First, Anna Wintour proposed keeping stores open late for a night of shopping as a way to get the global retail economy out of its funk. This initiative has been supported by the international editions of Vogue and retailes. On Thursday, September 10, 2009, a night of original in-store activities, including personal appearances, makeovers and workshops, during extended shopping hours took place in fashion capitals all over the world. Let’s look closer how it was in each country.
New York City
“New York City, for one night, seemed to forget that there was a recession. Streets were packed, stores were crowded and gobs of people were carrying shopping bags on Madison Avenue. More than 800 stores held parties and kept their doors open until 11 p.m. Ms. Wintour’s appearance in a Queens shopping mall to kick off the event was a gesture to show that the idea of holding shopping parties during a recession was not, in her words, “elitist.” “We’re just hoping that our global fashion stimulus package works,” she said. Mayor Bloomberg (Mayor of the City of New York – F.C.) , once he arrived at Macy’s, said fashion was a $10 billion industry that employed 175,000 people in New York City, which has more apparel-related businesses than Paris. But it was impossible to gauge the immediate impact of the shopping parties, or whether they will have a long-term effect on consumer attitudes. Mr. Lundgren said he was confident that sales on Thursday night would at least cover the expense of keeping eight Macy’s stores nationwide open late for the promotion.” – The New York Times.
London
“The overall mood was jolly, but the evening wound down early, around 9:30 p.m., when everyone went home or to dinner. Most of the luxury/designer stores — Jimmy Choo, Tod’s, Chanel, Max Mara, Dover Street Market, DKNY, Camper — were packed and buzzy while other, more midmarket, branded stores were empty. There was some shopping going on, but the streets were certainly not packed, and the bags the shoppers were carrying were few and mostly small. It seemed that the names that are doing well continued to do well, while others are struggling. Overall, the whole night seemed a little strange, and very forced. Like, “Are we having fun yet?” - WWD
Athens
It is interesting, that Fashion’s Night Out Greece was dedicated to the “Anti-stigma” campaign – initiative of Athens municipality. All income from the sales of collectors T-shirts “Fashion’s Night Out” has been deposited in support of this program, which aims to erase discrimination and social stigmatization of social groups, which include people with disabilities, homeless, psychologically ill, immigrants, AIDS victims. Another interesting thing is that Greek fashion bloggers highly participated at this event, so Fashion’s Night Out Greece obtained only enthusiastic feedback.
“Imagine that you’re in a happy mood and you want to go shopping! And while downtown you find all shops open, with DJ sets playing up-beat music, bar tenders willing to give you free drinks, even sweet girls offering you ice-creams! And imagine, that you start exploring each and every shop with all your fellow fash-blogger friends and that Vogue photographers take pictures of you and people stop you to ask what all this is about. And on your way to Observatory where a live catwalk took place, you saw celebrities just outsite the shops (like Tamta outside .Lak) and that the shop windows instead of dummies had real life models!! AND IMAGINE that all this, ended up in a major party at CityLink where common people and fashion people, all danced and drunk their chocolate martini’s together! OK, now you get the idea of what Fashion’s Night Out was it all about!” – The SoHo Symposium Blog.
Photos: The NY Times, Fashion Stylist, Vogue.co.uk, Fashion Pants.
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