Some may consider fashion frivolous. I however, maintain that it is in fact complicated. Though that's not to say that it isn't humorous and at times borderline ridiculous. I love fashion, but more than that, I appreciate fashion. Recently someone said that 'I'm all about fashion', in that's what I think about, talk about, write about; it's what I do. It can be alienating at times, I'm the only person I know who reads the tiny credits in the corners of magazine spreads citing which brands are featured, or who enjoys researching collections as a past time. We all have our idiosyncrasies, you know, our 'thing', and this just so happens to be mine.
(Looking beyond the layers at the Comme des Garçons SS15)
However, whilst flicking through the SS15 edition of 'Elle Collections' (I have the Cara Delevingne version if anyone cares) I was struck by how comical the looks at the Comme Des Garçons and Junya Watanabe SS15 shows were. Now fashion has never pretended to be serious, the best designers are the ones who realise that ultimately what they are doing is making clothing, and I say this not to belittle their talents, but to reinforce the fashion industry's very evident self awareness. It is a business and it never pretends that it's not. However, fashion is also a form of escapism, creativity incarnate and when the two things conflate (the business and the party shall we say) it acts to create an antagonistic knot at the centre of it all.
Yesterday I read an article by Nicole Phelps over on style.com, titled 'Déjà Vu All Over Again: Questioning Fashion's Retromania', now as you can imagine I was intrigued. Phelps asserted that: "fashion and art [...] have become do-over cultures, with designers and painters alike recycling the past (near, distant, and points in between) at such speeds it's hard to keep up". I found this point really interesting, we are a culture of copy and pasters - albeit with a few tweaks made - but is that enough for fashion to be considered relevant, and to instill in us an excitement and anticipation, if ultimately what we're seeing is a 're-hashing'?
(Junya Watanabe SS15)
It's a tricky one, the internet has made so many things possible (where would we be without wikipedia come deadline day?!) but with so much information just one click away, lifting history from it's context and planting it into the future is unnervingly easy and it isn't necessarily conducive to adding new relevance to something. Along with the proliferation of the internet is the tremendous growth in technology and ease of travel. The world has never seemed smaller and thus people are easily bored. Cue Comme des Garçon's designer Rei Kawakubo and Junya Watanabe, who Phelps describes as both "conceptual, [and] forward-looking", a rarity in these jaded times.
Perhaps it comes down purely to a matter of personal opinion and tastes, which is fine by me, but the designs at both shows were plain bonkers. At Junya Watanabe outfits could easily be mistaken for abstract art or an update on the well known Roland McDonald attire. Rei Kawakubo took inspiration from roses and blood and whilst her stringent focus on the theme should be commended, I struggled to compute the cone legged trousers and plastic 'shark fin' rain hood.
(Another look from Kawakubo)
Perhaps my brain is too lateral because these looks are undeniably visceral and uncompromisingly true to each design houses' aesthetic, but I just didn't 'get it'. Maybe that's what keeps the fashion world so enraptured with the designers' though? It is refreshing to witness such freedom of expression, irregardless of the corporate pressures or bottom lines, which is what mutes many other designers' creativity.
Will I be wearing any of the collections? No - I can't afford anything (lol!) - but this has been an interesting exercise. The beauty in these designs is that they do not ask to be liked, they are reactionary and thus inspire reaction, whether that be of love or hatred, and to that end I have new appreciation for what is the antithesis, and definite antidote, to the blandness that has overrun for far too long. I may not be running out to buy pinking shears and walking around with a fish bowl on my head, but I'm certainly ready to say so-long to normcore. Soz Phebs!
(All images via vogue.com)
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