Like the weather, fashion week leaves me cold these days. After years and years of sameness and retro-sameness and futuro-sameness, it seems that designers are either too concerned about pleasing the department store overlords or too enraptured by the idea of getting press via outrage to actually think about fashion.
A largely accurate piece by Guy Trebay in the Sunday Times Magazine only misses out the great disconnect in class issues. Successful designers, fashion editors and other industry leaders are at a huge loss as to how the "real" live. Young designers, who do have a clue, either have to suck in to the ideas of the industry or accept meager living. The solution, as it is to so many things, is to kill all the baby-boomers, that most mediocre of generations. As that would be time-consuming, it is ill-advised.
Perhaps the best quote in Trebay's assessment comes at it's end. What is stunning is its source. Read it. Think about it. Then go past the jump to see who said it.
"If you really want beauty in your life, do something with your ideas, but in a real way. Don't hide in some luxury fantasy, some idea of fashion. Live with some sense that there is a larger world around."
