Sunday, February 14, 2016

The "IT" boys... Wang, Baja East, Altuzarra, Siriano fall 2016



Apparently the supposed golden boys of so called American fashion are really trying to get their message across for fall 2016. The problem is that one might be horribly confused as to what that message might be. Among this assemblage we have a collection or two that is actually designed, one collection for wannabe rich white hip hop folks and one that is contemporary sportswear pretending to be top shelf fashion. Please be advised that 3 of the 4 are just these darlings of the media as after all they might be conceived as Anna’s boys and that speaks to the devolving cycle of fashion.

Plunk your magic twanger, Froggy! Or twang your magic wanger! Wang!.. Froggy the gremlin was a troublemaker. Disrespectful of adult authority figures, Froggy played practical jokes and disrupted the presentations of other guests. Alexander Wang is this century’s take on Froggy as his collections continue to be nothing more than contemporary sportswear pretending to be serious fashion for adults. No matter the hype, the silly kissy prancing and so called oh too fab after parties, these are clothes for young women whose favorite shopping spots include H&M, Zara, Topshop and this is their aspirational brand. The clothes, for the most part might come with a warning label stating that you must be under 40 to wear them or risk looking like you are wearing your daughter’s clothes.
 
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Next up, speaking of Caucasian wannabe Hip Hoppers, we come to Baja East who seems to actually believe these are designer clothes. They seem to be alumnus of the Hood By Air/Yeezy/Hedi school of fashion which means you have wildly and extravagantly expensive clothes that will cover you and yet you still look like an unmade or slept in bed. And the proof lies in the designer’s exits who went from clean cut darlings of the wholesale biz to their now Justin Bieber I wannabe a hip hop singer persona. From what I am lead to believe, the collection has near none retail appeal and who can argue; imagine most of it is shown folded or the rest hanging limply on a rack growing inch by inch day by day. One must assume in this new context of fashion that the world is now waiting for logo’d tops for 1000’s of dollars and pants that dust the floor as you walk, or trip over yourself, and are guaranteed to fray if your feet touch a pavement.
 
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Now, there are two collections that are actually seemingly designed; they are not me too’s and there are actually clothes that one might imagine being worn which in the general scheme of things is as rare as hen’s teeth, to quote a past Texan colleague.

Altuzarra has more than proven himself to be a tailor of note. Whether or not I understand it, I can appreciate this aspect of his talents and this season, as said, the collection seems to be a collection that holds together with his staples as well as novelties, all presented in a very slick way. The great mix of patterns and textures and for the most part straight forward silhouettes that could possible translate to sales. I know the dirty word has reared its ugly head but you gotta sell this shit or else what’s the point? After all, Anna aint coming around to scoop up your collections at every retail outlet so you gotta have some actual appeal and IMHO, he hits the mark this season. And, as we have learned in most recent times... no sales, no job! .....PS something gnawing  at me says John Ashpool
 
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Last up is the kid who was a punch line or everyone joked about when he was a reality TV designer but Siriano has more than proven himself an adept designer whose roots lie in the more classically interpreted roots of fashion and he is as serious as a heart attack when it comes to his output. Oh, in case you need a refresher on that, I speak of designed clothes to be worn which are relatively ageless, relatively tasteful and actually bring something to the table rather than being the scraps that are cleared off after dinner. No, this is not the end all do all but it is surely a collection that has retail appeal and requires no blah blah blah nor does one need a road map to figure out how to wear them. This collection sort of looked like if Laura Biagiotti, Halston and Siriano collaborated this would be their brainchild. This young man actually has developed his DNA which is far more than I can say of most of his contemporaries who are still searching.
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