T here has been a lot of creativity to pour through, not just within the major collections but also from the newer design talent that has been afforded the opportunity to show themselves in global social media platforms such as fashion's current favorite, Instagram. Much of the expressiveness regarding the designs themselves have been a continuation of what appears as a more Cubist approach to design, an evolution of the Franken-assembly spoken about years ago in this blog when Michael van der Ham (Fashion Observed blog article "Bits and Pieces", November 23, 2013) made waves with an upgraded design approach of hybridizing various design elements from various time periods to create a more anachronistic garment, sending ripples into the fashion world and influencing the trajectory of design. That plus the progressed return of the hypercreative late 80s in today's fashion landscape took a more sophisticated and more pronounced version of that decade's experimental deconstruction, adding multiplicity and reimaginings that almost reflect a mutated spawning of its ancestral root to produce new forays in layered placement and form. This reflects an evolution of the deconstructive construct, re-emerging from its rawer state during the early 70s into a more exploratory approach with better technical means when first expanded upon in the late 80s, and, with better technology and more precise technical assistance via 3D pattern imaging programs, an advanced design direction where experimentation and ideation are better realized. As our technology gets stronger and more intricate, it takes the designer along even more closely to more detailed executions of their imagination; the more progressive collections that we now see reflect that.

The chaos of the span between world wars (that and the many art movements between reflected) find affinity in how we feel about current times, where the blur between what is real and what is not are adding to the overload of information to create confusion within the greater populace, spreading like an infection globally just as it did then. It sews discontent, breeding suspicion and mistrust in once-cherished and stable institutions. Further, it divides and polarizes, threatening the illusion of unified societies as we find we are not as together as we'd like. And yet, we hang on, knowing what we stand for, recalling our ideals that loosely connect and bind us, even if only in theory. We know, somewhere within, that we are all connected, even if we don't always stand shoulder to shoulder. Our recognition of humanity is what keeps us together, albeit loosely so. And this aspect is reflected in the creative execution of some of the 2019 Resort and Spring Summer collections over the past few months.

Be it from the more established houses such as from ADEAM (example here), Chanel (here), Eckhaus Latta (here), Ji Oh (here), Louis Vuitton (here), Maison Martin Margiela (here and here), Monse (here), Phoebe English (here), Preen By Thornton Bregazzi (here), Rick Owens (here), and Sacai (here); from more emerging labels such as A-Cold-Wall (here), deeSerret (here), Harrison Wong (here), Kepler London (here), Mad Recital (here) and Walter Van Beirendonck (here); from recent graduates such as Central St. Martins graduates James Nolan (here), Nensi Dojaka (here) and Rene Scheibenbauer (here) and Parsons graduate Xintong Tian (here); and even an innovative approach from fledgeling illustrator Jay Renee (and here), we find this tenuous and sometimes sparse connectivity reflected in assembly. The dialogue of identifying with the more aware and traveled fashion clientele is one of affinity of observation, rendered as representational as art does. The creatives who see what we see find the vocabulary in their medium of specialty, letting us know that they too understand the tension that threatens to pull us part, held together by the largess of understanding our place in the greater fabric of mankind. Like the real world, those connections are increasingly sparse and hold the remnants of what we once saw as a the familiar shape of things past.

Given how the influences, the source of this tension, are playing themselves out wildly, it is anyone's guess as to whether this perspective is one that will sustain as much as the more haphazard Cubist chaos that currently symbolizes the upheaval of traditions and institutions, or whether there will be new emotions evolving by the time the rest of the 2019 Spring Summer collections unleash in the coming month. Like current events, only time will tell.