just like the marketsNEW YORK — It used to be so simple at fashion shows: When stocks were soaring, skirts rose with them to mini length. When the markets headed down, hemlines dropped as well.
This year, it’s not so straightforward. Three days into New York’s Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week, luxury retail consultant Robert Burke was scratching his head trying to find any correlation between the runway’s different styles and the economy.
“Hemlines are all over the place, very much like the stock market,” said Burke, president of Robert Burke Associates.
In the past month, the Standard & Poor’s 500 dropped from 1121.06 on Aug. 10 to 1047.22 on Aug. 26, climbing back to 1109.55 on Sept. 10 for its biggest two-week gain since June. The 97 designers presenting spring 2011 collections this week feature similar ups and downs — with everything from micro-mini skirts to floor-swooping maxi pieces made with transparent organza and chiffon.
“We are living in a universe where there’s no hemline edict,” Fern Mallis, a fashion industry consultant, said. “The old adage doesn’t apply any longer.” Bloomberg News; Associated Press photo
