Roman Toga: Material Wealth

Gentle Reader -

After several weeks of fashion collections in the now, a quick trip into the ancient past felt right. The lines of the toga speak of a time when wealth was in part indicated not only by the quality of material, but the length.

A marked contrast from current fashion, to be sure.

As for future fashion, who knows?

- AP

A Quick Word to Maison Ungaro

To those readers at Ungaro:

Strongly consider returning to the couture with a small collection from your new design duo.

You have created the publicity, now use it.

- AP

Paris Fashion Decoder

The messages of the recent collections in Paris?

Answer #1: knowledge of manual technique can push what is possible in industrial production.

Answer #2: more effort is really needed to keep haute couture not just alive, but viable.

Answer #3: this was a season - and not just in Paris - where there was a real search for what was both directional and wearable. Not easy at all.

Not Ready to Wear Yet

Gentle Reader -

Should we be calling ready-to-wear by this term? In the past few weeks, various sites have posted photos - and reviews - from the collections for Spring-Summer 2010. Excitement has been built, but orders have to be placed and clothes made. And so we wait. Not very ready, is it?

Here is the observation, once again: the more the images of collections are published and click-on around the world, the more those images reflect the now, and not the intended season. It does the fashion system no good to have rounds of image hype that gets digested faster than, well, you get the idea.

One has to be very inventive to keep the momentum going until deliveries are finally made.

- AP

Sphinx: Collect Alexander McQueen Now

- Alexander McQueen's recent collection is instant vintage: directional, important and well-made. Arguably the best collection of the season. There are implications in those dresses. Also, were those shoes, or futurized chopines?

- Fragrance is so much better when it is refrigerated.

- A note to fashion editors everywhere: your subscribers need you to guide them through deconstruction.

- Vintage-vintage: late 60s Hanae Mori, 1970s Cardin, 1980s Mary McFadden.

Spring-Summer 2010: Hyperfashion

Gentle Reader -

After the barrage of looks for next season - and we won't mention the show at Ungaro - it is clear that we are solidly in the age of hyperfashion.

While fashion editors have either solidly made up their minds, or need a week in St. Barts to sort it all out, fashion has now become a bit arbitrary - with a hint of a point-of-view. But why do I say 'hyperfashion'?

Call it a fashion theory of non-relativity (sorry, Albert E.): clothes that don't relate to women; aesthetic mixes that are cultural pastiches; the over-detailed with not-enough-detail.

There are probably enough people who, with thoughts of YSL in their heads, are lamenting this current state of fashion, "Bring back the standards of elegance and beauty!" - you can almost hear them...if only because that voice we too hear.

This is not a time to be dour-faced on current fashion. Far from it. Hyperfashion allows for freedom, experimentation and creative voice. The passion for clothing design is still there in the hearts of those who bow on the catwalk after the show, hoping that their presentations will make a mark and hopefully sell well.

But is this the end of Big Fashion?

- AP

Summer in the City: Chicago (2016) and Paris (Now)

I couldn't think of a better picture to say "The Summer Olympic Games".
This is the Chagall Mosaic in Chicago.

A quick note regarding the Paris P-E ("Spring/Summer") 2010: are we still waiting? Safety in fashion is something Paris has never done well.

- AP