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Fashion Observed


Trend observations with a sociological eye from afar...

by Darryl S. Warren  

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Shape Of Things To Come

A ttention spans are split amidst multiple events the world over, and this does not stop the world from turning. Collections for the Spring Summer 2017 season are continuing, migrating now through Europe. In the short week it swept through London and, as we speak, is finishing up in Milan before making the final crescendo of major declarations in Paris. But if the major cities are having anything to say about fashion, it is these cities that are providing a sharp contrast to their fashion friend on the other side of the Atlantic. Whereas New York stated the predominant mood of retro via practicality, the European collections have (not all, but quite a few) challenged that via a different retro direction where excess and pandemonium were upheld in continued embrace of texture, pattern and applique to balance the mass textile usage in pleating, ruffling, and drape.

​Fitting, isn't it? We are overloaded. We are hyper informed of the mess that is our planet's state of affairs on all fronts. The initial optimism to combat it cannot deny the truth that we are in over our heads and have a lot at stake. But what more can we do than our best? At least we are trying, and as we do, we reward ourselves with an attempt at balance. The cheerful colours, the forward all-systems-go now-or-never last hurrah we give ourselves was as fitting now as in the 80s when we saw the mess we created in trying to "fix" things accumulate and about to break. Talk of bubbles bursting loom...and yet...somewhere we know we aren't stopping.

​Within these grasps of the past well-integrated as the go-to antidote for stress relief (the 80s stiff upper lip efforts mirrored in creative individualities we are embracing now) lie the revisit of seeds of exploration towards new forms as we inch closer to be our 21st century new "us". Technology has bestowed us with impressive textiles and made room for better execution of concepts where exactitude is our lowest bar. Some designers in the collections to date are taking the brave route to go forward within our familiarity constraints (remember, even our most visionary creatives are from the 20th century so they cannot escape that influence), fining room to bring some new form attempts in their collections. Collections from Joseph, Marni, Marques' Almeida, MSGM, Sid Neigum and Parson's hold play of unusual form with the exploratory fervour remembered by Comme des Garcons while infused with the mixology spirit of Maison Margiela that collections this season skillfully employ.

It is the new cuts and forms within these collections that will need to be remembered as we move closer towards the pivoting point: 2020. By this time, our 21st century identity, accompanied by technology we have yet to imagine, will have become apparent and the unique departures we are starting to see now will be the seeds from which we will revere.

Well, so far; after all, the collections are not finished.  being shown yet. But if anything is an indication, we are starting to get a picture of what 2017 will be and, like life today, it's a lot to take in.   

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