Economic hardship has forced many people to fall in love with their existing wardrobe and make what is old new.

Question:  Has the recession influenced fashion?

Scott Schuman:  I think the economic situation is affected in the sense that a lot of people that have money always have money and they’re still buying and they’re still shopping.  They’re just not talking about it.  When I go to fashion week people are still wearing new things and they’re still shopping, but I think they feel a little more guilty and they’ve had to let five people go from the company and not bring two people that usually go to Europe, so they’re still shopping.  They’re just not talking about it that much.  But it’s also I think helped people find a romance in shopping in their own closet again.  Going back and looking at the clothes they already have.  We’ve become such consumers I think people kind of forget what humongous closets we have, full of more clothes than what they could ever wear, so I think it’s maybe opened people’s eyes again to really look into what they have and kind of reengineering it and reworking it and I think that’s good.

Recorded on December 2. 2009