Word: fashion
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...anyone who has flipped through Vogue or Harper's Bazaar in recent years can attest, it's quite a challenge to find models who don't look dour and perplexed, as though they've just gone through painful psychotherapy or mistaken whole milk for skim. The fashion business, for all its outward absurdity, isn't cheeky and good-humored at its core, and that is perhaps why Isaac Mizrahi made such an impression...
...when most big designers aren't necessarily known for wit or verbal agility, Mizrahi emerged in TV interviews, and especially in the acclaimed 1995 documentary about him, Unzipped, as a kind of Seventh Avenue Oscar Wilde, quipping endlessly about fashion ("It's almost impossible to have any style at all without the right dog"), pop culture and, always eagerly, himself. In the past few years, Mizrahi had cultivated the kind of celebrity that made him known to people who have never heard of shantung or bias cuts...
...turns out, a wry spirit and big personality are not enough to move $1,400 mink-trimmed skirts off store racks. Last week Mizrahi startled many in fashion's orbit when he announced that he was shutting down his business after a 10-year career during which media attention rarely eluded him but strong sales often did. The final blow came from Chanel Inc., which had bankrolled Mizrahi since 1992 but decided to dissolve its partnership with the designer after three years of financial losses...
...Mizrahi develop fragrances, undergarments or other successful accessories, from which designers usually reap the bulk of their profits. Most devastating was the failure of his lower-priced bridge line nine months ago, which, though youthful and vibrant, never caught on. As fashion industry analyst Mark Mankoff, a partner at Ernst & Young, puts it, "Mizrahi just didn't reach enough people. He was not broadly accepted as a brand and an image and a life-style...
That may be why he received lukewarm support from big department stores. "Retailers are part of the blame," explains Fern Mallis, head of the Council of Fashion Designers of America. "They come and love Isaac, but then don't give him the support and energy in the stores that he needs to make it work...