The Fashion Statement: Shop Like Europeans

by Kristin Young (RSS feed)
Sep 15th 2009 at 10:01AM

At New York fashion week, you have access to throngs of fashion journalists, stylists, celebrity stylists and buyers. I was dying to ask these stylish people how they have navigated shopping in a downturn. Are they shopping? Are they cutting back? Have their buying habits changed?

Yes, yes and yes (except one self-proclaimed shopaholic who said if she allowed herself to buy one thing, she'd fall off the wagon).

Answers like this came back unanimously: "I used to buy cheap and volume and now I buy fewer things that are better quality and I take care of them."

Timeless pieces top people's lists for fall. A midnight wool coat. A pair of black pumps. The perfect white shirt. An LBD, of course. And all are planning to make these purchases from well-established designers.

There's little talk of wear-'em-once pieces like plaid trousers, It handbags or look-at-me shoes. If buying more of a statement piece, like the one pictured above from Tuleh (Spring, 2010), they'll wear it a million different ways. In other words, they're shopping like Europeans, not Americans.

"I'm focusing in on what I need and I need a black dress. " said Jennifer Lee Rosth, a fashion editor based in Austin, Texas. "I've been shopping my closet for two years. I was so glad that I had been an American before because I had 15 black dresses. But, now, I'll be more choosy."

Tags: Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week, Mercedes-benzFashionWeek, New York Fashion Week, NewYorkFashionWeek, timeless pieces, TimelessPieces, Tuleh