Sat 5/7
For more than two decades, Fern Mallis has been the face of the fashion industry.
First as an IMG Fashion Senior VP and later with the Council of Fashion Designers, Mallis, who has appeared on reality shows such as America’s Next Top Model and Project Runway, now controls her own fashion and design consulting firm. She’s also involved with numerous charitable organizations and recently published new book Fashion Lives: Fashion Icons with Fern Mallis.
It’s for all of these reasons that the Godmother of Fashion is coming to Northeast Ohio to be the keynote speaker of this year’s Fashion Week Cleveland. The black-tie reception with designer runway show takes place Sat 5/7 at The Arcade.
CoolCleveland talked to Mallis about Fashion Week Cleveland, the evolution of fashion and silver Mylar spacesuits (which may or may not be the rage this season).
Fashion Week Cleveland is known for its focus on education. Why is that important?
I think education is important for everywhere, for everything, for every industry and every business. I don’t think there’s nearly enough focus in our country on education: Educating young designers, educating any young people to fulfill their destiny and make their contribution to society. I can’t think of anything more important than focusing on education.
You famously coined the term “regional fashion week.” What was the concept?
They’re very different fashion weeks. They can’t be compared. When I go to more of what I call regional fashion weeks, people say how does this compare to New York? Well, it doesn’t. Certain elements — runways, people, photographers, make-up artists, designers, models — are the same, but in New York, Paris, Milan and London, these are the main capitals where all of the new looks and trends are put out by the established fashion brands, as well as many emerging talents.
So what do regional fashion weeks provide the industry?
Whether it’s Cleveland or Chicago or Charleston or St. Louis, there are talented people in all of these cities who are doing things and who are designing nice collections. They deserve to have an opportunity to have their moment in the sun, to see their looks on models with hair and makeup and accessories walking a runway. That’s a very exciting opportunity. Now with the Internet, all of these people can have a business. They don’t really need to be in New York to try and compete in this huge pool. They can start locally and develop their clientele and learn their craft in a place where it’s not quite as cutthroat.
Congratulations on your new book Fashion Lives: Fashion Icons with Fern Mallis, which came out of your high-profile 92nd Street Y interview series.
I’ve been doing this series now for five years, and the book is a compilation of 19 of the first interviews that I did. Honestly they’re remarkable interviews, everybody from Calvin Klein, Donna Karan and Tommy Hilfiger to Tom Ford and Marc Jacobs. They’re not all designers. There are some fashion insiders. It’s really stories I find fascinating. How they became who they are. I’m not talking to them about spring versus fall collections or this look versus that look. It really is about where they grew up, the input they got, how did they know they were going to be a designer? What were the clues and how did they do it? How did they build a business from zero? All of these people started from nothing and built million and billion-dollar businesses. How do you do that?
Looking back over your career, does fashion mean the same thing it did decades ago?
Yes and no. That’s a hard question. Everything has changed and everything is changing, even while we’re speaking. Having technology at our fingertips and our disposal has totally transformed the business and the industry. Fashion as fashion is beautiful clothes and beautiful accessories. People still love that. People still covet that. Nothing replaces seeing beautiful clothes on a beautiful model walking down a runway or in a great ad campaign. Women and men all love it. The pervasiveness of social media is causing a seismic shift in the fashion industry right now, where people are questioning who exactly they’re doing the shows for. Should they be for the buyers and the press? Should they be for the consumers who have been seeing these pictures on Instagram or Snapchat? It’s causing interesting conversations to happen. I think there will be a lot of changes that will be very apparent in September when Fashion Weeks in the big cities starts all over again.
Finally, where do you see fashion going in the near future?
It’s going along on its course. If you asked me this question in 1995, when people were saying we’re looking ahead to the year 2000 and the new millennium, people were going to be in silver Mylar spacesuits. Things didn’t quite pan out that way. We’re not all walking around with helmets and spacesuits, but we are all walking around in a lot of interesting fabrics that are technologically driven. If you’re an athlete, it’s extraordinary what the textiles and technology has done with heat, warmth and sweating. I think there’s a much more casualization thing going on in fashion. Athleisure wear has become the category that everybody talks about. People are much less formal. Who knows where it will be in the future? I think more and more people are working from home, working from their computers at Starbucks. Now offices are filled with people wearing hoodies, thank you, Mark Zuckerberg. That’s the uniform at work. It’s a different world now.
Just to let you know, I just drove by a guy pushing a cart and wearing a silver Mylar spacesuit.
[laughs] There you go. Maybe it wasn’t so far off.
Cleveland, OH 44114