This all about contrasts, what happens when designers
design, what happens when being low key turns into a disadvantage rather than
advantage and lastly we see what happens when a
brand wants to be uber trendoidal and shots itself in the foot!
On any given day, the untrained and maybe even the trained
fashion eye would not detect that Balenciaga men’s Spring 2014 really had a
designer. There is a price you pay in
trying to be too cool. A bigger price is paid when your color palette and
clothes obliterate whatever message you are trying to deliver. In essence, the clothes are far too simple or
intrinsically simple to make any sort of impression other than … so what! Just another pile of too slick, too
unassuming and supposedly too trendy clothes is what was shown. By the way, be under 40 and less than a size
40 and maybe you can find something that draws no attention to you and but you
can say “oh! It’s Balenciaga!” … as if!
On the flip side is Walter Van Beirendonck who is certainly an
acquired taste, but in my opinion a far more exciting designer/brand. Actually the clothes are dynamic and exciting
and okay, not for everyone. The fact is
that these are clothes for the dyed in the wool; fashion is my life type of
client. Nonetheless, the clothes are
beautiful, the palette is exciting and most of all they are a signature that
belongs to the designer. WVB is not one to follow the flock and when he seizes
a trend, he gives it the Van Beirendonck treatment. He is a designer’s designer who has a sense
of humor and a sense of fashion that few possess. The colors, the prints, the shapes, all are
modern and distinctively WVB and how many can speak to that assessment?
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