Brand Assassination

Courrèges, Nina Ricci, Sonia Rykiel, Paco Rabanne, Mugler, Emanuel Ungaro & Kenzo

 

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The names above are some of the greatest heritage brands to ever come out of Paris and yet look at the atrocities here and see if you can possibly match any of this garbage to any of these once majestic and revered brands. 

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The impetus for this piece is the “murderer” at Courrèges and then the others are just accomplices to the crimes. Do you blame the designer or do you blame the ownership?

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What's the point in perpetuating a brand that has a long and groundbreaking history and throwing it all out the window to produce generically ugly and absurd looking clothes that probably will never sell .... seems rather pointless

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Courrèges was probably the first to ever discover and espouse minimalism, Kenzo once known for his technicolor florals and happy clothes, Rabanne for his groundbreaking use of metal, Ungaro for creating clothes screamed sex, Mugler was one of the architects of fashion and the extreme, Ricci for its jolie madame/soigné and elegance and Sonia for her irreplaceable knits… can you match any of those names to any of these images? 

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It is a crime against fashion and fashion media that any of this crap is acceptable under these labels. Critics talk around the clothes since there are no clothes to speak about that anyone will want.  

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The French who are so full of their so called pride in product should be ashamed of themselves and as for the coverage that these collections that they receive... well the  least these eponymous designers deserve is the honesty that the collection that now bears their name is to be called out for what they are …. Tasteless generic crap!

CELINE men’s spring 2020

Think Tony Manero meets Peter Berlin meets the disco Romeo meets Joe college meets thrift shop jackets and there you have it in a nutshell... that is Celine for spring. 

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Yes, we wore center creased jeans, yes our pants were more high waisted than low slung and yes there were lots of cropped jackets so the point is that it’s hardly news. Now Hedi’s competition is Tom Ford who has been recycling the 70s and 80s since day one. Throw in a couple of ornate varsity jackets, one absurd cape and lots of pointy shoes which look like cowboy boots... yes we wore those too.  But, instead these are woven tasseled loafers. There was even a denim overalls moment that he seemed to latch onto, leather pants were not quite the rage yet but unquestionably it was a denim era. What shocks me is that he didn’t hit upon platform shoes and 3 inch heels as footwear but he hit upon the vintage dinner jacket moment of that time. One other thing he missed was the fitted suit jackets.. nipped waists were so timely!

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On the positive side it’s  really all very wearable  albeit not very original and if  it’s not jillions of dollars you too can look ordinary so it’s a slam dunk at retail unless of course the trendoids start scouring the thrift shops  tomorrow. 

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In the 70s I was already waist deep in Versace, Jupiter, Jeff Sayres as well as Basile as the Europeans were just starting to take hold in menswear. I don’t recall ever wearing my jeans with a blazer though it’s possible and I do recall wearing a hunter’s fedora with my jeans and dark glasses. I remember all those Levi-esque jackets but not so much the varsity letter/bomber jackets that he went so deeply into. 

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And Hedi even manages a few... and I mean a few... newer looking jackets and outerwear pieces that didn’t scream 70s.

Rick Owens spring 2020 men’s

It is quite rare that any collection haunts me in a way that I kept going back to look at it and certainly even more rare when it is a collection by Rick Owens. Admittedly, I usually have nothing complimentary to say about any of his collections with the exception of maybe one or two from ages ago.

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I had to come back and look again and I’m glad I did as this is not a collection about what you see; it’s a collection that forces the eye to subtract from what you see and extract the noteworthy. It is not easy to dismiss the gimmicks, the shock and awe and hyper styling and overall overstatement of it all BUT there is treasure in them thar hills! I’m not sure that’s what the Rick Owens client is searching for but it’s there!

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Firstly I find the collection rather sexy despite the blatancy and obviousness of it. Maybe it’s the casting, maybe it’s plunging and sinuously draped jersey tops or just the plunging necklines but all I can see is JACKETS!  A treasure trove of jackets of every shape and material almost all of them sharply tailored and... Fasten your seat belt… wearable!

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It’s difficult to visually  eliminate  and dissect so much of the shock and awe that Owens employs every season but  I  found it easy to overlook the billowing pants the hanging straps , the snap crotch fencing/body suits and  of  course the absurd platform shoes and sneakers.

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I would plead guilty to having read the Vogue review which to me was some sort of ridiculous justification and dissertation about the inspiration of this collection.  BTW I found the review had nothing to do with the collection but such is the media elite these days.

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Those who follow me will probably “read me” over this review but I felt it was something I had to write about considering the dearth of nonsensical useless and overpoweringly gender fluidity that has become fashion and permeated runways.

As I said to a colleague last week … when Walter Van Beirendonck becomes nothing more than a so what … you know the system is broken.

Vetements Spring 2020

The immediate inescapable comparison is almost too good to pass up ... fast food with fast fashion even though they think it’s not! ACTUALLY IT'S JUST RUBBISH!

 

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It is either shopping in a uniform supply house, dumpster diving behind a Goodwill or possibly all stolen from Ronald McDonald’s closet.

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Whatever you want to call it ... it is a stain on the fashion industry and an insult to consumers and retailers. This was to be the next greatest design coup of the 21^st century and instead it is nothing more than a tragic comedy, a felony of fashion authored by talentless hacks who were lauded by the so called media elite.

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The pictures speak for themselves……………….