Michael Kors fall 2022

The only thing that comes to mind here is simply ... do what you do best and he did!! The clothes are quintessential Kors ... slick, urbane, clean, soigné, appealing with no gimmicks, no tricks and no tits out and proud! Calculated simplicity!!!

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Not only were the clothes wonderful but so was the staging, the styling and the presentation. The collection is long on outerwear from clutch coats to ponchos to monk’s robes and blazers. Shown in color groupings, one couldn’t help but think ... this is the way it should be done and was done; no slap dash send out another girl, doesn’t matter what color day or evening just get her out... this took planning and thought which is something the young’uns need to learn.

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These are clothes that inspire lust and aspiration, and they don’t need to be shown on plus size models to know they can be worn in a wide variety of sizes.

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The head of PR at Michael Kors once took me to breakfast because I had written a harsh review and when I finally asked her to come clean about what the purpose of the breakfast was ...she admitted it and my reply was ... when he does what he does best then my review will reflect that!  The reviews of late speak for themselves ... I was true to my word.

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Bravo Mr. Kors for giving some gravitas to NYFW! There is too much political correctness and not enough honest to goodness fashion out there

NYFW fall 2022

 FLUMMOXED! No words necessary... this is what all the hype is about .. I leave it to you

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Proenza Schouler fall 2022

After 20 years in business and having caused the loss of reputations, failed retail shops and joblessness, these two have still not distilled a look...  a signature that you can look at and this is Proenza Schouler!

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“With Omicron fading, they’re looking forward to a fall season of strong tailoring and soft dresses whose sophistication is matched by a body-conscious sensuality.” Oh really? I see pear shaped silhouettes in many dresses and strong shouldered tailoring in a few jackets and basically   just a lot of clothes... most of them unflattering.

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“Can a strapless dress with volume evocative of 18th century panniers really feel effortless? Yes, if it’s in sculpted knitwear with a circular bias-cut skirt. “Some fashion genius will have to explain this to me and tell me why or when panniers were ever even imagined to be effortless or for that matter useful or utilitarian; not even Galliano thought them useful other than for spectacle.

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All I know is none of this will ever matter and none of it will ever be remembered for its beauty. 20 years and approximately 80 collections later and they are still searching for a look and an identity!

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I can’t tell who is drinking the Kool-Aid. The reviewer or the designers....

Proenza Schouler fall 2021

“Unbelievably, McCollough and Hernandez are a year shy of their 20th anniversary; it was 2002 when Barneys bought their Parsons graduate collection.”

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Even more unbelievably is that first that they are still in business, second is that they have never developed a look, a signature, a style that can be identified with them and lastly that they are still hyped and praised for collections that shop for a new client each and every season and have no reason for being

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 “a spongy knit dress with an askew head hole or a top with a swooping asymmetrical hem. The former snaked around the body, while the latter had a buoyant sculptural volume.”

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The above quote is written by a so-called fashion maven who apparently can’t find the words to describe the absolute fantasy that this is yet one more collection with no point of view and no raison d’être. It is indeed the emperor’s new clothes. How can a critic talk around the clothes let alone outright lie about what is in plain sight?

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Every business model they have attempted has failed, people have lost stellar reputations and their jobs because of them and lastly their last great cheerleader has finally gotten canned, hopefully for all the pandering she has effused about them and so many others while far more original and talented designers get unnoticed and actually sell clothes season after season. It is sort of a very fitting finale to whatever season this was as this collection reflects something that once existed in one of the major fashion capitals of the world. If this is the best of what we have then we should throw in the towel and just call it a day.

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It is far more difficult to lie than tell the truth! PS a few parting thoughts ... what season is this with furry slippers that don’t fit, straw bags, white sandals, fur trim and slip dresses? As far as Kamala’s step-daughter is just one more PR trick /distraction from the clothes themselves!

Frederick Anderson fall 2021

It is refreshing to see clothes that can actually be worn, let alone that do not require an explanation for their genesis!

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Frederick Anderson is primarily a knit collection, hand crocheted in Argentina with imported laces and fabrics from European but all made in the USA...so much for explanation.

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I see this as sort of a cross between haute hippie and boho chic with a little lunch lady thrown in… it is all in how one puts it together and a frame of reference but I can’t shake the memories of the heady 60s and 70s given some of the crocheted pieced pieces and then into the softly tailored black and whites made from that exquisitely delicate tweed like fabric. The laces, if you know anything of lace, are quite apparently of the finest available.

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It is possible the styling might have swayed my thinking  but I always try to divorce any of the noise with the clothes ... at any rate it is a collection with multiple appeal and sure to find its way into the closets of women of all ages.

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Batsheva fall 2021…. Spoiler alert you might need a Yiddish dictionary

Call this kitchen clothes, clothes to cook in! All that’s missing are the sheitels and some strollers... and no I am not being anti-Semitic I am a Jew and I am painfully honest! Schmattas

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Maybe this is a take on Betty Furness all dressed up in her kitchen from the 50s! 

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If it wasn’t so pathetic it would be laughable.

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The supposedly hip chick,  Hassidic, hippie housewife dressed up and posing to cook for her brood. Amy Fine Collins hahahahhahahhaahaha ! Wardrobing for the Kuchelyn

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I mean really… this is like some kind of ruse or maybe it’s a pandemic that is being perpetuated and called fashion… in common terms or maybe not so common to some... this is drek!

Ulla Johnson fall 2021

 Clumsy, heavy handed, tone deaf, Amish, Mennonite, school uniforms, color abrasive, earth mother, Little House on the Prairie and much more come to mind when viewing this collection but I will say that for sure she has a signature look … its just too bad its not very attractive, somewhat illegible, unappealing to many and certainly not relevant to the time....

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PLEASE NOTE I DETEST THE WORD RELEVANT BUT IN THIS CASE IT’S THE ONLY WORD THAT CAN BE USED!

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I’ve never understood this designer nor its appeal to anyone who is not on the upper reaches of the size scale. these are the clothes that swallow up the wearer and always have this retro old west feel to them and not in a good way. Call me scrooge, call me old fashioned, painfully honest or overly realistic but we are still amidst times which call for some thinking outside the box and speak to the times we are living through instead of just doing what you always do because that’s what you do!

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During my life in fashion there has never been a time like this one and designers should be really thinking about customers and not what design wizardry they think they can whip up to the delight of the so-called media who seem to have no historical knowledge of fashion let any sense of reality.

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So, tell me … where you going in this stuff?

Marc Jacobs fall 2020

Tsunami alert!!... the flood gates of praise are open!... There will be receptacles for your wet panties and depends at the exits! Smelling salts available at the first aid station as well as amphetamines for those who need to wake up after this endless cavalcade of referenced, borrowed and generic collection of clothes…. Just clothes. 

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Anything that was truly show stopping … and I’m not talking about one of those Hadid  girls dressed up like someone’s mother from the 60’s, hair and all… and believe me, there were only few but they were nothing short of exercises and reduxes of what ateliers had already created decades ago for the greats.

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Let’s speak of the “borrowing/ referencing/ copying” aspects…  I saw the Bonnie Cashin paper bag hat for starters, then came unendingly memories of the Rooskie iteration of Balenciaga, YSL, Valentino, Thom Browne, maybe even Jane Fonda dragging her shawl onto the stage at the Academy Awards and the list just goes on. I even saw a hint of Barbra in her pillbox and matching coat!

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If one wasn’t aware that this was a fashion show one might have thought this was a come on for fetish dressing... you know “daddy hopes he doesn’t haven’t to spank his little girl” kind of thing. Then, of course, there was this multi decade revisitation that might be a first ranging from the 50’s to the present time.

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I’m not interested in the models, I am not interested in who sat where, I am not interested in the staging. I am interested in clothes and let me say that this was nothing more than Marc being Marc and being lauded for whatever it is he does which is to fill runways with lots of boring or shocking clothes to feed his hungry throng of adoring blindfolded media critics.

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For me this was one more time of ending the collections with a major thud!

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