Recession’s Latest Victims: New York Fashion Week, Eluxury, Obedient Sons

Amid news of a staggering new unemployment rate comes word of increased closures and cutbacks within the fashion industry. One institution being hit especially hard: New York Fashion Week. Before the New Year designers from Vera Wang and Betsey Johnson to Temperley announced they’d be watching this coming Fashion Week from the sidelines. Monique Lhuillier and Naeem Khan soon added their names the list of NYFF no-shows -- a roster than now includes 30 fewer designers than last season. Now, Peter Som is announcing he won’t be participating either after a recent split with Creative Design Studios (a division of Lord & Taylor), with whom he partnered less than a year ago.

Meanwhile, New York has announced it will temporarily discontinue its bi-annual fashion supplement, LOOK. Eluxury.com—an LVMH-backed, high-end e-commerce site—is shuttering its virtual shop doors for at least the next six months, although they told told WWD the decision transpired not because of “the site’s financial performance, but rather because many of the brands it sells have developed their own online presence.” Also closing up shop: Obedient Sons, the brand beloved by many a fashion folk (CFDA included) and, until now, backed by Green Day’s guitarist. Fortunately for fans of the husband-and-wife-designed line, there is a potential upside: Swaim and Christina Hutson will release an independently backed, brand-new line on February 14, the second day of Fashion Week.