Chloé resort 2022

Gee, Gabriella ...   you created a bouillabaisse of your eponymous collection, the Row, a riot of rick rack, Ulla Johnson with here prairie wear and then 2 slick side tie suits that come out of nowhere. This is just one more example of “name that brand” as there is nothing identifiable here that says Chloé ... thank God.

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Chloé once known as an it brand morphed into a suburban housewife it brand and again morphed into an it handbag and in its present iteration morphed into that of a souk with one extraordinarily unhappy “full” size model and who could blame her.

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There must be one designer out there who studies the roots of a heritage brand and extrapolate that information and creates a collection that resembles what the brand once stood for and what made it the success it was!

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Chloé spring 2021

 Well, here is something special…  we have a collection that is most definitely not tone deaf in terms of the times...  But we do have a collection that requires a deaf, dumb and blind consumer who would pay this amount of money to look this pedestrian, this thrift shop/hand me downish to buy clothes that are just plain unpleasing to the eye.

Good luck to them if they get sued by Tiffany & Co.  for knocking off the Elsa Peretti  belt.

There is nothing more to say other that whoever is designing this needs to go back to the

drawing boards pronto! That is all!!!

Chloé resort 2020

Natacha Ramsay-Levi supposedly and apparently researched this collection which is aimed at the Chinese market…. Really? I guess she neglected to understand that much of the Asian market is logo driven and that the Asian woman is not on the average of 5’7 or better ... let alone that the colorations are not exactly flatttering to those skintones of the Asian market.

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 So, once again all this blah blah blah  and once again yawning… waiting for the real clothes to appear… but then again apparently the powers that be and the designer believe that fashion trends now revolve around the Chinese market.  What they neglected to take into account is that the the Chinese market have the greatest power of consumerism and but are certainly not great tastemakers or trend setters.

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Be that as it may, still one more misguided collection with clothes that will dwarf their target customer…  if they are even interested in looking like any of this.

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Chloé spring 2019

Natacha Ramsay-Levi is still mining what was a hot trendy new look more than half of a century ago … HIPPIES and the Woodstock era! Frankly it is a bit refreshing and then it soon becomes who cares and not that again. What I can say is that for the most part the collection has shape which is something that has been missing from all collections for a few years now ad yes some of the clothes might even be visible on human beings.

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 Actually, the whole point of this is that there is nothing here to jump up and down about in fact there are several major uglies which are partly due to a designer who has no idea how fabric reacts on a body. BUT let’s not forget the Geoffrey Beene leather harness on the crystal pleated pieces …. Almost funny!

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The patchwork, low slung rope belts, bare midriffs, sandals and head bands couldn’t be any more tired and then I guess for excitement you draw boobies on a tee shirt dress and either think it’s cute or naughty … its neither, it’s stupid gimmicky crap. Natacha baby, you really should move past beige especially in a season that is touting color as one of its key trends; again one might need a visual jolt that color could provide. It’s possible this is the new normal for housewives ... Certainly not workwear and certainly not for teenagers although they can easily replicate the look from their local thrift shop.

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At any rate there are clothes to be worn and I suppose appealing to some, but my question is to who? I’ve seen a lot worse in the past month so in comparison or put into a context.. this wasn’t as bad as it might have been but it is certainly not as good as it could be.

Balmain & Chloé PFW fall 2016

Total number of  Instagram users ….. 182,500,000

Age group audience  18-29 …..28%

Cell phone users(18-29-year-old)  report using Instagram 43%

Income over 75k annually …. 12%

  
70% of users come from outside the U.S.,

Instagram is considered the most important social network by more American teens (at 32%) than any other network

In this age of Instagram when so many believe that likes are indicative of success, the above statistics may of course be true but surely not when it comes to the upper echelons of fashion.. enter Balmain and Chloé! They both seem to be far more suited to bridge rather than designer. Likes and hype do not insure anything other than hopefully brand recognition and in no way do these supposed attributes guarantee sales or that your target audience has been reached.

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According to what I see, it is very hard to believe that these brands believe that their success is based on their Instagram followers… do the math ... read it!

With that being said Balmain, of which I have been a reasonably loyal fan has now become a caricature of itself and surely has made me believe that its future is in H&M and not at the top of the ladder. It is too much  been there done that and it’s time to move on, so called supermodels may insure your “likes” but they aint selling clothes to the audience who can afford then unless of course as said we revert to H&M. BTW. Time to evolve. It is like an LP with a scratch that keeps skipping … ask someone old enough re know what an actual record is! PS.. the padded hips .. Gauthier did them almost 30 years ago !

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As for Chloé, it is hard or nearly impossible to believe that another hippie fest is the answer to the brand’s longevity. The same can be said of how many handbags can you sell to justify the ad budgets and show costs. This brand hasn’t had the true luster it once achieved with Kaiser Karl and Gaby Aghion its founder. Granted it has recast itself as a brand for young women who are supposedly fashionable and yet the clothes defy the concept. For me, apparently it is more about an “it” bag than it is about apparel. Luckily, Richemont is not dependent on the brand to make  jillions as long as it doesn’t drag down their bottom line. PS ... ya know Claire ... sure looks like you love The Row… just saying

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STATISTICS HAVE BEEN GATHERED VIA INSTAGRAM AND OTHER INTERNET SOURCES