Move over, New York, there's a new fashionista on top of the fashion world. And it's not Paris or London ... it's Milan.
According to a survey published Monday by trend-tracking group Global Language Monitor, Milan is now the most fashionable city in the world, toppling New York's five-year reign as most stylish, and pushing our fair city down to number 2.
What forced the shift? It's the recession, stupid!
"The parties were not as big," says Global Language Monitor president Paul Payak. "That was enough to knock New York off just a bit." Payak also noted that the financial downturn forced designers to stage presentations on the cheap, as opposed to the all-out glitzy fashion weeks that the city has seen in the past.
Stacked against New York is Milan's now-vibrant lineup for its fashion season, including designers like Gucci, Prada, Versace, Bottega Venetta, and more. Victoria Beckham is even becoming something of a regular there -- visiting her soccer-player husband and shopping around Milan with misters Dolce and Gabbana. To be sure, few celebrities in New York are being spotted shopping at the most expensive stores and toting around a $7,000-plus Birkin handbag. If, as the survey says, the ranking of "most fashionable" is judged partly on the way words like "haute couture" are used in reference to each city within the media and the blogosphere, it stands to reason that New York might be lagging.
The other two American cities that made the top 10 on Global Language Monitor's fashion hit list are Los Angeles (ranked No. 6) and Las Vegas (No. 10), though Miami had a huge surge due to its new sexy swimwear shows of 13 points to finish at No. 13.
