T he collection season for Spring Summer 2017 is officially underway, even though some designers tackled this during the last season’s presentations. As these come around, we will eventually save future articles for exploring the predominant themes that signify where we are collectively. For now, a broader overview will suffice.

Unlike the more targeted experimentation that Copenhagen produced, New York’s collections one the whole signalled extreme caution. There were some labels that experimented, particularly V Files and those from Parson's, but outside of that the collections showed great restraint and, when looking at the experimentation, even these fell upon us as something still familiar.

During uncertain economic times, especially after jarring economic circumstances, fashion gravitates towards the tried and true in the name of survival. And when 9/11 happened, creative expression experienced a regression in the name of personal security; hence that decade is known for being, on the whole, quite retro.

Brexit's effect on the EU, withdrawal of spending in Asia, impending global real estate bubbles, warnings of a market crash plus political uncertainty in the US as their presidential election sparks global concern are all not good news. Those who lived in the US after the bubble burst in the 80s and 90s remember the pain and struggle. They also know that those who survived provided what the public wanted as investments versus participation in fickleness as a display of wealth.

Now, with access to social media, it’s easier to have contact with the public and get better feedback in real time. Thus, collections can better reflect what the public wants. Is this good? Sometimes a leader needs to take us out of our comfort zone to show us what we have yet to realize we ant. That is progress. Fear can get in the way of that when safety nets aren’t present, and these days we have eroded enough of those globally to set us up for trouble a lot sooner. So the proliferation of simple, beautiful and, ultimately, quite wearable pieces (and the continuation of 70s 80s and 90s) remain.

Is that all? If history has anything to tell us, then the answer is a resounding "no", for there is always innovation. This blog will decide whether to wait until the collections close for us to talk about those.