In a previous post we looked at digital "Haute Mess" through Google's Project Muze, but, you see, fashion epic fails aren't just digital - as proved yesterday afternoon at the Yeezy Season 4 show, they can indeed be tangible and real, very real.
In the last few days Kanye West's casting call highlighting "multiracial women only" sparked debate on the social media; then there was the debate about the secret location and the announcement that the show would be streamed via Tidal.
Eventually the show took place on the lawn in Four Freedoms Park on Roosevelt Island, and featured another "performance" by artist Vanessa Beecroft, that is models in a military formation, the usual group of survivors of an apocalypse West accustomed us with at his shows, possibly standing still.
This time the girls that formed this regimented group of people donned beige, cream, nude, chocolate, brown, coffee and black undergarments, while models walking around them on a triangular runway were dressed in the same clothes we have seen on other Yeezy runways that is oversized hoodies, puffa jackets, parkas, T-shirts, bra tops, ribbed body-con mini-dresses, knitted cut-out tops and tight-knit tank dresses in pale colors, mainly matched with over-the-knee boots, some of them in transparent PVC, a material that allowed to see the models' legs and feet positively perspiring. Accessories also included enormous backpacks.
There were a few catastrophes along the line: some models standing on the lawn in the centre of the runway fainted as they waited under a scorching sun and in unbearable temperatures; one model on the runway removed instead her shoes.
It soon became clear that West mainly focused so much on the four freedoms celebrated by the park - freedom of speech and expression, freedom of religion, freedom from want and freedom from fear - that he forgot about freedom of movement when a model in horridly looking, ill-fitting boots started stumbling on the runway and was eventually helped down it by Bruce Pask of Bergdorf Goodman, who stood up from his seat and walked her down the runway.
There are no excuses about this shambolic show (that may have had a great symbolism considering the space where it was held, and a wonderful architectural connection considering Louis Kahn was originally asked to design it). Instead the show and the clothes were a total mess.
West states this is "apparel" and not "fashion", but his terrible garments and accessories at times copied from other labels (first we saw Margiela's boots being re-vomited by Gvasalia's Vêtements; then they were regurgitated in Gvasalia's Balenciaga and in this collection…how many times will we have to see them vomited yet again before we move on?).
Besides, if this is apparel, he should at least try to sell it: Yeezy's clothes haven't indeed been really produced so far, but the supposed 200 styles featured in one collection were reduced to footwear.
The reactions as a whole weren't positive at all: most journalists were angry about wasting time to get on the buses that took them to the secret location and then about being held captive there awaiting for something to happen and for the Kardashian clan to show up. Their reactions are also taking the form of interesting reviews: some of them heavily criticised the collection; others completely avoided mentioning it or compiled lists of notable trendy things (the diversity of the cast and varying shades of blackness; boots being "the new pants" and the cult of the underboob, as exhibited by "Fade" music video star Teyana Taylor) to make sure they didn't have to mention the actual clothes offending in this way West and Adidas.
Mind you, in many ways West is not to be entirely condemned here: he was crap at fashion from the very beginning, but the fashion media encouraged his forays into design being afraid of losing advertising money (and their jobs...) or of being sued for this or that (as it happens nowadays when you tend to tell the truth...).
So, let's face it, this was a bad collection and the overall experience left you as cold and bored as Beecroft's shambolic bronze and marble garden in the Italian Pavilion at the Venice Art Biennale in 2015.
At the same time, this collection has brought something good on the fashion scene as it may help purging fashion journalism from a few lies and mark the return of a tiny drop of honesty in writing. The reaction of many critics proves indeed that there is a limit to the shit you can take and that you can lie once to consumers, but you can't manufacture continuous lies, otherwise you will lose your personal integrity and credibility.
"The truth hurts in this nitrogenic atmosphere!" sings Mr Small from The Amazing World of Gumball in his "Honesty Rap", suggesting that the solution is in keeping lies to a "manageable size". In a nutshell, if you're a fashion critic next time you have to describe a celebrity-designed collection, rather than blatantly lying and screaming "fashion genius" in the name of advertising money, opt for blander definitions and descriptions. You will discover that being honest won't make you rich, but it will help you retaining your integrity. And that's no mean feat in the fashion industry.
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