The NY Fashion week is around the corner - Fashion week starts on Feb 1 and goes on until Feb 9. And to help you figure our the dates, events, and times of the show, online fashion magazine Zoozoom.com has launched a Google mashup fashion week map.

The Fall Fashion week starts with designers such as Angle Chang, and David Chu presenting their designs on Feb 1, and ends with Ralph Lauren and Tommy Hilfiger presentations on Feb 9th. Naeem Khan, our favorite Indian designer presents his fall styles on Feb 4.

Join the crowd even if you are fashionably late!!

Not that you would, but if you are ever wondering about what happens at a fashion show, here is a little rundown by Roopal Patel, the Senior Woman’s Fashion Director at Bergdorf Goodman. Here is an exerpt:

9am
I threw out yesterday’s show tickets and got today’s ready, answered e-mails on my Blackberry and checked voicemails. I then did some stuff around the apartment so I’d be ready for a week of leaving home at 8 am and getting home at midnight.

A few lines down, she says…

9 pm
I just got home and am going to take a long hot bath and get to bed early so I’m ready for a long and full day tomorrow.

What? Come home early? I hope the rest of the Fashion Week is more interesting!

Organised by the Hong Kong Trade Development Council (TDC), World Boutique, Hong Kong will be staged at the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre from January 17 - 20, 2006. This is the fourth time that the show is being hosted.

Here is a link to the webcast from 2005 trade show.

Here is the link to the 2006 Hong Kong Fashion Week Show.

Preliminary reports indicate that garment sales have been rather dismal this year.

“Based on what we’ve heard and seen so far, the fashion apparel stores and department stores are going to be hit with lower profits,” said Kurt Barnard, president of Retail Forecasting Group, which tracks industry trends and consumer spending patterns. The firm surveyed spending of consumers around the United States and noted more aggressive sale signs in windows. “Whatever strengths fashion apparel did show came from deep markdowns,” Barnard said.

Read more here

Clothing maker Tommy Hilfiger on Friday agreed to sell itself for $1.6 billion to private equity firm Apax Partners. Apax will buy Hilfiger shares at $16.80 per share in cash, representing a 5 per cent premium over Thursday’s closing price of $16.

Tommy Hilfiger, founder, will continue as principal designer after completion of the deal which is slated for the spring. David Dyer, chief executive, will step down and be replaced by Fred Gehring, head of Hilfiger Europe.

Hilfiger was a major brand in the late ninetees with growing popularity among teens. The brand reached its zenith when it became the favorite apparel brand of rappers and quickly became the uniform of the inner city youth with its associated “street culture”. But the star of Hilfiger faded in early 2000 when rappers started releasing their own brands. Today JayZ has his own brand, and Puff Daddy has introduced his own brand under the name of “Sean John” which gave Hilfiger a run for the money.

Yet, Hilfiger brand had a wholesale revenue of $650 million in US, with business likely to decline further in 2006. Hilfiger brand has become over exposed, and cheap. By merchandising the brand widely, Hilfiger has lost its luster. What Hilfiger needs is to connect with the street the way it did in the mid ninetees focussing on bringing back the “edge” the inner city youth seeks in the clothing they wear.

With Apax Partners investing money in Hilfiger it may be possible. But the window of opportunity is rather short.

The Chinese apparel jaggernaut continues to trounce its competitors every where. Here is an excerpt from the report put out by France Apparel Institute that suggests that China has been gaining ground in Europe despite the quotas.

In terms of market shares on EU’s import market, China got a 10.3 percent rise in the January-August period of 2005 with its share rising from 23 to 33 percent. India only gained 1 percent, by comparison. Other major suppliers outside China and India suffered a decline in market shares, especially Asian countries that together lost 7.7 percent.

India is the only country to escape unscathe, if you can call a gain of 1% “escaping unscathe”! This bodes poorly for all the developing countries that were banking on apparel exports to help their economy. More details here.