Fashion Star Gate: The Next Frontier

Gentle Reader -

Where do fashion ideas come from? A painting, the sea, or even the intense reds of of everyday objects?

The answer is of course that fashion ideas - like ideas in general - have this quantum quality: coming from everywhere and nowhere at the same time.

I mention this because the now, this moment in the fashion continuum, just might see the big leap into either the future or the past. It really doesn't matter, as long as a designer can make it very now.

For the past few seasons, many designers have really pushed their ideas to reach some sublime moments, creating clothes that are immediately collectible, if not exactly wearable on everyday streets. This does not lessen the impact or directional quality - the mass market soon catches up.

Those designers caught up with the latest headlines in the news will miss the bigness of the moment. The gifted will be able to see beyond 2015 and before 1500.

The really gifted will know that it's really all about being beyond time and space, and putting that into their collections.

Flou Pour Homme

This is of course a sculpture. But look at the draping, particularly the waist details.

Male fashion might take a cue from something like this - in a few years. Fashion might not see pretty frills on men for some time (Henri III, anyone?), but draping - or flou, as they refer to it in haute couture - does not belong to any one gender.

Just a thought the next time someone talks about 'macho sensitivity' or a new direction in menswear.

- AP

Cryptic Monday: Fashion Post-Civilization and the Hoodie

Gentle Reader -

There are hints that we may be facing a 'post-civ' future where many of the ideals we tout (being 'green' for example) may become a hard reality. That is to say, we may be no more prepared for the future than those who lived through the decline of the Roman Empire.

No matter if countries go bankrupt and international air travel becomes a thing of the past, the hoodie will still continue on its fashion trajectory to become an iconic style item.

What does this have to do with the ancient Alexandrian coin pictured?

It is a reminder that time and space are due for an overhaul.

Welcome to a cryptic Monday.

- AP

YSL: The Complete Vision

Gentle Reader -

Let it be said that Yves Saint Laurent has transformed into a complete body of work. I don't suppose we will see the Givenchy archive anytime soon, though this would be an opportunity not to be overlooked.

Perhaps we must look to that 1983 retrospective/exhibition at the Costume Institute. Then under the direction of the legendary Diana Vreeland, the display of key YSL looks back then set the tone for the current Fondation Pierre Berge-Yves Saint Laurent, where the couture archive is housed.

The result is a enigma and a challenge: how can a dead designer influence fashion like an Old (or Modern) Master?

No, it's not that the YSL archive competes with current fashion. But it is a benchmark of what fashion, what haute coutue once was. It quite rightly belongs to the past, yet has the ability to inspire future designers, like Rembrandt or Matisse.


- AP