“F.N.O. was a good idea when it began, back in the depths of the recession when stores were virtually empty. But now itâ€s become a party, an institutionalized kickoff to Fashion Week, and though it apparently raises money for some causes, I have to believe that the costs of security, crowd control and entertainment, not to mention the traffic headaches, outweigh the actual benefits.” – Cathy Horyn, last Friday on her blog.

“On the other hand, with the economy picking up and shoppers getting comfortable with spending again, do retailers really need to keep spending money on an event that generates traffic, but not as much in sales? Without hard numbers, itâ€s difficult to argue for or against the event to continue, but anecdotally, something has to change if the event is to become the Black Friday of fall. For all of the people out and about, we didnâ€t catch much actual shopping going on.” – Us, last December following the announcement of the 2011 Fashion’s Night Out date.

We’d love to be proven wrong by this year’s event, but we won’t hold our breath for returned calls from retailers demonstrating a clear sales (not just foot traffic) boost. We will try, again, to get in touch with both large and small retailers to get at least an anecdotal picture of whether Fashion’s Night Out delivers a revenue increase significant enough to justify the celebrities, security and other hoopla.

Say what you will about Carine Roitfeld’s version, but the now former Vogue Paris editor kept her eye on the prize for the French version of Fashion’s Night Out. There were very few scheduled celebrities, if you wanted to attend you had to buy a copy of Vogue or Architectural Digest for an invitation, the activities focused on a handful of luxury retailers – the same ones usually found in the pages of Vogue Paris, in a geographically limited area (the Triangle d’Or). In spite of the things it didn’t have (a wide range of brand options, A-list appearances, citywide participation), the one thing it did have was cash registers ringing throughout the night in the vast majority of stores.

But hey, while we still think retailers would do better to trade the celeb appearance fees for shopping related gifts or limited time price breaks, at least someone over at FNO picked up on our 3rd suggestion of including an online component.

The jury’s still out on whether something is better than nothing in this case though.

Say what you'd like about Alexa Chung, if you're a fashion blogger she won't be reading it anyway.

Here’s one… different fashion blog trend: turns out a lot of fashion blogger favorites aren’t that into most fashion blogs.

“Blogs are ridiculous; they’re just mood boards – unless you are Tavi [Gevinson, of Style Rookie]”

– Alexa Chung in the June 2011 edition of Vogue UK {via Fashion Foie Gras/Lockerz}

A point of view that it seems the New York Times‘ Cathy Horyn shares.

“Itâ€s a lack of original content. Sooner or later, itâ€s like anything, people change, people look at that and say ‘This is boring.†And some young journalist will come along and distinguish themselves with original reporting. And they will hopefully be fluent in French and very good at reporting whatâ€s going on at the luxury goods companies and the big brands in Europe, because thereâ€s a complete need for that kind of reporting. You can be tough and feisty and a little bit of a guerrilla reporter, for want of a better word, and I think thereâ€s a need for that. I donâ€t think a lot of the blogs are distinguishing themselves by linking and just being snarky or being opinionated. Do some reporting.”

– Cathy Horyn in an interview with ($20 million fashion blog) Refinery29

And even the most influential fashion blogger of them all.

“Iâ€m not really a fan of personal style blogs—you know, the ones [on which] these girls just shoot their outfits and all this stuff. I havenâ€t seen one that I really like or that draws my attention every day. The good and bad of that is that most these girls only have a limited wardrobe; they donâ€t have many clothes to shoot and I donâ€t think most of them have come up with looks that are that interesting, that draw me.”

– Scott Schuman, aka the Sartorialist in an interview with (Style.com fashion blog) StyleFile

Schuman does give some credit to the time capsule that all of the personal style blogs will become in decades to come, but in general let’s remember that “fashion blog” covers a lot of territory these days. As evidenced by the fact that 2 out of 3 of these quotes came from…wait for it… fashion blogs.

To Ms. Horyn’s point, speaking purely from personal experience there are plenty of fashion stories we try to report on, but big brand representatives tend to not reply – not even to give a “no comment” – to people who try to do reporting when they don’t have a major news organization behind them. An example? Sure. For weeks, we reached out to retailers who’d participated in Fashion’s Night Out to try to paint of picture of the real financial impact of Fashion’s Night Out. We love the excitement it generates, but we’re not convinced it’s actually a sales boon for participating retailers. Unfortunately, since no one would comment, we can’t be sure. Another example? You’ve got it. There was an interesting piece in the New York Times (you probably saw it) on the expense that went into producing Marc Jacobs’ most recent show. You know what we were really interested in? What happened to those 1100 yards of vinyl that were brought in for the even after the show. After all, if a company spends that much on props for a show, you’d hope they would find an interesting way to reuse them. Unfortunately, none of our emails or phone calls requesting comment or more information were returned. US or Paris. Not that we’re complaining: there are a lot of emerging fashion companies doing some really interesting things who are happy to reply to us, and more often than not, we learn about them via blogs like the Business of Fashion or FashionablyMarketing.me or by actually getting out to events and doing some reporting.

A new fashion blog comes along every day, so inevitably at some point it becomes difficult to separate the signal from the noise, but let’s not write off an entire category because you tune out for a bit.

“McQ will become our responsibility alongside the core Alexander McQueen label, allowing us to share ideas and knowledge, expand the business and grow the already iconic brand,” President and CEO of Alexander McQueen Jonathan Akeroyd told WWD. “Over the past five years, McQ has established itself internationally with its young, renegade but always signature McQueen style and we are ready to take it to the next stage in its development.”

Speaking of development at Alexander McQueen, the label is enjoying wild success of late, as the highly anticipated first womenswear collection by newly appointed creative director Sarah Burton debuted with astounding praise from critics in Paris this month. Burton replaced Lee Alexander McQueen at the helm following his death earlier this year.

The general consensus among critics is that Burtonâ€s first collection was the perfect balance of respecting McQueenâ€s vision and adding personal, more feminine touches to advance the brand.

Hilary Alexander at the Telegraph said the collection included “elaborately-beautiful pieces which maintained the spirit of McQueen’s legacy, whilst injecting a new atmosphere of ethereal bohemian romance,” while Cathy Horyn at The New York Times said, “some references to the McQueen craft and drama are necessarily, but her choices reflected a gradual transition.”

At left, the closing look from Sarah Burton's first solo collection at Alexander Mc Queen. At right, designer Sarah Burton

Booth Moore at the Los Angeles Times noted that Burtonâ€s collection seemed more wearable than the typical McQueen line. He credited that to her status as a woman, saying the clothes, “didn’t have the tortured genius of the namesake designer … But the clothes may have been better for it.” He added that even though much of Burtonâ€s collection was typical McQueen, “Burton banished McQueen’s famously restrictive neckpieces, headdresses and hobbling shoes with a woman’s touch.”

What do you think of the collection? Perfect balance of McQueen and Burton, or would you have liked to see something else?