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When Fashion Shows Were Fun

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  • Faust
    kitsch killer
    • Sep 2006
    • 37852

    When Fashion Shows Were Fun

    So good, from Guy Trebay...

    WHEN FASHION SHOWS WERE FUN

    Naomi Campbell wore backless chaps. Have I got your attention?

    The year was 1992 and the occasion was the showing of Anna Sui’s third collection, and thanks largely to Ms. Sui’s longtime friendship with the photographer Steven Meisel, all of the lissome supermodels who famously wouldn’t get out of bed for less than $10,000 a day were working the runway for peanuts.

    What were the clothes like? I honestly have no recollection.

    What I do recall is a room as packed as a mosh pit with fashion editors and photographers and downtown personalities and drag queens and hangers-on and anyone who had managed to cadge a ticket, all dressed to the nines (or whatever their idea of that was), and all generating an intense and almost feverish energy that rose and crested each time one of the supermodels hit the runway: first Linda, then Tyra, then Shalom Harlow and, finally and definitively, Naomi.

    Was there an ovation? Was there an eruption as that peerless creature came sashaying down the runway — with a strut no other model has ever approximated, a queenly confidence bordering on arrogance, a sexuality she radiated like a force field — and, striking a pose in her chaps, pivoted on one foot to reveal her naked bottom? Of course there was. It was mayhem.

    “People went nuts,” as Ms. Sui said recently. “It was so much fun.”
    Fashion was so much fun then. Fashion is still fun, of course, but in an entirely different way and not merely because many of us, including Ms. Sui and Ms. Campbell, were young at the time.

    The world of fashion — so corporatized now, the subject itself globally dispersed as a form of wordless entertainment — was fairly small in the ’90s. It was tribal. There were tyrants and divas and outsize personalities, as there still are, but also mentors and connectors and facilitators motivated as much by the joy of discovering talent and creating beauty as by that menace of the corporate age: personal brand-building.

    “The industry was more innocent then,” said Kelly Cutrone, a seasoned fashion publicist and fashion show producer. Things were haphazard sometimes and antic and, often enough, plain nuts.

    “I remember doing a show at Gotham Hall,” for a group of designers who are best left unnamed, she said. “And when it came time for them to take their bow, one of the kids backstage called me in the production booth and said: ‘Kelly, the designers are beating each other up. They’re rolling around on the floor.’ ”

    Ms. Cutrone never did manage to break up the designer skirmish, but she saved the day by sending out a pink-tinted pit bull to take a bow.

    “We were so lucky,” the designer Todd Oldham said. He was referring to a time in the ’90s when attending a fashion show became something people were suddenly as excited to do as in an earlier era they might have been at seeing the Stones in concert....

    Fashion is a form of ugliness so intolerable that we have to alter it every six months - Oscar Wilde

    StyleZeitgeist Magazine
  • zamb
    Senior Member
    • Nov 2006
    • 5834

    #2
    I caught the tail end of it in 200 - 2004. before big money took everything over and the whole thing just got too expensive for people who had talent but no money

    One day we were at Benjamin Cho or Tess Giberson helping out and another day we were at Miguel Adrover.
    the Next we would do our own show and people came to help. it was fun times man.......now, not so much.

    I think i know the design team Kelly is talking about......and now they are minus one!
    “You know,” he says, with a resilient smile, “it is a hard world for poets.”
    .................................................. .......................


    Zam Barrett Spring 2017 Now in stock

    Comment

    • Faust
      kitsch killer
      • Sep 2006
      • 37852

      #3
      Originally posted by zamb View Post
      I caught the tail end of it in 200 - 2004. before big money took everything over and the whole thing just got too expensive for people who had talent but no money

      One day we were at Benjamin Cho or Tess Giberson helping out and another day we were at Miguel Adrover.
      the Next we would do our own show and people came to help. it was fun times man.......now, not so much.

      I think i know the design team Kelly is talking about......and now they are minus one!
      My thoughts exactly
      Fashion is a form of ugliness so intolerable that we have to alter it every six months - Oscar Wilde

      StyleZeitgeist Magazine

      Comment

      • david s
        Senior Member
        • Jul 2010
        • 492

        #4
        OK, this maybe me a rambling post

        I saw a performance by a singer over the weekend, Cecile McLorin Salvant and she sang a French standard called "Le Mal de Vivre." When she started the song there was a small gasp from the audience, a song so well known sung by someone so young?!!! (my read on it, the song is beautiful but also very heavy).

        When she was done there was the briefest moment of silence before everyone jumped to their feet a standing, stomping whistling ovation that went on for two minutes

        The essence of what Tim Blanks described in the Naomi moment I think it what anyone will be hard-pressed to deliver in any mainstream fashion show these days, pure performance.

        Something approaching art/theater will be soon as to fey and not sellable ... again it's all about the $€¥£

        song for those curious
        It's absolutely Hedious!
        shy poser

        Comment

        • zamb
          Senior Member
          • Nov 2006
          • 5834

          #5
          but making art and having those kinds of moment involved the willingness to take risks.
          At this stage i am not so sure.
          Right now to me there isn't a single great designer in the way McQueen, Galliano, or Chalayan was in those years between 1996-2004

          there is no more JPG, no more Ann, Margiela or any of those
          Money has replaced art.......

          I could divide this into two four year period between that 8 year Span.

          in the first 4 years the big money was buying up talents who were irreverent and truly creative but needed money to expand/ grow and reach a wider audience.

          In the second 4 year we witness the buying up and controlling of these talents (among others) by businessmen who were more focused on the bottom line than on creative freedom.
          Almost every area of fashion from design to creation, production, pr and sales is controlled by big money now.......and by Big money who prefer safe, risk averse tactics rather that true creativity
          “You know,” he says, with a resilient smile, “it is a hard world for poets.”
          .................................................. .......................


          Zam Barrett Spring 2017 Now in stock

          Comment

          • Faust
            kitsch killer
            • Sep 2006
            • 37852

            #6
            Yeah, it's kinda funny to see everyone pissing themselves over J.W. Anderson. Really grasping at straws here when you put him against the giants you mention.
            Fashion is a form of ugliness so intolerable that we have to alter it every six months - Oscar Wilde

            StyleZeitgeist Magazine

            Comment

            • zamb
              Senior Member
              • Nov 2006
              • 5834

              #7
              Originally posted by Faust View Post
              Yeah, it's kinda funny to see everyone pissing themselves over J.W. Anderson. Really grasping at straws here when you put him against the giants you mention.
              I think the fundamental difference between then and now was that fashion was essentially a "cottage industry" and a designer was required to at least know how to make things on some level.

              a couple of things that struck me in interviews i read in the past was once where an said she wanted to create a shoe heel and she caved the rough proto herself in her kitchen (or something like that as i don't remember the exact words)

              i also remember Sarah Burton saying (Lee) would create endless iterations of a particular dress until it looked exactly the way he wanted it before he made the final.

              One of the fights that existed between Nicholas Ghesquire and the owners of Balenciaga was his determination to keep his Atelier where he could experiment and developed samples rather than sending them off to the factory (which was cheaper but resulted in a watered down vision of what you wanted to create)......

              I contrast these things against designers today, many of which know nothing about cutting, sewing or creating anything without the aid if pattern makers, sample makers, a factory and a ton of other things of which they cannot function without.

              With companies trying to cut cost at every instance, there are a ton of "high end" brands now whose work is no different in quality of execution that something found at H&M or Top shop.

              the fundamental difference separating many high fashion brands now from mass market ones is simply marketing, PR and fancy trimmings on clothes and the packaging that comes with it.
              not real quality or genuinely creative clothing.
              “You know,” he says, with a resilient smile, “it is a hard world for poets.”
              .................................................. .......................


              Zam Barrett Spring 2017 Now in stock

              Comment

              • david s
                Senior Member
                • Jul 2010
                • 492

                #8
                I think another argument could be made that with art in the end it's always been about the benjamins....

                going back to the renaissance and before

                it's like being back in philosophy class in grad school ... money/art/commerce

                damned if you damned if you don't

                on the note of there not being some really fantastic imaginative designers.. Iris van Herpen, I would say in the short & long term will be (and is) a creative genius, may not curry everyone's favor, but it's definitely researched, flawlessly executed and IMO unlike anything in recent memory
                It's absolutely Hedious!
                shy poser

                Comment

                • Faust
                  kitsch killer
                  • Sep 2006
                  • 37852

                  #9
                  Yes, Iris is a shining beacon. However, she has yet to translate that into a successful ready to wear line. After all fashion should be worn.

                  McQueen, Galliano, and Chalayan successfully translated their ideas into mindblowing wearable pieces. It's not like McQueen showed crazy shit on the runway and was selling polo shirts in stores.

                  And, basically agreed with everything Zam says. The inability/unwillingness of designers to actually craft the clothes, plus serious erosion in quality abetted with PR and smoke and mirrors tactics like fancy packaging, and I would add a completely unreasonable price increases are eroding the base of this industry.
                  Fashion is a form of ugliness so intolerable that we have to alter it every six months - Oscar Wilde

                  StyleZeitgeist Magazine

                  Comment

                  • zamb
                    Senior Member
                    • Nov 2006
                    • 5834

                    #10
                    Originally posted by Faust View Post
                    Yes, Iris is a shining beacon. However, she has yet to translate that into a successful ready to wear line. After all fashion should be worn.

                    McQueen, Galliano, and Chalayan successfully translated their ideas into mindblowing wearable pieces. It's not like McQueen showed crazy shit on the runway and was selling polo shirts in stores.

                    And, basically agreed with everything Zam says. The inability/unwillingness of designers to actually craft the clothes, plus serious erosion in quality abetted with PR and smoke and mirrors tactics like fancy packaging, and I would add a completely unreasonable price increases are eroding the base of this industry.

                    But this is a part of the problem created by consumers too.
                    there are a lot of people who buy fashion as a source if stroking their ego.........There is a belief among many that if it's not ridiculously expensive then it is not as good as so and so.....which is more expensive. and what that does is that causes a lot of designers to inflate wholesale prices, which then translate to ridiculous prices in the stores......and it leads to a vicious cycle because such clothes usually don't sell enough at full price to justify their existence. And the more consumers are educated to wait on sales and not buy at full price then the more it gets worse for everyone involved.....

                    designers
                    Stores
                    consumers..........

                    we have all screwed ourselves collectively with a mess no one wants to talk about or is making any effort to correct.
                    “You know,” he says, with a resilient smile, “it is a hard world for poets.”
                    .................................................. .......................


                    Zam Barrett Spring 2017 Now in stock

                    Comment

                    • Faust
                      kitsch killer
                      • Sep 2006
                      • 37852

                      #11
                      Maybe - maybe not. I think at some point enough consumers stop and think. I don't believe the 1% can carry the day for the entire industry, with the few exceptions like Hermes. The middle class needs to be involved. And now the middle class is priced out. I definitely have seen some downward price correction in the showrooms this past summer.
                      Fashion is a form of ugliness so intolerable that we have to alter it every six months - Oscar Wilde

                      StyleZeitgeist Magazine

                      Comment

                      • david s
                        Senior Member
                        • Jul 2010
                        • 492

                        #12
                        @Faust : I think you can wear it, you just have to not move, be like a ninja style statue

                        on a different note, I've been spending more time in Rome recently, I see more small outfits that I've never seen anyplace else, e.g. Triple A, Marine Rinaldi. Of course Italy might support more of home-grown fashion milieu

                        And those places prices are not cheap...not m.a+ or CCP, but it definitely occupies a middle ground between mass and luxury.

                        Of course these are also brands that don't advertise and don't do the shows (to best of my knowledge)
                        It's absolutely Hedious!
                        shy poser

                        Comment

                        • galia
                          Senior Member
                          • Jun 2009
                          • 1719

                          #13
                          Marina Rinaldi isn't a small-scale operation at all, it's Max Mara's plus-size line

                          Comment

                          • david s
                            Senior Member
                            • Jul 2010
                            • 492

                            #14
                            @Galia : yes I just realized that when I was wandering around Bologna today ... they have quite a huge store

                            yep not small or artisanal at all, I think I'm screwing up the name with another store in Monti, which I will find the correct name and the address because I'm pretty sure the woman who runs it is small scale and the production quite intersting

                            either that or i'm just a sucker for what i thought was an under-the-radar brand
                            It's absolutely Hedious!
                            shy poser

                            Comment

                            • galia
                              Senior Member
                              • Jun 2009
                              • 1719

                              #15
                              It's quite a good brand actually, and offers refreshing quality and good design in an otherwise dreary market segment

                              Comment

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