We are doing our best to keep up on fashion news…specifically as it relates to your pocketbook! But the news hasn’t changed much lately. High-end fashion is adapting to the economic climate in ways it hasn’t before! The avant-garde looks on the runway five years ago were pieces of art that the rich and fashion-forward could occasionally indulge in. But today, they are overshadowed by the simple cross-seasonal designs that the high-end market is playing to. This recent article from the Associated Press describes how a member of the Spring 2010 audience at NY Fashion Week might have just as well been at a fall showing. This is just another way designers like Calvin Klein and Tommy Hilfiger are appealing to a cost-conscience audience. With wearable pieces that exist from one season to the next!

If the design-climate is changing…what does this mean for retailers?

Our favorite fashion financial guru, Ken Wengrod, sent me two recent articles describing what this might mean for luxury retailers. The first article, from the Economist, describes how exclusive no longer means expensive.  Sak’s Fifth Avenue, Bergdorf Goodman and other high-end department stores are no longer watching coveted brands fly off the shelves. Instead, luxury e-tailers are offering another platform for consumers to get these brands for less. I get these names in my inbox EVERY morning and I’m sure you do too. Websites like RueLaLa.com, Hautelook.com and Gilt.com offer luxury brands at special sale prices for a limited time. But make sure you have an invitation, because these sales are “exclusive”.

The second article, from the London Financial Times describes how some online forces including fashion blogs are convincing consumers to buy. Their influence is even beginning to move some from online companies to brick-and-mortar locations…the opposite of what we’re used to seeing in the luxury market.

I’m including this article because I know many of you are either designers or buyers of luxury brands. Information is power in this market. If your old strategies are no longer working to move product, you may need to consider an unconventional online alternative. If you have a success story you’re willing to share, please let us know. We’d like to know what you’ve tried that has worked! Social Networks, Twitter, Facebook and email blasts are just the beginning. The face of luxury fashion is changing. The real question will be…for how long?