As luxury customers keep their wallets shut, upscale department stores such as Neiman Marcus are asking designers to re-do certain designs to help keep the cost down. Neiman Marcus Group merchant Rachel Goldberger implemented the store's new policy immediately.
"We have to get the customer to buy [at] full-price," said Ms. Goldberger, Neiman's vice president and divisional merchandise manager for women's designer sportswear. "If you offer the value up front, you won't get this discounting nonsense."
Ms. Goldberger has also cut expenses, shortening her trip to Milan this year and skipping the Paris shows altogether. She didn't attend any runway shows. Instead, she viewed collections on the Internet and read daily trend reports from Ken Downing, the Neiman's women's fashion director who attended.
She filled days in Milan with showroom visits to see the clothes close up, place orders and push for changes in some designs. Back-to-back meetings ran from 8:30 a.m. until 7:00 p.m., then she headed back to a hotel to meet with the buying team and review orders.
If something costs a lot of money, Mr. Goldberger this season is looking for visible proof it is special and unique. A $7,000 coat with a burnt-out crocodile pattern was worth the money, she said, because of the novelty of the materials. But she dismissed $500 black leggings as "ridiculously overpriced," believing they would probably wind up on the markdown rack.
Buyers in Milan last month viewed Missoni's fall knitwear collection.
In one case, she asked that a hand-painted floral detail on a sweater be eliminated to both lower the price and improve "dry-cleanability," she said. The designer agreed to ship the garment without the paint, which will lower the retail price by 10%.
At the showroom for the knitwear label Missoni, Ms. Goldberger was thrilled to hear that the Swarovski crystals that appeared on a dress on the runway would be replaced with plastic facsimiles. The substitution wouldn't change the look of the garment, but would lower its retail price by more than half, and make it weigh less.
When the head buyer for Neiman's skips Paris Fashion week, you know the economy is really in bad shape. It remains to be seen if reducing prices by 10% is really going to make a difference to women who regularly spend thousands of dollars on a gown.
As luxury customers keep their wallets shut, upscale department stores such as Neiman Marcus are 
