If it’s March, it must be Aspen. In October, it’s St. Louis. And in April, July, and September, it’s Atlanta.
Almost every month brings a fashion week to some part of the world giving what was once defined as exclusive shows of designer collections in fashion capitals around the globe a new twist. In recent years, fashion week has come to represent several days of fashion shows and events to promote local designers, retailers and economies in cities not generally known for fashion.
While some cities such as Chicago and Charleston have established fashion weeks that draw thousands of visitors and dollars to area businesses, Atlanta’s recent productions have been plagued with false starts, fake celebrity appearances, and last minute cancellations.
Atlanta International Fashion Week, which kicked off Wednesday, is already showing signs of trouble. Though billed as Atlanta’s “official” international fashion week, city officials said the title is misleading as the event is not city sponsored. Founder Paula Whittle, said she only advertised a partnership with Brand Atlanta – but that organization has been defunct since March. A celebrity signing on Thursday afternoon at the Adidas store in Lenox Square was missing a celebrity. “The celebrity cancelled at the last minute,” said Whittle who acknowledged her challenges in organizing multiple events.
Other Atlanta fashion weeks have had sparsely attended shows, 45-minute gaps between presentations, and in one case, a planner who promised shows in Centennial Olympic Park and an appearance from J. Lo, before disappearing without a trace. With each misstep, Atlanta’s fashion credibility takes a hit, said fashion insiders.
“It makes Atlanta look small town and we are anything but small town. We have everything that every other major city has, boutiques, designers and history,” said Randi Lane, president of Catwalk Productions, the company behind the runway presentations for upscale events such as Jeffrey Fashion Cares. “It takes money to produce these things, a lot of money.”
Many local fashion weeks are modeled after New York’s bi-annual runway presentations — 8 days of back-to-back fashion shows featuring the spring or fall collections of top U.S. designers. The shows take place under tents erected in Bryant Park for an audience of media, buyers and celebrity spectators. Smaller scale versions produced in cities such as Charleston and Montreal can cost anywhere from $500,000 to $1 million.
In Chicago, where Fashion Focus Chicago, a week-long series of fashion related events was launched in 2005, city backing has been key.
“We’ve seen a drop in corporate sponsorship this year, but having the city behind it has really allowed it to keep going,” said Melissa Gamble, the city’s director of fashion. “It takes so many different partners, retailers and the support of the fashion organizations and the schools,” she said of the smaller four-day celebration planned for October which includes three major fashions shows in Millennium Park.
Atlanta has had little success in mirroring such a coordinated effort despite being home to several fashion industry powerhouses.
“I’ve only been involved in one meeting and all the right people were involved except what I consider the most important part of that, being the city government and the Convention and Visitors Bureau,” said Lori Kisner, senior vice president of apparel for AmericasMart, Atlanta’s trade show organization.
Leigh Davis -Turner, Special Events Manager in the Mayor’s Office of Special Events, said she has met with would-be fashion week organizers, but none of the proposed events met the criteria for city sponsorship. “If someone wanted to do a fashion week outside in a park ... there is no provision for something like that based on the ordinance,” she said, referring to a city ordinance for outdoor events. The ordinance defines a city sponsored event as one fully financed by the city using city consultants and contractors, such as the Jazz Festival, or one that is executed by an entity that assumes responsibility for improving outdoor space for one year or more at no cost to the city, such as the Piedmont Park Conservancy.
Part of the challenge in garnering public or private support is proving that an Atlanta Fashion Week can yield a substantial economic return, and recent efforts have not been convincing.
“It hurts when you want to do something legitimate because you go to the sponsors and they’ve been burned,” said Kevin Knaus, an industry consultant who spent more than a year organizing Style Atlanta, a 2005 event that counted General Motors, Atlanta Magazine and the Atlanta Convention and Visitors Bureau as sponsors and brought Vogue Magazine’s Andre Leon Talley to town as a guest. It showcased the work of some of Atlanta’s noted fashion and interior designers such as Spanx founder Sara Blakely and interior designer John Oetgen and concluded with a black-tie gala. “We invited press from the Southeast and we did it to promote business in Atlanta, not to make money,” said Knaus who is frustrated with the latest crop of faux fashion weeks. Knaus hoped to produce another Style Atlanta, but recognized the need for greater support and thanks to the sluggish economy, it hasn’t been there, he said.
Meanwhile, cities like Charleston have stepped up with the desire to claim the title as the southeast’s premiere fashion destination. Charleston Fashion Week, launched in 2007, has grown each year, said Misty Lister Johnson, marketing director for Charleston Magazine, which produces the event. In 2009, 33 runway shows drew 5,200 attendees from 30 states and other countries. An emerging designer show attracted applications from designers across the southeast region including Atlanta and participants have gone on to gain national recognition, Lister Johnson said. The goal now is to spotlight Charleston as the fashion capital of the South.
“It breaks my heart,” said Knaus of Atlanta’s squandered potential. “We don’t know how to promote our own city.”
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