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Admittedly, my take on much of what modern fashion has become is less than positive. I talk a lot about overexposure, and with that, over-production of garments or trends, beating a once-deemed fresh and unique addition to the fashion zeitgeist in a bloody pulp. I also talk a lot about the decline in artistic care present in a lot of today's runways and collections, often veering closer to safe and trendy looks than anything truly inspiring. My criticism does come from a largely bitter place in my soul, stemming from the disparity I see an over-abundance of within the industry of those truly passionate young artists doing what they can to be seen, and the nepo-babies attempting to capitalize on their pre-existing trust fund.
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However, something I have seen an incline in is much more uniqueness in very specific areas, areas that I have yet to find the correlation that divides the abundance of creativity seen, to the total and udder lack of originality in other spaces. On one hand, the industry's clamoring attempts at creating trending looks rather than looks with real quality have dampened the industry's overall glamor and appeal when it comes to new collections. However, there is a green lining in that statement, in which the desperation to get your runway trending on TikTok has created a highlight on Avant-Garde and camp fashion, pushing it more into the limelight. Fashion in terms of the styles we all wear has become significantly more expressive, regardless of what the leading designers are deciding to create, fashionistas and fashionistos are consuming and putting an emphasis on the Avant-Garde, the strange, and the unique pieces we find in whatever Grandma shop we wander into. As a result, I feel we are seeing much more creativity. However, a distinction should be made that there is a rise in creativity in terms of the way we render our garments; I've noticed an increase in the creative ways we make, say, a skirt, in order to hone in on that weird connection a lot of us have to clothing that's objectively ugly being style in a cute way. What I am not talking about, are garments made with the idea of being "creative" as the only driving force pushing it towards its physical creation. A latex suit made to look like a man's naked body is a Halloween costume. Words cannot describe how much I hated that piece. Pieces made with a gimmick, ie color changing fabric originally found in Barbie, not creative, a spray-on dress (an excuse to have Bella Hadid walk down the runway naked) using tech from the 70s, not creative. What I am talking about and want to address is the creativity seeing from a lot of mostly small designers and labels that are putting out pieces you can tell the trend forecasted for, while still being original.
What I am referring to are the collections, runways, and pieces that are starting to feel once again like art pieces with intention and purpose, rather than that Balenciaga lull we found ourselves in last year. Camp fashion getting its time in the Sun is a truly exciting thing to occur, as it results in a lot of really cool designers thinking more intently about how they can take a piece from something exciting to something spectacular. Specific examples can be the recent uprise of lace and ribbon, making pencil skirts have a more structured element or in some cases, a less structured element such as the skirt pictured here (fg. 5-6). Patterns colors and prints also play a major role in the expression of a piece, yellow and green, yellow and purple, blue and orange, color combos we've seen a lot of recently in very non-avant-garde garments but with the additions of certain elements placed purposely to elevate the piece, the plain orange and blue T-Shirt goes from a T-Shirt to a statement piece. (fg. 7) My favorite addition, however, is the way we've seen some designers toying with line, draping, and cutting, distorting and shaping the wearer, as well as the garment, and once again elevating the
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physical appearance of the garment. (fg. 8)
Making artistically inclined garments is not a difficult feat, however, I think the disparity occurs in the fashion world due to people's miscommunication of what they want. No designer doesn't trend-forecast prior to releasing a collection. I struggle to believe that any misses in a collection were not a result of misunderstanding the trend, and not a designer simply choosing to make something bad. However, I believe the misunderstanding is a result of the multiple ways fashion enthusiasts buy clothing now. There's no longer such a strong emphasis on labels and brands, and in my experience, most excitement toward owning a name brand stems from the garment being vintage, or customized, and less on purchasing an item fresh off the runway. As a result, I think a lot of what the fashion industry has been struggling with is how to replicate vintage clothing. When everyone you're marketing towards begins consuming clothing that has already been made for years instead of your new collection, the next attempts are going to be trying to figure out how to recapture that aesthetic, while still making it new, while trying to gain attention, while trying to make it wearable, etc. The constant rush of trying to make it perfect has put the industry in a position of pure mania, pushing out more collections, more collaborations, and more colorways, all trying to appease the masses without blending in.
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