NEW YORK, Sept. 10 (UPI) -- Fashion mavens are apparently not terrorist targets.
As New York kicked off Fashion Week for the spring 2005 season Wednesday, not a single metal detector was to be seen at the tents of Bryant Park in central Manhattan, where most of the shows will take place until Sept. 15. Nor were fashion show-goers even asked to open their bags for a quick peak at their belongings by security guards. There was no visible presence of a police force either, except for those trying to ticket the limousine drivers waiting for their VIPs to come out of the shows and whisk them to an after-party downtown.
In a city that remains a prime terrorist target and a number of financial institutions including the New York Stock Exchange and Citicorp headquarters have been specifically been threatened, according to the U.S. government, the fashion world has been strangely removed from the fear and the ugliness ensuing from heightened terror alerts.
The street in front of the headquarters of Conde Nast, publishers of Vogue magazine, was clogged amid an endless stream of limos picking up and dropping off exquisitely dressed editors and executives from the company. Yet there were no security guards in sight, except for the ones inside the building to prevent fashion fans from running up to the offices of Vogue editor Anna Wintour.
In short, security was non-existent for fashion shows that ranged from Kenneth Cole to Nicole Miller.
So with a pair of Manolo Blahnik stilettos, a Pucci-patterned pencil skirt paired with a close-fitting shirt, and an attitude to match, few would have had any problems making it into the reception tent, the gateway to where the bulk of designer shows were taking place. Meanwhile, snagging a seat near the runway could have been accomplished with an official invitation coupled with a look of carefully calculated boredom.
And yet the fashion show and its twenty minutes of throbbing music, bright lights, waif-like models, and irrationally overpriced garments could easily be the target of anger for any terrorist, anarchist, or anti-globalization protester. It is, after all, the ultimate scene of market capitalism and some would argue debauchery, with young, single, and unimaginably thin women parading in front of the camera-wielding paparazzi, often unashamed to bare almost all to the world.
What's more, the fashion industry could be named as one of the biggest culprits of U.S. cultural imperialism, as youths worldwide covet for Tommy Hilfiger and the desire for the sleek look of Donna Karan knows no boundaries. Fashion is certainly a way in which the aesthetics of the country is passed on across continents.
Meanwhile, fashion designers too are sometimes politically involved themselves, one of the most notable being Kenneth Cole, who is married to Maria Cuomo, daughter of former governor of New York Mario Cuomo.
Cole's show Wednesday, which kicked off the New York season, started with the showing of a video urging fashionistas to vote.
"November 2 is not a dress rehearsal," said the tagline concluding the video, while the thumping music that models walked to on the catwalk repeated politically motivate lyrics such as "Make love not war," and "Let's kiss not fight."
The clothes themselves were understated and very much a line that Main Street retailers could embrace, from simple white spaghetti-strap dresses to casual beige trench coats hitting just above the knee.
Perhaps the most blatantly opinionated show so far was that of Tara Subkoff, designer of the Imitation of Christ label. Renowned as an anti-establishment brand, Subkoff's show featured four U.S. flags hanging from the scaffolding, with a backdrop of Middle Eastern landscape photos. The show started with a girl reciting the Pledge of Allegiance, then featured men in camouflage colors as if to represent them as anonymous soldiers, before women in flowing dresses appeared. The clothes themselves were more reminiscent of Ancient Greece and Rome, rather than the Middle East.
Yet for the most part, politics and clothes don't go together, and designers want to keep it that way.
Not that the fashion world hasn't been hurt by the terrorist strikes three years ago. The Sept. 11 attacks occurred in the midst of Fashion Week, which forced designers to abruptly end their seven days of round-the-clock partying and showing of collections all around Manhattan, and it also pushed them to postpone their shows the following spring. In additions, retailers saw clothes sales plunge as it struggled with a double whammy of post-Sept. 11 shock and an economic recession.
But sales have markedly improved over the past 12 months, and industry analysts expect demand to keep going up for a while. Indeed, the National Retail Federation reported that clothing sales increased by 2.4 percent so far this year compared to a year ago, and it expects demand to keep going strong.
Haute couture designer Arnold Scaasi, who has clothed Barbara Bush, Hillary Clinton, and Laura Bush, told Time Magazine that "clothes have nothing to do with politics...fashion is aesthetic, not political."
And perhaps that's why fashionistas still don't have to worry about being targeted by terrorists just yet.
