SAINT LAURENT, THOM BROWNE, COMME ..fall men's 2013 Paris

Saint Laurent designer Hedi Slimane took a time machine trip back to the mid 80’s and maybe had discovered the glories or the consequences of too many drugs; this is not to say drugs were involved during the design process but it is entirely possible.  What exactly can he be thinking to turn out a pile of crap like this?  It is bad enough that these clothes bear no relevance to anyone’s lifestyle unless you are an anorexic street punk in Berlin or maybe London and I must confirm that they are not the target audience for this once revered and legendary brand.  No matter what a horror Pierre Berge was made out to be and whatever disorders were once suffered by Yves St Laurent, the former is aghast at this display of just plain bad taste and the latter is spinning in his grave due to the disgrace that is now called Saint Laurent.  Mr. Slimane may have been the wunderkind of Dior for his 15 minutes but that is practically forgotten once you see this mess of torn jeans and malnourished models who look like they have escaped from various foster homes and drug rehabs, needles still in arms, around Paris.  I hope Monsieur Pinault is happy with this choice as I highly suspect that Saint Laurent Boutiques will not be buzzing come fall with trust fund punks and the numbers will so reflect!

While we are on the subject of time machines, let’s move onto Thom Browne who is hoping that no critic will recall Jean Paul Gaultier’s Hassidic collection from around 20 years ago.  Granted Mr. Gaultier's version was extreme but directional and trend worthy and then we have Mr. Browne's ill-conceived Amish version that is based on cubes and boxes, yes boxes, squared off and all.  Without question the craftsmanship is non pareil, but the design quotient is laughably absurd.  Good design sells clothes not craftsmanship and back stories.  Think of it this way, you take a simple basic design like bib front overalls and you plow in hours of handwork and use the most precious of fabrics and when all is said and done you have the same ugly bib front overalls for 20 times the price that they should be … the question is why and the only reason I can come up with or even consider is shock value because it certainly isn’t due to the marketing prowess of the brand.  Maybe they are meant to be costumes for the circus or stage: quite a waste of time and talent here and no this is really not as much amusing as it is insulting to fashion.

Comme des Garcons has certainly taken grandma’s chenille bed spread and given it new life and I mean that in a very very sarcastic way.  Having just read a review that spins this pile of garbage as youthful innocence, I think that reviewer would be far better suited as a writer of fiction rather than a reviewer of men’s fashion.  How patently absurd to call these clothes, and I use that term loosely, to have anything flattering to say other than pretty colors just  not for a men’s show.  This is a perfect classic example of a collection of blah blah blah clothes where the clothes defy the descriptions and the back story is supposed to cover the fact that this was nothing short of  a parade of clown clothes for wealthy miscreants as clowndom doesn’t come cheaply in the world of Comme des Garcons!  Even the 21^st century Stephen Jones version of the ears, the original Elsa Peretti version worn in the famous Halston/Helmut Newton roof top photo, is pretty bad and to think that money was spent on the page boy fluffs worn by the models is just too incredulous to comprehend.  Can you tell that I think this is just about as preposterous as it can get?  Some call it fashion, some call it subversive, some might even call it fashion in its loosest sense...I call it hubris at its zenith!