在今年的时装季期间，我就时尚、尤其是时装周的未来问遍了业内各色人以及各家品牌，立马得到了博柏利(Burberry)与汤姆•福特(Tom Ford)的反馈：它们未来将把重心从T型台发布会转向“展后即卖”( “ready-to-buy”)模式，即时装从秀场展示到销售不再有6个月时间差，而是在T型台展出后、直接在网店及实体门店销售。如果这种做法广为推行，则标志着时尚界的惊天巨变——着眼于更注重产品销售的时装秀模式;这同样引发诸多问题：时装周该何去何从、抑或甚至说我们是否还需要它。
From designer to chief executive, and from buyer to publicist, the responses have been asvaried as the many different business models that might allow for the new world order. Somehave embraced the idea as a necessary step to keep fashion moving forward and the customerengaged. Others have been alarmed: they argue that the time it takes for stock to arrive instore is vital in building desire in the consumer, and that the new approach would crush thewholesale system — and thereby the nascent fashion labels which depend on those earlyorders that make production possible.
无论从设计师到创意总监、还是从买家到公关人员，他们的反馈形形色色，就如同因应时尚界全新格局而派生出的商业模式一样五花八门。有些人赞同上述理念，认为这是让时尚业不断发展以及消费者深度参与其中的必由之路;其他人则感到恐慌：他们认为货源从预订到门店销售的时间差对于巩固消费者的需求至关重要，并认为新的销售模式会摧毁整个批发体系——因而祸及那些初创品牌，而它们的生产与这些先期订单相向而行。
Some designers can’t wait to have a more immediate dialogue with their clients. Others worrythat without the final deadline of a show which everyone attends, and the introduction insteadof a rolling schedule of presentations for the different buyers, journalists, magazine editors andstylists that must see the clothes, their work may never be done.
有些设计师心急火燎地想让自己设计的时装“直通”消费者;而其他设计师则担心：如果没有人人参与的有时间限期的时装周和吹风会(应向不同买家、记者、时尚杂志主编以及设计师同行一场接一场地举行时装发布会)，他们的设计工作永远无法完成。
“It’s a mess,” said Karl Lagerfeld in Milan. “I need a final deadline in order to keep my creativesanity,” said Coach creative head Stuart Vevers in New York. “I need to protect my wholesaleorders,” said designer Christopher Kane in London.
身在米兰的老佛爷(Karl Lagerfeld)说：“这样做会乱了套”。身在纽约的蔻驰(Coach)创意总监图尔特•维佛斯(Stuart Vevers)说：“我需要时装周的时间表以保持自己永不衰竭的创造活力。”而身在伦敦的克里斯托弗•凯恩(Christopher Kane)则说：“我得确保自己的批发订单。”
I write this at day 25 of the season. At this point, I’ve seen around 160 shows, and about 8,000looks. I’m not so fool as to think that everything I see will end up in a store: I’m as complicit asanyone in this industry subterfuge that pretends we’re all about to wear this stuff. But the showis about so much more than product.
今年的时装周，我观看了大约160场发布会，欣赏了约8000款时装。我还不至于如此愚钝：自己看到的所有时装最后都会拿到门店销售：我与大家一样对业界的骗人鬼话“沆瀣一气”——谎称自己有朝一日都会穿这些时装。但时装周的意义远远超过时装本身。
Michael Burke, chief executive of Louis Vuitton, was emphatic on the sanctity of the showwhen I met with him last week. “Our model of business is already ready-to-buy in that most ofour sales are in the pre-collections which go in store without a show,” he argued of the hugecommercial collections never seen on a catwalk that arrive in shops in May and December andmake up the vast majority of sales.
我不久前采访路易威登CEO迈克尔•伯克(Michael Burke)时，他认为时装周的至高无上地位不容置疑。“我们的经营模式早已是展后即卖，原因就在于我们销售的大多数时装是不经过秀场展示而直接在门店销售的季前系列。”他为去年五月与12月大量从未在T型台展示而直接进店销售、占据绝大多数销售份额的时装如此争辩道。
Louis Vuitton is one of the handful of brands which presents some off-schedule pre-collections(known as “cruise”). Most other brands quietly slip their pre-collection orders in-store afternegotiating independently with the buyers.
路易威登(Louis Vuitton)是推出计划外季前系列装(即“cruise”季)的其中一家品牌(真正饯行者屈指可数)。多数品牌与买家单独谈妥后，往往把季前装订单悄无声息“塞进”门店付诸实施。
The trouble is, ready-to-buy is boring. Do you want to see a show featuring 60 black cashmeresweaters? Neither do I. As Burke explains, for Louis Vuitton, “only 5 to 10 per cent of storemerchandise is presented on the runway, and our catwalk collections are by definition morefashion forward and not immediately commercial when they first appear”.
问题是：展后即卖模式容易让人腻烦。诸位会爱看一场展示60款黑色羊绒衫的时装发布会吗?我也一样。正如伯克如此为路易威登辩解道，“门店销售产品只有5-10%在T型台上展示过，而我们在T型台上首次展出的时装更趋前卫，并不着眼于即时销售。”
“For us, the show is not about commercial product. It’s about being transgressive andremaining interesting. So that we have something to talk about. So that it presents a totalvision that will then filter down through to the consumer through to the various dialogues thatare then had — in print, within the ad campaigns and in magazines.”
“对我们来说，秀场并非注重销售类时装。它关乎大胆前卫的同时又让时尚拥趸痴迷不已;其目的就是娓娓道出时尚故事，呈现时尚总体画卷，而后潜移默化影响消费者，再借助专著、广告造势活动以及时尚杂志不断引发时尚观点的交流互动。”
“Fashion is the most contemporary form of art,” said Carlo Capasa, president of the CameraNazionale della Moda Italiana (Italy’s chamber for fashion). The show is fashion’s theatre: a 10-minute vignette of what a brand represents and where it’s going next. It’s quick, short,powerful and when done well, or especially badly, it sears an image on to your brain in a waythat can’t be replicated on a screen or in a showroom.
“时尚是最新的艺术形式。”意大利时尚协会(Camera Nazionale della Moda Italiana)主席卡洛斯•卡帕斯(Carlo Capasa)说。时装周是展示时尚的舞台：短短10分钟就清晰展示了该品牌的时尚内涵以及其未来走向。它简短、生动而高效;一旦策划成功(或者说演砸了)，就会让时尚拥趸“刻骨铭心”，广告片与样品陈列室的效果根本无法与其相提并论。
This weekend in Paris, I saw an autobahn-set fairytale at Chalayan, an exploration of all thing“Teutonic” where models wore severed ponytails from their ear lobes, dresses embroidered withdashboard details and silks printed with old German sewing patterns; at Junya Watanabe’s“Hyper Construction”, I watched a slowly choreographed maths lesson involving geometricdresses folded in a spongy bonded polyurethane and accessorised with rubber caps andbizarrely shaped headwear.
时装季中，我在巴黎观看了以德国高速公路为背景的卡拉扬(Chalayan)时装专卖场：对各种“日耳曼”时尚风格进行了尝试——走秀的模特戴着挂在耳垂的半截马尾辫、穿着绣有详尽仪表盘信息图案的裙子以及印有昔日德国针线活图纹的真丝装;在渡边淳弥(Junya Watanabe)的Hyper Construction时装发布会，我犹如看了一堂精心编排的数学课——用富有弹性的粘接型聚氨酯面料交叠而成的各种几何造型时装，再用橡胶帽以及奇形怪状的头饰来搭配。
At Comme des Garçons, the models wore armadillo-type layers of material body armour andpanniers all covered in beautiful, antiquey brocades. The brand’s 73-year-old designer ReiKawakubo called the collection 18th Century Punk, “because the 18th century was a period ofchange and revolution. This is how I imagine punks would look like if they had lived in thiscentury”.
在Comme des Garçons发布会上，模特身穿类似犰狳的一层层盔甲面料装以及撑裙(外用复古风格的漂亮织锦覆盖)。旗下73岁的设计师川久保玲(Rei Kawakubo)称此系列为18世纪的朋克艺术，“因为18世纪是风起云涌的变革年代。这就是我设想朋克生活在18世纪的模样”。
Comme des Garçons’s annual revenues currently stand at $260m. And that’s not because thebrand’s about to sell a lot of brocade cocoons or vast layered pink vinyl jackets. It sells a lotof quirky black clothes, stripy T-shirts and esoteric fragrances. Many features of this punkcollection will percolate through into the commercial offering seen in store: the pink suitjacket will be stripped back; the brocades turned into blouses. But people will buy thosesimpler commercial pieces because they believe in the authenticity of Kawakubo’s art, andwant a piece of her vision. To my mind, delivering that vision in 17 extraordinary, outlandishlooks is the simplest, most effective way of doing business.
Comme des Garçons目前的年销售额高达2.6亿美元。这并非由于他们打算大量售卖织锦料“茧形服装”(cocoon)以及乙烯基面料的粉色层状夹克装。相反，他们的销售额来自于大卖风格怪异的黑色装、条纹T恤衫以及千奇百怪的香水。这个朋克系列时装的诸多时尚特点会潜移默化渗透至门店销售的各款时装中去：粉色西服外套会退场，织锦会做成短上衣。但消费者会出手购买门店销售的那些简约装，原因是他们喜欢真正的川久保玲风格，希望拥有体现其其设计理念的款式。在本人看来，用17种不同寻常的另类款式展现自己的设计理念是最经济、也是最有效的行销模式。
Yet not all shows are so removed from their commercial outcome. At Isabel Marant, 44 early-1980s punk rockers walked out in shiny red leathers, oversized tweed coats and big cat prints;clothes and accessories that will surely be exactly the same when they arrive in store. Marant isan expert merchandiser and her clothes are designed to walk off the catwalk into the closet. Hercollection was highly marketable, and a little less memorable for it.
然而，并非所有时装秀场都如此不接实际销售的地气。在伊莎贝尔•玛兰(Isabel Marant)的发布会上，44位朋克摇滚乐手身穿红色闪亮皮装、特型粗花呢大衣以及印有大猫图案的时装走秀;所售服装款式与配饰都与门店完全一样。玛兰是经营方面的行家里手，她设计的服装就是为了让消费者“接盘”;她设计的时装供不应求，其纪念意义则稍逊一筹。
At Céline, however, designer Phoebe Philo has brilliantly occupied the space in whichartistic and commercial currency coexist. Her show, staged between tiered neon seats at theTennis Club de Paris, was full of editors wearing items from her SS16 collection, often theexact kind of difficult designs — bovver boots, curve-waisted coats in a mustardy tweed — thattake a while to reach maturation in the consumer mind.
但在Céline的秀场，设计师菲比•菲罗(Phoebe Philo)完美地实现了艺术效果与商业效益兼得。她的时装秀在巴黎网球俱乐部(Tennis Club de Paris)一排排荧光座椅间举办，各路时尚主编身穿其设计的2016年春夏季时装济济一堂，她们常常身穿那些需要一定时日才能让普通拥趸首肯的另类装束——长至小腿的厚重靴、用深黄色粗花呢料做的弧形高腰大衣。
Ironic, perhaps, that since an in-house statement stipulating Philo will be staying at Céline forthe immediate future, her AW16 show was a study in “possibilities: the possibilities inherentin the wardrobe, in the woman, and in life”. The palette was stripped right back to blacks,beiges and yellow: a canary coloured furry coat provided the only real clout of colour, while thesilhouette was trapezoid, layered and liberated. Tunic dresses, sheer and oversized, were wornover wide-flared trousers and silky, 10-denier knit tops wrapped over shirts. As withBalenciaga, there were lots of trenchcoats. Many were sleeveless, and left strappy and flapping.The bags were tactile, their straps wrapped around the hand like bandages.
也许颇具讽刺意味的是：因为Céline正式宣称菲罗将在不久的将来继续留任创意总监一职，而她的2016年秋冬季时装秀则探讨了“时装、女性以及生活中与生俱有的可能性”。时装颜色回归黑色、浅褐色以及黄色：浅黄色毛皮大衣成了唯一真正有影响力颜色的明证，而造型则呈现了不规则四边形、节层状以及无拘无束的时尚风格。轻薄的束腰特型装搭配宽喇叭裤，而极轻薄的10D真丝针织上衣(1套在内穿衬衣上。与巴黎世家(Balenciaga)一样，Céline推出了多款风衣，而很多是带有飘逸带子的无袖款风衣;推出的手袋手感好，包带可以象绷带一样缠绕于手上。
“Every one of the looks was touched by hand,” said Philo, who places great emphasis on theslow build of her design process, and cares deeply about whether clothes “feel right”.
“每一款装束手感都不错。”菲罗说，她特别强调精打细造，特别在意时装的“好手感”。
Feeling right, doesn’t always look quite right at first. That huge silhouette, the Big Bird robecoat, the exaggerated jagged collars, the flesh-toned polo necks — they weren’t designed tobe immediately accessible. It’s transgressive, but only very gently so. And thank God for that.You’ve got six months to catch up.
手感好并不一定看着养眼。打造那些特型款式(Big Bird长袍外套、夸张的锯齿状衣领、以及肉色高圆领)的目的并非为了立即被消费者接受。它们显得前卫，但只是略微超前一些而已。谢天谢地，诸位还有6个月的时间去适应它们。
