>> The first official look at how Spring 2010 New York Fashion Week is shaping up will come Friday, when the first edition of the Fashion Calendar ships, but until then, we've got a few hints.

 “There will be a lot more shows than last year," according to The Calendar's Ruth Finley, which means Anna Wintour won't be pleased.  Last season, Anna said that "a lot of people before were having shows that simply shouldn’t have been having them," adding: "It’s much better to see them in the showroom or more of a low-key presentation. It’s more realistic."  It seems like a number of designers didn't heed her advice — Finley says that this upcoming season, "There are a lot of new people [showing] you have never heard of."

And some you have heard of that are returning to the Tents »

>> Designers may be pulling their belt tighter this Fashion Week, but hardly any are pulling out of the rat race altogether — the attention is too valuable. "You kill a thousand birds with one stone, because you get that many people there in an hour and you're getting one message across to them," says Scott Sternberg of Boy and Band of Outsiders. "They're writers and photographers and culturally indulgent people with loud mouths."

Instead, designers are saving by hosting presentations instead of runway shows (Monique Lhuillier, Temperley London, and Carmen Marc Valvo), inviting fewer guests (Marc Jacobs and DKNY, who's slicing her usual 1,000 down to 400), sending email invites instead of by mail (nearly everyone), or showing fewer looks to save on fabric and sample-making costs.

Two models, 15 looks, and a free space to show it in »

>> It's still two months until New York Fashion Week, but as predicted, all the cost-cutting is making some major designers shuffle their usual plans.

Vera Wang, who typically shows at the tents in Bryant Park, is downsizing to a more intimate show — 14-15 models, 100-150 guests — in her new Mercer Street store, but promises it won't be a presentation: "The intimacy of a smaller show feels much more appropriate for these times."  She says the decision is not only for financial reasons, but admits they do have an impact: "Once you go off-site, you don’t get any of the benefits that are in tents.  But by the same token, showing in the tents calls for 25 girls, and hair and make-up. It’s an incredible production."

Betsey Johnson and Carmen Marc Valvo, too, are leaving the tents behind.  Betsey has shown in Bryant Park for the past five years to a guest list of 1,000, and although she's undecided on her Fall 2009 format or location, she will be doing something different.  Carmen Marc Valvo cites high costs — typically $150,000-$200,000 each season — as his reason to pull out, and is considering switching from 1,000-guest runway format to a 200-guest cocktail party format, because the change could save 50% of his usual presentation costs.

Donna Karan already announced that her DKNY runway was being replaced with a presentation; Fewer models, fewer guests, and tight-belted presentations seem to an early Fall 2009 trend — with more announcements in the same vein sure to come.
*image: source