Economy matters to fashion. It has to because it’s a business, and a good business person pays attention to economic factors to thrive. Such details are important for strategy as they need to know whether they are able to compete and succeed with regards to their demographic. But this also impacts design decisions. The need to ensure relevancy means making clothes that fit with the demographics needs and expectations, and one cannot survive making clothes that are too conceptual or impractical for the demographic they are serving.
But a designer also has another aspect within the competitive sphere, and that is the ability to capture the attention of the fashion audience to attract attention, stir desire by appealing to fantasy and escape that fashion offers , and to command attention through relevance balanced by creativity. There are thousands of designers in competition for attention as well. This competitive environment brings formidable challenges that require tremendous skills to navigate the fashion landscape, especially when the landscape offers challenges of their own.
The current technological advances have brought tremendous excitement. It should; those advances we are witnessing are amazing. It also brings fear that has to do with a growing concern of the population wondering where their roles will be a landscape that indicates less participation in favor of automation. Exacerbating this concern is the continuous awareness of the erosion of the middle class in the face of greater economic divides that are becoming more prominent each year. The ability to survive in an economic climate where education no longer guarantees the mobility our past once provided plus the concern that the upcoming generation may actually have less than the generation before it is not encouraging news fort anyone in retail, for a healthy economic climate is necessary to foster growth and expansion in industries relying on consumption.
The recent downturn of luxury spending along with a revelation of China’s economy becoming a deflating bubble does not help, and not only because it has been the locus of luxury growth over the past decade, or that retail in overseas cities has been maintained by reliance on tourist dollars. This country also holds a lot of overseas assets, and should the bubble burst this could negatively impact many market where value has been upheld by the holding of these assets. If Chinese panicked and started selling, the impact could be huge. And the ones to suffer would ultimately be the middle class, shrinking it further. It doesn’t take a genius to figure out that the result would be acquisitions buy those already with means, further enhancing this divide that would resemble something almost feudal.
Good designers would pick up on this in the same manner as artists, such as artist/programmer Emil Choski . When speaking of his work, he said that he pictured what New York City might look like in 2017 for Envision New York, referring to the city as turning into a feudal one where you've got the castle and the moat, and all of the serfs living outside it. While our current societies are not at that point there are a few other things to note.
In medieval times the church and state were inseparable. While laws in democracies are in place to separate those areas, one can see the rise of religious influence in politics through right wing parties where religion has been integrated into political policy. Human rights issues such as equality are being challenged based on religious freedoms in the US, stalling same sex marriage and resulting in places like Arizona supporting open discrimination based on religious grounds. How church and state are separate in the face of these issues remains to be seen. If anything it looks as though church and state are meshed more so than before.
Another aspect is revelation of science knowledge with the general public and the education system. The U.S. News & World Report announced a recent public survey using the NSF science-literacy test showed 26 percent thought the sun revolves around the Earth and the scores showed a third had failed basic science knowledge such as accepting or understanding evolution, or continental plate migration over time, or that the center of the Earth is hot. For a connected world, it is appalling to know that there are views that seem more in place with the Dark Ages.
Our entertainment is blood thirsty and anyone who knows about video game design can agree, as can those who produce video content for our entertainment. This plus our fascination with royalty and figureheads all inspire creation of and enjoyment of things medieval. The television program “Reign” comes on the heels of success enjoyed by the phenomenon known as “Game of Thrones”. It is no wonder that this, plus knowledge of so many factors listed above all support inspiration for some designers who take elements into consideration in the creation of their collections, bringing the fantasy of connecting with the opulence and chivalrous romance to those who relate with the more favorable aspects of court life.
This was noticed in gowns capturing the languid medieval lines from Jonathan Simkhai, Tadashi Shoiji and Mary Kantrantzou, while a more simplified gown with a cape-like addition from Zac Posen or short versions of court dress from Monique Lhullier and Temperley London had a looser reference. Use of heraldry by Mary Kantrantzou was very court-appropriate. Embellishments fit for a court abound from Erdem and more so at Dolce & Gabbana. Medieval elements were also observed at Alice + Olivia and Red Valentino, and those knee-high boots from Rick Owens also had a medieval feel.
Those designers see what we may subconsciously connect with, with our history education and cumulative media references along for the ride to shape the awareness of those observations. Noticing all this is not a bad thing, for as we make these connections we admit our return to cycles of living that we have yet to evolve fully from. The dialogue opens our awareness that we have work to do. Thankfully, we evolve in a constant pendulum of progress that, over time, steers us as we explore our circumstances in the name of finding solutions...just as the Dark Ages made way for a renaissance.