MICHEL MARTIN, HOST:

I'm Michel Martin and this is TELL ME MORE from NPR News. Coming up, did you ever wonder what famed entertainer RuPaul listens to when he's putting on those six inch heels and that big blonde wig and getting ready to tape a new episode of his cable show, "RuPaul's Drag Race"? We won't keep you in suspense much longer. We'll let you know what's playing in his ear later this hour.

But first, we want to talk fashion because today is the start of the Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week in New York City, where designers will be showing off their fall collections.

We wanted to get a little preview of what we can expect from the shows and check in on what's happening in the fashion industry more broadly, so we've called up special correspondent for style and culture for Newsweek and The Daily Beast, Robin Givhan. She joins us now from our New York studios.

Always good to talk to you. Welcome back.

ROBIN GIVHAN: Thank you. It's always good to be here.

MARTIN: Why do we call it Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week, by the way? Do cars have clothes? What is that?

GIVHAN: Because everyone gets a Mercedes in their goody bag.

MARTIN: I knew there was a reason I should go.

GIVHAN: No, no. Mercedes is the large underwriter of the shows.

MARTIN: Oh.

GIVHAN: Big sponsor.

MARTIN: It's a big sponsor.

GIVHAN: Exactly.

MARTIN: I wonder why.

GIVHAN: You know, they've been the sponsor for quite a while, but there have been other sponsors and there have been a lot of smaller sponsors. My personal favorite was the season that Kohler was one of the sponsors and they...

MARTIN: Kohler, which is the plumbing supplies?

GIVHAN: Which is the plumbing supplier. And they actually supplied the porta-potties when the shows were back in Bryant Park, and I have to tell you, they were the swankiest porta-potties you've ever seen.

MARTIN: I'm sorry I missed that. Well, so what sort of trends can we expect to see this week? I'm interested in what you're particularly looking forward to seeing.

GIVHAN: Well, you know, one of the - I suppose - the great things about covering the fashion industry is that every season you really have to come in with an open mind because you never know who's going to be that designer who kind of leads the way, has a breakout season, suddenly puts him or herself on the map. So I'm always kind of curious to just go to shows from people I have never heard of and you never know when you're going to see another Alexander Wang or another Phillip Lim or another Joseph Altuzarra.

But you know, I am certainly interested in seeing what someone like Donna Karan might be doing, in part because she's been so involved in Haiti and with the artisans there and with the reconstruction after the earthquake that it's really started to have an impact in her design sensibility. So I think there's something interesting going on there and an interesting source of inspiration.

MARTIN: One designer, Pablo Garon, is hosting an online digital-only show this year, so is that considered the wave of the future? And I'm interested in your perspective on this because I thought that one of the exciting things of a fashion show is that the clothes are experienced in the third dimension. You know, they are meant to be worn and seen.

What do you think about it?

GIVHAN: I'm somewhat ambivalent. I mean, one of the arguments for this particular show, which is not his main collection - it's a smaller collection - but the idea is that there are so many shows and there are so many informal presentations that members of the industry find it really difficult to try to get around and see everything that they'd like to see.

So the idea is that by doing this digitally you could be riding in the back of a cab and you could pull out your iPad and you could watch this show. But I think that you definitely lose a lot when you're looking at something on a video monitor and, you know, I've looked at shows from other designers that have tried to do it in an online way, who have done a live streaming of a show, and it's a great idea if you cannot be there, but it doesn't replace actually being there, because there really a kind of magic in seeing the clothes actually move in 3D and seeing them on an actual real person right there in front of you.

MARTIN: If you're just joining us, my guest is Robin Givhan, special correspondent for style and culture at Newsweek and The Daily Beast. We're talking about Fashion Week, which is kicking off in New York, and Robin's telling us what to look forward to.

One thing, though, that immediately becomes obvious is just how global the fashion industry has become. But it's the fact that clothes are being made all over the world now and that designs from one place are affecting other places and that the technology helps ideas move around the world so quickly...

GIVHAN: Yeah.

MARTIN: ...is that changing the industry?

GIVHAN: Yeah. It definitely is. I mean, one of the things that I saw last season and which I expect to continue into this season were these just sort of whispers of a much more sort of global sensibility on the runway. And, you know, so often the focus is really about, sort of, Western sensibility. And when the industry strays into other areas - whether it's Asian, African or Middle Eastern - there has, in the past, tended to be a kind of costume-y, you know, tourist souvenir kind of tone to it. But I think that it is becoming much more sophisticated in the way that it's represented on the runway.

And, you know, the other piece of it, I think, is that it's kind of creating another kind of diplomacy, because as designers realize that there's this enormous market in all parts of the world, they have to understand those consumers. Because the same things that work in New York or Chicago or Washington or L.A. don't necessarily translate to Beijing.

And so one of the things that I know the American fashion industry is doing is setting up a kind of designer exchange program, where a Chinese designer will come to the States and work with members of the American industry to better understand the American market, and American designers will go to China and spend some time there really trying to understand the consumer. You know, where do these women go to have lunch with their girlfriends? What are the things that are important to them? And those are questions, I think, are good to be asking not just for the fashion industry, but just in general.

MARTIN: Talking about the diversity of the market these days, I understand that, timed for Fashion Week, is the launch of a Muslim modeling agency called Under Wraps. The agency is trying to give young women an opportunity to model while still conforming to the modesty requirements of observant Muslims.

And you've written about this. So tell me your thoughts on this. Do you think that they're onto something here?

GIVHAN: I'm not sure. I mean, I think it's a curious idea, because on the one hand, there is an enormous untapped market, so to speak, of models who come from the Muslim world. I mean, there have been very few who have made inroads in the fashion industry, and they're certainly stunning women and men, for that matter.

The hurdle, though, is I think it's much easier for someone who is established to essentially say yay and nay to different things. But when you're just starting out, it's certainly more difficult. And the reality is that it's one thing for the model to say that she has a particular standard of modesty, but you then have to negotiate the designers. You have to negotiate the collections. And I think that is going to be a big hurdle, because you're talking about mostly designers who don't have that same sensibility. So I think it's going to be somewhat limiting in what the girls can do, but I think it's smart because, you know, the world is changing. It's becoming more global. And these are issues that are going to come up, and better to tackle them head-on.

MARTIN: This is something to watch.

GIVHAN: Yeah. I think so.

MARTIN: One more issue around models also this week. Just ahead of Fashion Week, a non-profit called Model Alliance...

GIVHAN: Yeah.

MARTIN: ...was formed to help protect the workplace conditions for models, and they have some very serious complaints. For example, they say that the industry often tolerates sexual harassment, that they disregard child labor laws. Is there a precedent for this? Is this the first time something like this has been attempted? I'm interested in what your thoughts are. And since you've been around the industry for a while, have models ever complained to you about this and said, you know, something needs to be done about that?

GIVHAN: Yeah. I mean, this - the idea that there's been an attempt to try and provide some protections to models, yes. This has come up before. My recollection is that it has not been this pronounced or this sort of organized, but it's been a very tricky thing to do because they are independent contractors. And in many ways, they have a lot of issues in common, but they're also competing with each other. And so that's created some hurdles to work together.

But, you know, I don't want to say that it's a terrible place to work because it's not. But there's - anything that sort of goes unregulated means that you've got some people who will take advantage. And you're working with young women and young men who - this is their first professional experience. And, you know, there you are, you know, they're on a fashion shoot, and no one's looking at the clock and saying oh, well, that's an eight-hour day. They're looking at the light and they're looking at the shot and they're asking themselves have we - you know, did we get the shot?

MARTIN: Just your seat-of-the-pants assessment of whether there's any traction around this idea in the industry on either side it, among the models themselves and also among the people who employ them.

GIVHAN: Well, one of the things I thought was sort of interesting is that one of the faces of the campaign is Coco Rocha, who is a very successful model and is quite outspoken, who has spoken out about the pressures, for instance, to be extremely thin to an unhealthy degree. So I think that her presence certainly helps. And the fact that other members of the industry have voiced their support for it I think helps significantly. I think it's still a little too early to really tell, because it's still so very new.

But, I mean, will also add that I think it speaks volumes about the industry and about the way that it thinks about models from the shear fact that they're often referred to as girls. They're typically not referred to as women. They're referred to as girls, and I think that tells you a lot about the amount of power that they have in the industry and the way in which they're seen by designers and others in the industry.

MARTIN: Robin Givhan is a special correspondent for Style and Culture for Newsweek and The Daily Beast. And she was kind enough to join us from our studios in New York.

Robin, thanks so much for joining us once again.

GIVHAN: My pleasure. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.

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