Multiple fashion insiders tell Page Six that Saks Global’s bankruptcy is casting its shadow over this February’s Fashion Week, as brands tighten their belts and rethink big-ticket runway spectacles and splashy after parties.
Sources say the calendar — typically lighter than September’s slate anyway — feels especially threadbare this season, with noticeably scaled-back bashes.
In January, Saks Global — which owns Saks Fifth Avenue, Neiman Marcus and Bergdorf Goodman — filed for bankruptcy protection, leaving many designers and brands unpaid for merchandise already shipped.
High-fashion financier Gary Wassner, CEO of Hilldun Corp., which fronts money to brands for orders shipped to retailers and then collects from the stores, works with 120 brands that sell to Saks Fifth Avenue.
“The cost of a fashion show is significant for a small brand, more expensive for larger brands,” Wassner tells Page Six. “Because of the environment and losses many of these brands are going to have to take by virtue of the bankruptcy and by virtue of uncertainty, some brands have chosen to pause this season and I know some who have chosen to hold off indefinitely.”
Many brands are waiting to get paid by Saks for things they have shipped.
“So many people lost so much money,” a fashion industry insider tells Page Six. “People can’t afford to do shows or parties. A lot of people shipped and they will never see that money.”
We’re told a basic fashion costs $300,000 to produce and parties can cost a brand between $60,000 and $500,000.
“Budgets aren’t there, people are trying to save on everything they can,” says the source. “Everything you planned to do externally including marketing, you have to pull back on what you can.”
Another fashion source tells us, “People are hurt and recalibrating. There is a lot of unknown right now and companies need to reprioritize what is important. The world has changed between early January and now.”
Fern Mallis, who started Mercedes Benz Fashion Week, tells us, that the Saks Global Chapter 11 “is definitely weighing on the industry and having some impact.”
Mallis does note however, that there are other factors for the leanness in parties, including the frigid temperatures and fewer of people coming in from overseas.
Another source brought up that Fashion Week this year falls on the three day holiday weekend, when most people have plans with family.
But it’s not all doom and gloom. There are still a few parties going on.
Fellow department store Nordstrom held a chic fete hosted by CFDA chairman Thom Browne and CEO Steven Kolb. The bash drew Vogue’s Chloe Malle and designers Joseph Altuzarra, Stacey Bendet, Cynthia Rowley, Sergio Hudson and more.
Ralph Lauren pulled an A-list packed front row with Anne Hathaway, Lana Del Rey, Ariana DeBose, Morgan Spector, Rebecca Hall and Lili Reinhart and Marc Jacobs show brought out Sofia Coppola, Monica and Anna Sui.
We hear Christian Siriano is doing a dinner for the models walking in his show and VIP clients at the Eighth, a new cocktail den and restaurant opening this week. Marc Bouwer, The Daily, and Kate Barton will also hold events at the spot.
Celebrity stylist Derek Warburton’s magazine Gurus is having a party at Maison Close.
Susan Alexandra is celebrating a store opening and Jennifer Behr and Julia Hobbs are launching a tiara collection at Climax books.
Meanwhile, Geoffroy van Raemdonck, the former Neiman Marcus chief executive, will take the reins as Saks Global’s chief executive. Darcy Penick, former president of Bergdorf Goodman, has been appointed president and chief commercial officer.
According to the New York Times, “Saks said it had secured roughly $1.75 billion to help finance the company through bankruptcy, much of it coming from its bondholders. Saks said it intended to emerge from bankruptcy later this year, and it expected to honor all customer programs, make payments to vendors and continue to pay employees.”
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