New York Fashion Week and the relevant irrelevance

Fashion experts claimed the keyword to this year’s Spring/Summer catwalk shows was going to be relevance, yet seeing the designs presented on the runways during the first day of New York Fashion Week, you had a feeling that most designers mistook relevance for lack of inspirations and plain, dull clothes.

The truth, despite what many may want you to believe, is that fashion and fashion weeks have turned into a redundantly tiring (and expensive…) exercise.

It’s easy to boast about the success of Fashion Night Out and say that it brought people out in the streets (though in Milan there weren’t as many people as planned actually carrying shopping bags…), but, unfortunately, most of what’s on offer in the shops all over the world is rarely extremely fresh and original.

Besides, most brands taking part in the various fashion weeks shouldn’t be allowed to present their collections at catwalk shows because they simply do not produce anything extraordinarily beautiful.

Italy has produced hundreds of small labels, some rather silly and absolutely useless (and fronted by embarrassingly tart-ish showgirls…), that are allowed to showcase their mediocre collections during Milan Fashion Week.

Designers complain about sales going down and people doing some serious compulsory shopping only at cheap high street retailers, and they claim they don’t understand why.

It doesn’t take a genius to understand that the success of cheap retailers is linked to two main reasons: 1) ordinary people can’t afford extremely expensive designs; 2) the fashion media tell us we must follow the current trends and, if that's to believe, it implies throwing out what’s in our wardrobe roughly every 4-6 months (if not every week) and buy supposedly new and trendy stuff, a routine most of us can't sustain because of point number 1.

From a journalistic point of view it has become extremely hard to be enthusiastic about what you see on the runway: there is a limit to the enthusiastic words you can use to describe a highly commercial, but essentially “uneventful” collection such as Elie Tahari, because that’s the only way you could describe a series of rather unoriginal anoraks, blazers, shorts, linen jumpsuits and drawstring trousers.

Rather than justifiably reeking of Hervé Leger's inspirations, Max and Lubov Azria at BCBG Max Azria went down the Marios Schwab-meets-Rodarte path with their draped and bandaged, and in some cases slightly deconstructed mini-dresses, designed firmly keeping young women in mind.

Lack of inspiration also produced unconscious references to Gianni Versace, from Jen Kao’s sexy chain-mail dresses that called to mind Versace’s iconic oroton numbers (though interesting, her motorcycle jackets with cut-out X-shaped details weren’t simply enough to make you shout for 1) originality, 2) amazing tailoring intuitiveness), to Vena Cava.

The latter mixed subtle South African tribal inspirations (mainly used for prints and for the red and white fabric details on collars and short sleeves) with punk and came out with dresses decorated with safety pin vests or see through shirts kept together by safety pins. Shame Versace did the safety pin trick (re-adapting it from punk) around 14 years ago.

Africa proved an irresistible excuse for some designers: Gwen Stefani embarrassingly mixed it with 80s references, yet this "inspiration" wasn't enough to justify the need for L.A.M.B.’s umpteenth biker jacket, off-the-shoulder dress and pleated mini-skirt and, above all, abhorrent lace tights (we all remember how hitchy they were in the 80s, don’t we?).

Monique Lhuillier thought Masai warriors were interesting, but halfway through her collection got tempted by Greek caryatids and turned their tunics into rope belted evening dresses (cue: find a haberdashery shop and buy as many curtain tassels as you fancy, then use them as belts, decorations for your shirts or outerwear or hair ornaments, but don't succumb to designer curtain tassels..), then relapsed into Masai mood and over-embellished one or two gowns and also came up with some rather unnecessary leopard printed dresses.

You naturally also wonder why we should be attracted to John Patrick’s Organic’s 40s style floral printed dress and to an insane amount of boyish plain shirts and shorts when we could get the former in a vintage shop or in random members of your family’s wardrobes and could find the latter literally everywhere? Don't come up with the excuse "it's organic!" because quite a few designers have proved you can go organic and eco-friendly and be slightly more alive and original.

Tom Scott's collection also seemed to display a certain lack of research and a couple of useless Spring/Summer versions of his A/W 09 "Shirley" polka dot sweater, while his "Shirley" ra ra dress was turned into a cotton tank top with appliqued ruffles, the perfect trick if you are flat-chested.

There was a bit more variation in Prabal Gurung’s collection, though the designer went for the YSL-meets-Alexis Mabille approach and, while his tuxedos were interesting enough thanks to details such as a bow tie lapel, his dresses – excluding a one shoulder blue dress and a few numbers with pale blue painted roses – were decorated with an exceedingly ridiculous amount of bows (also used in the trousers ankle ties) that, rather than being good examples of a modern romantic look, were more crossovers between a present box and Viktor & Rolf circa Spring/Summer 2005.

If you have been following this blog you know that I’m a huge fan of Nancy Cunard and Elsa Schiaparelli, but I can assure you they weren't anywhere in sight at Michael Angel’s despite the designer said they were among his inspirations (also Dior was…).

Angel’s only interesting point were his digital prints of oversized gems and jewels, but the cut of his dresses – peplum tops and skirts included – needs to be improved and possibly revisited on a tailoring level.

You could argue that the first day of New York Fashion Week is always like this, slightly uncertain and at times redundant, yet it's hard to believe in a fantastically original world of fashion after such a day.

Member of the Boxxet Network of Blogs, Videos and Photos

http://www.boxxet.com/my/badgeBN.80.15.js?boxxetId=u23036

Member of the Boxxet Network of Blogs, Videos and Photos

http://www.boxxet.com/my/badgeBN.160.30.js?boxxetId=u23036

Add to Technorati Favorites