The party is over

Last Christmas, Marc Jacobs hosted an Arabian Nights party populated by over 800 outrageously outfitted fashionistas at the Rainbow Room, said to cost in the low seven figures. This year his business partner, Robert Duffy sent out a succinct e-mail on November 4: "Due to the financial climate, I had to make the decision to cancel the 2008 holiday party."

Jacobs, 44, is not alone in his decision to cut short the holiday revelry. Estee Lauder, Vanity Fair, Conde Nast Fashion Rocks, Viacom MTV Networks and Hearst Publications, among others,  shuttered their holiday plans to cut corners in what is turning out to be ubiquitous financial darkness.

Remy Holwick, a former Calvin Klein model and freelance fashion designer, said that her colleagues have known that a lot of the parties are going to be downsized or cut all together since the end of the summer. There have been pervasive threats of lay-offs in all the large fashion houses, including Diane Von Furstenberg, Chanel, Gucci, Marc Jacobs and others.

"It seems obscene to have a large, glittery party when so many people are afraid of losing their jobs," Holwick said. "It's like the Roaring '20s before the crash. Some people feel that the extravagant gala events would be a slap in the face and almost like tempting fate to push us deeper into the hole."

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the fashion industry employs 173,000 people, with approximately 58,000 in wholesale and design; 31,000 in apparel manufacturing; and 85,000 in fashion retail in New York City alone. It generates $9.6 billion in total wages with tax revenues of $808 million, according to the New York Bureau of Labor Statistics, though there is a large negative downward trend.