Our fashion and retail readers in the industry may already know of the knowledgeable Ms Horyn of The New York Times. She is, in The Women's Room's opinion, one of the best fashion writers in the world (we'll give you our 'top five' on later posting) and we love her because she has been observing the fashion industry (particularly in the US but not exclusively) for decades now and consequently knows of what she speaks. We love her articles in the NYT but we love her blog On The Runway more, because it's seems to be where she puts down her thoughts and general observations in a less formal and more accessible way. It's more like 'fashion chat'.
The blog has a great following and the community discussions following one of her postings is hugely informed (we think there are a lot of industry insiders writing incognito, the standard is so high) and is well worth a read if you need to know the inside track on a new designer, issues on pricing, how the NY Topshop is doing or the state of US retail, which is what the last couple of posts have been about.
We also are feeling a little smug because of Ms Horyn's recent post on the difficulties of giving up shopping (apparently shoppers at the Barneys store in New York buy stuff one day and return the goods the next because they are finding it so difficult to give up the actual act of shopping) and general retail behaviour in this downturn. You may remember that we talked about this here at The Women's Room in early January with a series of posts that started with Don't spend, sew! and Recession, what recession?
But our showing off aside, Ms Horyn tells an interesting tale on pricing in New York (the absurd pricing drops on designer styles make it sound worth a visit despite the poor exchange rate) and how influential celebrity spending is for New York boutiques. The States is a good 6 months ahead of us on recession behaviour, as they have been in it for longer, so if this is the case, should we all hold our purses tight till prices tumble? Discuss!
