The conservative aura that befalls fashion during more austere times is natural, with practicality taking precedence. As stated in earlier articles, the issue becomes a shortfall of creativity as more designers incorporate safer bets into their collections and more designers pull back on the pace of creativity. Not all, but most.

With 328 collections showing in New York City alone this season, that is an awful lot of repetition of the message that was, for the most part, already revealed over pre-fall. This doesn’t mean that there aren’t interesting or beautiful clothes or that there aren’t some surprises lurking amongst the practicality. It does say, though, that there isn’t as much to speak about.

When austerity hit during the late 80s/early 90s, fashion initially aimed to pull out all stops to entice the consumer. However, the reality that exciting clothes don’t work in a practical world meant a swing towards more utilitarian clothes. The issue, of course, was the proliferation of newer labels caught up in the fashion frenzy superstardom stirred up by creatives of that decade, inspiring many to join in. Some were more interested in the rock-star status of being a designer rather than genuinely creating. In a period where the market encourages creativity having a unique voice allows for more players. However, in austere times the consumer looks for clothes that work with the real world and offer versatility that translates into more dollar-per-wear, and so there were many lackluster labels that eventually could not sustain themselves when simplicity was the new trend and vanished as quickly as they appeared.

Designers that had cultivated more cache through longevity could weather the storm and, as their names were more established they had a better chance of drawing profit. This is given that, although minds were geared towards pragmatic means, many customers were still ingrained with the status of label. Why buy an unknown basic whose reputation wasn’t confirmed as quality when the more well-known label already got there to an extent because of their reputation?

Well, here we are with the bulk of the population nervous, news trumping out rather dour predictions and hope conditional on tenuous circumstances adding already to the proliferation of apocalyptic messages fed consistently for years.  We want to look forward and yet are afraid to do so…just like the late 80s/early 90s. And as anyone will tell you, we can’t seem to get past these two points of creativity, our last point of reference where rules were broken in our quest to move forward.

So far, the bulk of the collections are taking the hard stand. Colour exists, much of it in more somber tones. Occasional fearful fight that we saw in the 80s is expressed in the flash of neon in a few collections (Charlotte Ronson, Costello Tagliapietra, Duro Olowu, and M.Patmos).

Cut is getting looser, slouchier, sometimes expressed through modern architectural cut (BCBG Max Azria, Cushine et Ochs, Doo.Ri, Helmut Lang, and Kimberly Ovitz) or folds (Chadwick Bell and TSE). Wide leg pants, popular amongst women in the gritty 30s and tense 40s (and again in the 80s), are back (10 Crosby Derek Lam, Doo.Ri, Helmut Lang, and St. John) often paired with tighter upper garments. Artful knits were in some collections as well (Charlotte Ronson, Michael Angel, VPL, and Yigal Azrouel).

There were many collections that harked back to the last point of demure reference, that point being the 90s with the bulk of the collections taking similar cues: colour abounding to entice customers falling against simpler solids, florals (many referencing  the now apt Depression-era prints) and classics everywhere.

Some labels had more item specific references such as what was in collections from Chadwick Bell (the fanny bag belt, this time worn to cinch the waist), Creatures of the Wind (exterior finishings as detail), Cushine et Ochs (zip detail reminiscent of Geoffrey Beene’s zip dresses), Jen Kao (a lot of crocheted and print was very Anna Sui), Juan Carlos Obando(the closing halter dress with the Edwardian silhouette), Rachel Comey (laser cut textiles),  and Tess Giberson  (abundant strap detail). And the thrift aspect that made Anna Sui popular seemed to be more present in collections by Cushine et Ochs and Gregory Parkinson, amongst others.

We have yet to see more collections and the point of view we’re seeing is from the USofA, so anything can happen. And there were interesting things to examine further as the weeks pass...the long weeks of listening carefully for new notes amidst the beat we have been playing repeatedly.