Shnorrors at Fweek

Although I've never been a big fan of Australian Fashion Week (apart from it getting lots of positive PR for the industry as a whole) I have a dislike  of the shnorrors who show their labels off-site during the show week.

Although they usually dress up their decisions in artistic hocus-pocus, the real reason is money. They don't want to part with their cash to take a stand at the show, believing they can do it cheaper and better by enticing buyers away to nearby hotel rooms - or lay on limos to ferry them to more distant showrooms.

Granted, with the cost of going in Fashion Week now running between $10,000 and $20,000 it does pose a burden on smaller, newer companies, but hiding out in a hotel or city showroom is not a very classy substitute. Although there is no law against it, the moral position is one of stealing. The fashion week people have risked their money and spent their time creating a fashion exhibition. They've also probably paid for certain overseas buyers to visit - although I won't pursue that subject because they get a bit touchy about it.  There are four classes of fashion exhibitor.

First is the regular, reliable label house that likes going in the show for reasons that go beyond visitor numbers and orders written. They just like being part of the scene.

Second is the designer label that used to go in the show but has 'outgrown' it. This is the type of company that is likely to hunker in a bunker in a nearby hotel, making noises to the effect that the new collection is too precious to be seen by unauthorised persons. The bank manager is probably also making noises to the effect that the overdraft is in danger of being seen by his boss.

Third is the highly refined designer label that wouldn't be seen dead at the show. However, it so happens that the label is opening the very same week as fashion week and so why not drop by for genuine fresh coffee and small, round shortbread biscuits.

And the fourth is the new talent that should be at the show but can't afford a bus ticket into town let alone several grand for a stand plus the accoutrements that go with it. These people's collections are a mixture of horse droppings and jewels - and it may not be apparent which is which on first look.

From year dot in the Australian fashion industry, the same problem has existed. There cannot, by virtue of financial mathematics, be a self-funding, professional show for new talent. The new talent can't afford the fashion show and the fashion show can't afford to let the new talent in for peanuts.

Now, if the government was serious about developing apparel design in this country, it would establish a subsidy scheme for young talent to show at fashion week and Fashion Exposed. However, giving the talent a year to make or break is not enough. It should be between three and five years from the establishment of the label. After that, its sink or swim, but at least the genuine talent will have risen to the top, maybe in a luxury cruiser or maybe still clinging to a life raft.

You can't blame Simon Lock for this situation, any more than you can blame young designers for being poor. If fact, you can't blame anybody. But it could be fixed.

Simon's got to be one of the best talkers ever in the fashion industry. What about he gets his jaw muscles grinding away at the Federal Government. No doubt he's done some grinding there before so he knows the ropes. He'd need a weeding-out committee to decide on a certain number of young designers for the shows. Once selected, these labels would do the show for free, including some business coaching.

Go Bernie!
Did I do a misery guts on Myer, saying that it couldn't work with so many stores and that it wouldn't make a profit? Yes I did, and now I'm hoeing into a big slice of humble pie with crow sauce.

CEO Bernie Books, at one of his favoured supplier functions at Sydney's Art Gallery, lifted his trumpet and gave some powerful blasts. Net profit is up on last year, the company has paid  $380 million off  its purchase debt, earnings are up 23.5 per cent to $152 million (ebit) and 80 per cent of the 101 business improvement projects are now complete.
Myer will open nine new stores by the end of this year and by 2010 will have no less that 80 operating throughout Australia.

There more, and it's all good, except that many suppliers are grumbling about being screwed. And there's a newly arrived screwor, one, Penny Wynn, director of buying.

By Fraser McEwing