Two articles in UK newspapers yesterday caught our eye for their different explanations to what many of us noticed during the recent fashion circus; the sudden demise of catwalk trends.
Amol Rajan at The Independent highlights the loss of seasonal trends, as companies swap fashion trend consultants for climatologists, whilst in her summary of Paris fashion week Jess Cartner-Morley over at the Guardian talks of a season of only micro-trends and mini-trends, opting out of the impossible task of banding these collections into overarching themes.
To anyone who has been following the shows for the past month, neither of these statements is a great surprise, but they beg the question what will the high street retailers do now? This season’s abundance of celebrity-designed ranges may offer temporary sales success, but a much deeper re-think might be for the future.
Unpredictable weather ‘means seasonal fashion is now obsolete’- the Independent
Fashion for all- The Guardian
Related on PSFK: Is WGSN Destroying Creativity?
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I love to study fashion and the changes, cycles of consumption,I don´t think the fashion died, now we are living more 1moment that the fashion seeks in the new popular culture values, at the same time that we live many movements of art from the street that gives an news influence of the graphic language, we are exactly, again living a chaos, but always the fashion, in few years will be clear again… if this existentialist phase finish, if the wolrd stop to be afraid with so much threats to his life and to the planet… it´s similar the 20, 60, 70 over all
October 11th, 2007 at 10:38 am
What a compelling article. Not the death of fashion but perhaps the death of direction.
In politics I was thinking about the uproar that the Labour party caused when they announced policies previously espoused by the opposition. They stole their policies the press said. Well they were not really policies they were just ideas. It was not that one party moved political ground or usurped an ideology they just took a good idea and made it happen.
What’s the connection with fashion? If you view ideology as silhouette and ideas as micro trends then perhaps there is a wider connection to a sociological overarching trend of being safe in the middle ground.
Personally I’ve found this years set of shows creatively stimulating. Marc Jacobs in NY challenged us to think harder, Last seasons Prada show is beginning to make sense to me and this seasons Balenciaga was an overwhelming registration of ownership of a strong silhouette. London’s designers seem to be getting it together to such an extent that I would not be surprised to see another couple of Williamsons and McQueens emerge over the next couple of years.
October 12th, 2007 at 4:23 am