If we can believe Page Six, the latest word at Vogue is that Anna Wintour‘s shopping holiday might be history. For the third year running, the global initiative forced fashion’s most famous personalities to loiter at department stores and boutiques while hobnobbing with the unwashed masses, trying to lure credit cards out of purses in this ailing economy.
But some Vogue “insiders” told the gossip rag that Fashion’s Night Out creates “too much work for the magazine” and doesn’t actually generate very much in the way of retail sales to make up for the organizational costs. Lots of people, Cathy Horyn included, enjoy hating on the event, but I’d be too sad to see it end so soon. The silly celebrity/designer mashups (dear Dolce & Gabbana: what were you thinking when you signed on Justin Bieber? His fans haven’t even hit puberty yet), the street traffic, the flash mobs… when it comes to New York holidays, there’s no equivalent. The financials might be a real issue, I wouldn’t know, but when it comes to alleged comments made by Vogue staffers, it sounds like they’re just tired. NYFW Fatigue is a real thing, even though it hasn’t yet been recognized by the DSM-IV (give it time!) and it sounds like there’s some burn-out happening at Conde Nast. Fashion’s Night Out doesn’t need to end, it just needs to be paired with a second holiday I’ll call Fashion’s Day Off.
[Racked]
