Tavi Gevenson, 14 year old internet fashion blogging sensation (image British Vogue).
When I put this piece together, I was watching Law & Order, the one where the Mom of a family of 10 adopted special needs children is murdered and the Dad, the day after, puts the family on a reality show. It ends with a dead locked jury so the suit is thrown out and the reality show host creates a new format with a new judge he has picked to decide on a whole other set of criteria (that the reality show host set forth), which didn’t have much to do with the mom who got murdered in the first place.
Burberry Prosum streamed their collection live as did others. I hope this trend continues.
It’s a seemingly far fetched possibility, yet the lines are getting pretty blurred in most everything, on an everyday basis between truth and fiction. Thank you cyberspace, cable television, Judge Judy and American Idol. The old adage believe nothing you hear and only half of what you see is never more true than this moment in history. With fashion, live streaming a runway collection has brought fashion so close to the masses that the mystique of the shows is gone with some designers making their clothing available, on the spot, straight from the runways. As a consequence how fashion is getting covered during these shows has changed too. It’s big business for the publications and all of them are all over it. Twitter has added a great element to following the shows so you’re never very far out of the loop. The fashion folks have been great about announcing the live streaming collections so if you can make it, you’ve got a front row seat, complete w/ 140 character tweets describing insiderey elements to a designer’s collection. Better than being there, almost.
In the process some fashion bloggers have become the latest internet sensation…deserved or not, it’s the novelty they offer and the demographic they speak to the industry is after (Tavi, above). Nonetheless, they are all the rage. Fashion itself was the least of the news, and in some cases rose to that level only. Where the medium became the sole message.
Balenciaga, left, Vivienne Westwood Red, center, Rodarte, right
That said designers at first blush were all over the place for fall 2010 (of course with the massive amount of coverage, most bad some good, what else is going to be your takeaway?). Taking a closer look myself, I was able to determine there were two significant profiles to emerge, a more feminine, almost girly one vs a more severe serious minimalist female with a third, and oddly enough lesser, one based solely on a creative expression serving to feed the sensationalism that speaks to a visual medium vs the female body.
Haider Ackermann, left, Lanvin, center, Prada, right
Beyond that, you will have lots of fab coats to choose from, fashioned leather to die for, fur (faux and real), velvet, feathers and, ladies, get ready, the waist is back. While the controversy over models on the catwalk being too thin has the industry putting models with slightly more meat on their bodies on the runway this season (thankfully) the designers have created overall collections that are more body conscious. The heavy layers of the past, while still there in some collections, focus more on the fact that women have waists and curves whether a more feminine or severe look. Turns out we’ve all got curves.
Well, you don’t say. And high time designers you figured that out. Of course some managed this obvious reality better than others. John Galliano for instance for Dior is apparently being criticized for an overtly romantic collection yet women love it. And Lanvin, who doesn’t do anything for the sake of sensationalism, turned out a unique body conscious yet easy collection for women. It combined successfully the best of both worlds, tailoring and draping. So you have a professional look that is feminine. He worked at that. Then you have Balenciaga who turned out a tremendously creative collection inspired by artists (and packing materials) but it has nothing to do probably with what women want. No matter, it makes a statement, if that is what you want and will be worth something in the aftermarket collectors have discovered on ebay and in vintage shops. Rodarte falls into this category as does Issey Miyake and Prada.
It’ll be interesting to see what the retailers do with what’s been handed them. Hopefully they’ve learned something from the past few years….worst thing they could do is badly knock off what they’ve seen on the runways using some unknown factory in India. With so much talent unemployed, it’s not necessary to use half measures. I guess we’ll see.
3/09/10 12/:53 p.m. Update:
Raf Simons for Jil Sander, Phoebe Philo for Celine, and Stella McCartney have all turned out highly minimalist collections, which most definitely has strength and I for one love the simplicity and strictness (tends to be more my style of dress); however, I see this as being specific to their design aesthetic vs a strong trend; infact, I will stick by what I’d alluded to above: that there is some nice combo of feminine and minimalist which Lanvin and Haider Ackermann as well as in New York Marc Jacobs, Donna Karan and Michael Kors spoke (did not forget you New York). (images to come).
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Today creativity suffered a severe blow with the death of Alexander McQueen. A true visionary, McQueen never failed to delight and to inspire the senses. In a world where there is too little of pushing the envelope and too much of going with the sure thing, McQueen always took the more difficult path. There was none other like Alexander McQueen.
