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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