to do so anytime
soon.
Beyond production challenges, designers also risk angering retailers
by cannibalizing demand for the line when it hits stores later.
"Fashion shows are for the retail buyers," said designer Diane von
Furstenberg, who said she's not interested in direct-from-the-runway
sales right now.
Ms. Kamali said she hasn't gotten pushback from retailers such as
Barneys New York and Bergdorf Goodman, in part because she has changed
the way she produces goods so that the retailers can get them at the
same time. Ms. Kamali moved all production of her high-end designer
line, as well as a separate collection for eBay, to factories in the
U.S., making it easier for her to have stock ready to sell as soon as
she unveiled her line publicly.
Some retailers doubt the high-fashion houses will be able to pull
off immediate sales, because of the elaborate nature of their designs.
"It can happen for certain vendors that can execute in a shorter time
frame," but "it won't happen here," said Saks Fifth Avenue's fashion
market director Colleen Sherin, after Carolina Herrera's show, which
featured ball gowns and luxurious sportswear with beading—none for
immediate sale.
Another question mark: Runways can feature clothing months before it
is in season. "You would kind of wonder if a customer would really want
something six months in advance" of the season it was intended for,
said Ann Stordahl, executive vice president for women's apparel at
Neiman Marcus.
Still, experiments in moving quickly from the runways have been
gaining momentum. A big leader, Burberry PLC, in September made two
trench coats available for purchase via its Web site 48 hours after its
London runway show. It stoked demand by sending a link to 800,000
people in Europe and the U.S., announcing that the show would be live
streamed with some styles available for pre-order. Burberry invited
viewers' comments to see which looks were most popular.
![[BUYJ1]](http://si.wsj.net/public/resources/images/PJ-AT647_BUYJ1_DV_20100216163811.jpg)
Burberry
This Burberry trench coat went on sale right after the September show.
The
coats, priced at $3,000 and $4,000, went up for sale, and orders had to
be placed within one week, creating a sense of urgency. That approach
is believed to appeal to the "aspirational" drive of some buyers, who
might be more willing to splurge to buy something that's perceived as
limited edition, or hard for others to get. Those who placed orders 48
hours after the show got the coats in three to four weeks, roughly
three months ahead of their main arrival in stores. Burberry says it
sold all of the coats made available for pre-order, but did not
disclose the quantities. "These customer orders went straight to the
factory versus waiting months for our wholesale and retail teams to buy
them and then placing their orders," said Angela Ahrendts, Burberry
chief executive.
In the past, brands that tried the buy-now strategy had to rely on
third-party retailers, such as fashion Web sites, to pull it off.
Bonnie Takhar, Halston's chief executive officer, two years ago, made
available two fall styles for sale via online retailer Net-a-porter the
day after Halston's runway show. The move was an attempt to feed a
desire for instant gratification and, more important, to deal a blow to
knock-off artists. "We went directly to the market with styles that
were iconic," Ms. Takhar said. In so doing, "we put a rubber stamp on
it, and said, 'We own it.' "
The Web fashion retailer sold out of a $1,495 wool jersey shirt day
dress within 45 minutes, and sold out of the other style, a $1,795 silk
evening dress, within several days. Halston and the Web retailer
declined to disclose how many units were available, but a person
familiar with the matter estimated that there were 500 units, combined,
for sale.
"People are getting into a 'buy now' mentality, and I'd like to be
ahead of that," said Rebecca Minkoff, who produced about 50 "Bada Boum"
shirts that she began selling on her Web site the night of her show
last week. Within 24 hours, her stock sold out and she had arranged for
another 100 to be produced.
During her presentation to retail buyers and the fashion press, Ms.
Minkoff herself wore the shirt, as did two models. "If I didn't sell it
immediately, somebody else would have it in their window in a week. At
least this way, they know it comes from Rebecca Minkoff," she said.
Gabriela
Anastasio, 24, saw Ms. Minkoff's presentation in Manhattan and ordered
the shirt online a few hours later. She was motivated, she said, to
support the ideal of greater "democracy" in fashion. "Usually I find
the things I covet most require some waiting, so it's great to be able
to get something just after the show, or to know that you'll get it in
due time," Ms. Anastasio said.
French designer Roland Mouret is taking it a step further:
pre-selling his RM line to retailers before showing it on the runway,
so that his styles will hit stores just a month after his show.
"The new reality of fashion will be to have the clothes right after
the show," he said. Shoppers "don't want to wait six months and don't
want to see copies."
—Rachel Dodes contributed to this article.
Write to Vanessa O'Connell at vanessa.o'connell@wsj.com