Things are not looking up in the United States when it comes to the typically rich Back to School season that the national fashion industry tends to profit from in great amounts. Instead, this year there is going to be a lot of competition from many other angles, say retail experts, as parents and kids alike struggle to determine how many of the latest gadgets they should get. This will cut directly into the fashion budget that is typically sizable for this time of year among school age children and teens. Retailers that focus on clothing are struggling to find ways to get kids and parents to opt for new outfits and accessories instead of iPhones, iPads and every other digital gadget under the sun. Many parents are also dealing with tough economic times and reduced hours at work, so this too will cut into the budgets say family market experts. Retailers are turning to jeans at half price and a variety of free promotional items in their efforts to get families into the malls to try and be a little less frugal with their discretionary spending.

Back to school fashions are a staple for big name labels like Abercrombie & Fitch so they are trying to pull in more customers with 40 percent off jeans, but some companies are even offering free mobile phones as a technique to pull in buyers. Only time will tell how the season fares, but expectations are already set low for most clothing makers and retailers who offer fast fashion, all across the national market.

Tickets to events held during the cutting edge and world famous New York Fashion Week have long been coveted by fans of fashion, but these tickets have almost always been exceptionally tough to get a hold of due to the amount of demand for them and the fashion world’s penchant for exclusivity. This new season of public runway shows will be done a bit differently, though, as the fashion world seeks to bring the public into closer proximity of their events and create a stir and perhaps an increase in sales along the way. Shoppers have been a bit stingy, according to retail analysts, over the past few years due to the intense situation with the global and national economy, so this could prove to stimulate purchases of the latest fashions as designers show off their spring and summer 2011 catalogs in the hopes of getting buyers excited about the latest collections. Retailers and the media will have front row seats for the events which start September 7 and are going to be part of what this year is titled the Mercedes Benz Fashion Week.

This is part of a larger initiative by the editor of famed Vogue fashion magazine, Anna Wintour, and is set to help people come out of the doldrums and get excited about new looks for an economy that everyone hopes is on the recovery path once again. The 2009 event did help to spur sales and this year, Wintour hopes to see even more of an impact from her initiative.

The New York Times’ published glossy fashion monthly, T Magazine, has announced that it has 2 new editors, one of them Sally Singer. She is up and running already, having taken over duties at T just about a month ago. The parent corporation, The Times Company, issues a press release to let the world know that Michelle Sanders will be coming on board as the fashion director and for the features director position they have hired Jacob Brown. While much of publishing continues to struggle thanks to incredible pressure from the web based publishing world, the glossy fashion magazines like T have been able to stay afloat thanks to the more sensory experience they offer that would be harder to replace in an electronic format. Singer has said she is pleased to have Sanders on board because she is a very well respected fashion world leader who offers a fresh and engaging perspective on style, trends and new of the industry and brings her pronounced editor’s eye along with her. Brown, on the other hand, is a very skilled writer and editor who has an ability to bring the public the kind of savvy content that T Magazine has made a name for itself with.

The choices are not typical, say experts in the fashion press, because they thought Singer would have been far more likely to have hired veterans of Vogue where she was once employed. Many in the industry had expected Singer to pull some of the staff from Vogue over to this new magazine in an effort to create for herself a more familiar team, but instead she is working to get the magazine a fresh perspective. She has already worked with Donna Karan, Juicy Couture and Miu Miu so her latest position comes as a shock to none.