Now that Fashion Week is officially over, I have taken to Style.com to absorb the seemingly endless coverage of the Fall/Winter 2010 collections.  I know from seating five shows that a reviewer from Style.com’s opinion is of the utmost importance to a designer.  A scathing reaction from Meenal Mistry or Nicole Phelps can topple a brand’s reputation, while a glowing one can cement a brand’s legacy.  Upon seeing the very positive first review for newcomer, The Row, I couldn’t help but wonder how much of the brand’s influence is predicated on the undefinable “cool” that its founders embody.

Reviewer Nicole Phelps summarizes The Row’s first official Fashion Week showing as “utterly simple and anonymously chic.”  The 19 minimalist looks offered up simple silhouettes that are neither trendy nor counter-culture.  Simply put, the clothes are beautiful and unarguably safe. However, the Sister’s Olsen are being touted as the future of fashion and are recent inductees into the prestigious Council of Fashion Designers of America.

I decided that I would try to figure out how real people really feel about The Row in comparison to MaxMara, the classic Italian design house who has been offering luxe staples for years, and commercial front-runner, Gucci.  The results were surprising and reinforced my inkling that while The Row may stand for quality, its really the cool quotient that is garnering all the love.

The Test:

I asked ten women ranging in age from 24 to 64 to describe the aforementioned brands in three words and to rank them from “coolest” to “lamest.”  All but one of my respondents ranked “The Row” as the “coolest.”  I also included Badgley Mischka as a control variable because I knew everyone would think its lame.  However, it was my participants’ reactions to the images below that was the most telling.

While people were fond of The Row look (look #2), a surprising number of respondents favored Look #1 (Max Mara) and even look #3 (Badgley Mischka!)  However, it was unanimous that look #4 (Gucci) was the worst.  While Gucci was the highest grossing luxury retailer in 2009, my respondents described the brand as “oversexed”, “tacky” and plain “over.”  Interestingly, the feedback on MaxMara was mixed.  Some reviewers called the collection “classic” and “elegant” while others defined it as “matronly” and “lame.”

Seemingly people are enamored with The Row as a brand, but I am curious to see if public opinion and actual sales have anything to do with one another.  Does cool = cash?  If so, maybe MaxMara, who is basically peddling the very same wares as The Row, should hire a brand ambassador.  I hear Dakota Fanning is looking for endorsement deals.

Over the years I have been lucky enough to glob myself onto some pretty impressive coattails.  Working as a publicist at a small agency allowed me the opportunity to attend fashion shows alongside some of Hollywood’s elite.  However, today marked the first time that I have attended a show as a a free agent.  I literally almost shed a tear when I saw that I had a legitimate seat and was not relegated to standing room.  While I was not gaga about the clothes (I considered calling this post Gnarls Sparkly), it was still very cool to have a place to call my own amidst the chaos.  The biggest distraction from the clothes was actually the styling.  The shoes and over-the-top necklaces detracted from what I am sure were expertly-made garments.  The celebrities in attendance were also pretty ridiculous considering  the talent consisted of the cast of “The City”, “The Real Housewives of New York” and randomly, the seductress also known as Anna Lynne McCordwhose lean muscle mass I could feel in the sixth row.  The whole thing was pretty much an illusion — a sparkling hologram of what a fashion show looks like, but devoid of any of the legitimacy upon which the legacy of Fashion Week was built.  It was awesome.

Palermo, Zee, Kaplan, Morgan and Guns McCord