Geographic (Lindsey)

Travelling light: fashion adjusts to demands of climate change
Rise of 'cruise' collections reflects all-year attraction of warmer-weather clothes
Edward Helmore in New York
The Guardian,
Tuesday http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/2008/may/27/fashion.climatechange

Changing trends and styles are the stuff that the fashion industry is built on. But some of the biggest changes the multibillion-dollar global industry is undergoing have more to do with global warming than the usual shifts in season and taste.
In New York over the past two weeks, international designers have been showing their resort - or cruise - collections. It's an increasingly profitable avenue for the industry, promoted with expensive catwalk shows and celebrity-studded parties. The warm-weather designs, which arrive in the shops in November, are sold alongside winter clothes which, fashion observers say, may no longer be very wintry anyway.
"The fashion seasons and the weather seasons are equally off-kilter," said W magazine's Trina Lombardo. "They'll put bikinis in the stores in February, and winter clothes in the stores in July when the weather won't turn cold till December. Everyone's talking about season-less clothes, or clothing for all climates."
Originally designed for wealthy women going on beach holidays in January and February, the once-niche cruise collections are an increasingly important component of the fashion business.
Of the several dozen presentations over the past two weeks, designer John Galliano won praise for his fantasy fiesta-inspired Christian Dior catwalk show in New York; Chanel's Karl Lagerfeld threw an Esther Williams-inspired pool party in Miami with a display of synchronised swimmers; and at Calvin Klein, designer Francisco Costa showed sexy, sophisticated clothes that drew acclaim.
Some designers see changes in their business to do with climate; others say that they have clients all over the world, particularly in the increasingly important eastern and Russian markets, who need clothes for different temperatures at different times from the western market. "Women are demanding new things outside the typical season, but it's also climate-related," said Harriet Quick, fashion features editor of Vogue. "You can now buy lighter things all year round."
The confusion between winter and summer in the fashion industry has been growing for a number of years, said designer Narciso Rodriguez. "The materials we used to work with aren't cutting it, so we try to find new ways to address the issue. People aren't really interested in heavy winter coats. They want year-round materials because the seasons have become so erratic.
"In the past, if I designed a collection for winter that had 20 wool fabrics, I now have 12 and many other different kinds of materials," said Rodriguez. "The season shift has become a very real part of our work and it has definitely affected how we design and the way we go about doing business."
As the seasons blur, the industry is adding subsets to the traditional autumn-winter, spring-summer arrangement: pre-collection, cruise or resort, high summer and Vogue's own special designation, "trans-seasonal".
"Women want things that can cross climates and seasons," said Quick. "They want clothes that are neither high summer nor deep winter."
Warm weather clothes are now offered from the end of November - with the arrival of cruise - to August. But even this is confused. The Wall Street Journal reported last week that department stores are putting on early sales, and winter designs already being pushed on to shop floors.
"You can no longer always tell what you are looking at," said Liz Walker, executive fashion editor at Marie Claire. "A winter fashion show may have no coats or sweaters, and the only thing that reminds you it's a summer show is if you see a girl in bikini.
"It's definitely to do with climate change. Ten years ago you knew you were going to have to shoot coats and sweaters in Russia or Iceland, but nobody wants those clothes anymore."
The typical, twice-yearly fashion tour of New York, London, Milan and Paris in January and September is being extended with the emphasis on lighter clothes. "Now that there is a longer season for selling, resort collections can be easy to produce and profitable collections for designers," said US Vogue's Hamish Bowles.
But with the gloomy economic outlook, there is concern that consumers may decide to spend less freely on fashion. Last week, the world's leading fashion designers put on their best, most glamorous evocations of winter spent luxuriating in the Caribbean, to ensure that won't happen.