Fall 2009 Fashion Week: A Month Away & Still A Mess

In less than a month, New York Fall 2009 Fashion Week kicks off, yet if you’re anything like us, you still have no idea what the hell is going on. The locations, times, parties, even a cohesive list of participants are M.I.A.; the Fashion Week schedule remains disturbingly ambiguous.

Yet, every single day, more news (mainly disappointing) trickles in, and tales of the latest canceled show or the most recent designer to downgrade to a presentation continue to erode the little optimism we have left for the new season. As of now, Fall 2009, in NYC at least, looks very, very bleak.

Here’s some of the latest Fashion Week developments (try not to get too depressed):

– Peter Som won’t be presenting his Fall 2009 collection — on a runway, at least. Thanks to his split from Creative Studios, he lacks the funds to put on his usual stately spectacle, and may manage to scrap together a presentation instead, but even those modest plans are tentative at best. We wish him luck!

– Obedient Sons & Daughters are not only pulling out Fashion Week, they are shuttering their operations altogether! R.I.P. — we hardly knew thee. This doesn’t bode well for the other burgeoning upstarts who cut their teeth in NYC. We secretly fear for Ruffian, Band of Outsiders, and the other edgy yet fledgling metropolitan brands we’ve come to know & love.

– Australians take note: Sass & Bide, for the second season in a row, will bypass a New York show. It’s a shame, too: their runway displays — thanks to People’s Revolution — are always a riot. And we can’t expect Rock & Republic to pick up that baton, either: they will be presenting in Paris this time. Diesel! Our fashion community desperately turns to you — don’t let us down!

– Some sunnier news: For William Rast — aka Justin Timberlake’s pet project — the show will go on. However, even celebrity lines are scaling back the spectacle: JT will not actually perform during Fashion Week, as was originally planned.

– As you’ve heard, two of NY Fashion Week’s biggest names — Vera Wang and Betsey Johnson! — are cutting costs and presenting their Fall collections in salon settings. Zac Posen, one of Bryant Park’s biggest draws, remains undecided on his Fashion Week plans.

– It’s not just the designers who are suffering, the models are, too! With magazines folding left and right, and an unhealthy Fashion Week forecast, there’s less work to go around. We caught wind today that Elite has let 25 models go, and is axing some of its staff. Considering Elite’s status, we can’t help but wonder what this means for some of the “boutique” agencies and their models.