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| Richard Nichol, Fall 2013: serious business |
Style.com is firmly anchored to my bookmarks bar on my browser,
and at this time of year it pretty much the first stop of the day to see what’s
been heading down the runways of the world's fashion capitals. There’s the Couture
and Menswear collections and now here we are, well in the thick of the Fall Ready-to-Wear
season. Usually I am excited as all hell to see what surprises are in store,
but to be honest… I’m feeling a little deflated with what I’ve seen so far. In truth,
I’m usually hanging out for Milan and Paris shows anyhow and it’s never a huge
surprise to see show after show of very nice, wearable, safe clothes coming
down the runways of New York. That’s all good with me, but what’s really
getting me twitchy is this rather conservative spirit insidiously finding its
way into supposedly more edgy designers work. I know fashion’s all about cycles
and blah-blah-blah, but really, for someone who was dazzled by the imagination
and sheer inventiveness of fashion shows by the likes of McQueen and Galliano in
the 90’s, returning to big, grey, shapeless, somber styles as we are seeing now
is heartbreaking; it’s like an entire era of fashion has been wiped from the
map and we’ve returned to the land of serious ennui. I understand we are in
some weird space of pre-post-economic catastrophe, but do we have to mimic the
90’s quite so literally to express the collective sigh of the Global Financial
Crisis? Come on people- don’t bow to the pressures of ‘appropriate dress’ behaviors;
designers we look to you for the exhilarating thrill of ‘what’s next’, not ‘what’s
the hell she doing dressed in her granddad’s coat’. Flamboyance, exuberance and
energy please, not melancholy and the infinite sadness. Don’t take yourself so
seriously fashion- you are our escape from the banality of everyday life, not
the confirmation of it. Perhaps all this dourness is about to inspire some of
unheard of designer to push out against it- Here’s hoping Milan and Paris have
a few tricks up their sleeve…
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| Burberry, 1990's: no joy |
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| 3.1 Phillip Lim, Fall 2013; very biege |
1 comment:
You have articulated my sentiments exactly. well done
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