New York Fashion Week was usually a commercial affair with a bulimic calendar and with quite a few celebrities and fashion icons sitting in the front rows. Yet the digital revolution that threw fashion into an insta-frenziness introduced to this event an unnecessary phenomenon - the celebrity as fashion designer.
In the last few years there have actually been all sorts of alleged "collaborations" between brands/historical maisons/fast fashion retailers and celebrities, and then we entered a new phase in which a famous icon like a musician turned from performer at the back of a runway show into front row accessory and finally mutated into an entirely new creature, turning into "proper designer". Then this new and annoying figure was integrated into the fashion calendar and so it happened that, after Kanye West's Yeezy Seasons 3, it was the turn of Rihanna's Fenty x Puma debut.
The singer, who developed a clothing line with River Island a while back, was named creative director/brand ambassador for the Kering-owned footwear brand in late 2014; she mainly released sneakers, but for the Autumn/Winter 2016 collection she moved onto garments as well.
This New York Fashion Week presentation in a construction site, opposite the American Stock Exchange, was actually relatively subdued compared to the Yeezy extravaganza, but, while it lacked a stadium, thousands of paying fans, and hundreds of models forming a living and breathing (but largely motionless...) installation by a major contemporary artist, it had something very similar - a pile of more or less undesirable clothes.
Exactly as it happened with Yeezy Seasons 3, there wasn't much to say about the clothes as the collection inluded '90s-inspired streetwear (for both men and women), oversized hoodies and sweatshirts; reinventions of bomber jackets; body harnesses and furry pullovers that can double as dresses; mesh dresses; lace bodysuits and boxer-type shorts. The emphasis as you may guess was on footwear, with new versions of the creeper sneaker Rihanna created for Puma in 2015 (View this photo), and with several interpretations of classic sneakers reinvented as thigh-high boxing boots and sneaker-stiletto boots.
In this mix of gothic athleisure and streetwear with an erotic twist, there were also occasional messages written in Japanese and the large red disc of the Japanese flag. To be honest there was also a sense of déjà-vu: many looks out of Fenty x Puma looked indeed like the edited sporty versions of Hyein Seo's creations.
As some of you may remember, South Korean Hyein Seo won the British Council and British Fashion Council's International Fashion Showcase Emerging Talent Award 2014 for Best Designer with a collection inspired by 1990s fashion, Dario Argento, Jim Jamusch and old school hip hop.
Rihanna was often photographed wearing Seo's creations, including a bomber jacket and choker and a faux fur stole emblazoned with the word "Fear" in black block letters (View this photo). Last year she also opted for Hyein Seo's "School Kills" T-shirt. Rihanna actually liked it so much that, in May 2015, her company Roraj Trade, LLC, filed at the US Patent and Trademarks Office a new brand - $CHOOL Kills - under the category of 'leather products' and 'clothing products.'
Luckily for Seo, there are no direct rip-offs in the Puma collection, but there is a certain mood, and little references and ideas such as the Japanese references (among Seo's recent designs there are indeed jackets and trousers inspired by punk and covered in Japanese graphics).
So here lies the dilemma: brands invest in celebrities because they represent more powerful and famous brands capable of selling more or less everything to consumers. Undoubtedly, celebrities have got attitudes, but they do lack ideas and skills when it comes to designing garments. Sadly brands have been maybe confounding attitude with design skills, while they would win the respect of many consumers out there if they could only invest in talent, nurture and help it grow.
Genuinely new and innovative ideas do not lie indeed in sneakers-cum-stilettos or in the umpteenth version of the bunny boot (see the Yeezy 950 Duck Boot), but they are maybe being developed by somebody completely anonymous who is working hard in a fashion institution or in an independent design studio where there is no money and celebrity status, but quite often there is a lot of talent.
You can defend celebrities highlighting that a garment is just a garment and doesn't need to have a conceptual meaning, besides we may be staring at another tracksuit, but, well, it's loaded with attitude beause it's designed by somebody famous. Yet again the most talked celebrity collections seen at New York Fashion Week have shown absolutely no research, innovation and design skills, proving that, sadly it's not your knowledge that counts nowadays, but your attitude and how you project it on your followers on social media.
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