Photo: Imaxtree

What do fashion month and the primaries have in common? Other than seeming never-ending, more than you think. Over the last couple of weeks, there’s been a battle brewing in the fashion world over the international show dates for the spring 2013 season (which takes place in the fall of 2012). Just over two years ago, the leading fashion councils from each of the four fashion capitols—London, New York, Paris and Milan—met to draft a set calendar for the coming years. The first three agree that the calendar was meant to be in place for years to come while Milan claims it was for three years only, and is vowing to move up its show dates to overlap with New York and London’s. If that happens, photographers, editors, models, and buyers would have to choose who they need to see—and who they are willing to miss. As the fashion world’s major players play a serious game of “me first,” a group of power players in a very different world are playing the same game. If you remember, the 2008 presidential campaign was one of the longest in history. We painstakingly watched the horse race for nearly two years: Obama’s in New Hampshire; Hillary’s in Iowa; Those other guys who didn’t have a chance are in South Carolina. Then, as well as now, the forgotten states complained that New Hampshire and Iowa got all the glory simply because their primaries were before them. No fair! Why do they get all the influence and attention that goes with going first? Why do a bunch of people in a room in Iowa get to set the standards? This year, as other states threaten to move up their primaries, New Hampshire’s threatening to move its primaries up to December—December!—so as to keep its coveted leader-of-the-pack status. And so we find ourselves in the midst of another excruciatingly drawn-out presidential politics season (do we really need a Republican debate every week?)—and we can’t even escape into the party-filled fashion world anymore.