So close to Christmas. But commerce doesn't stop in our age for anything short of international tragedies, fashion included. The continued release of the 2016 Pre-fall collections are underway, and already Vogue Runway has made the acute observation that the early 2000s are creeping into the repertoire as another retro influence due to recognizable elements from that decade appearing in a few Spring/Summer 2016 collections. This collection will hold no surprises on that pronouncement, for aspects as becoming present here too.
That decade had a promising start of innovation that was quickly set back by the horror of 9/11. The event shook up our psyche to such a degree that fashion found itself on a temporary reset for a number of years, reflecting our 180 degree turnaround from excitedly embracing the future to avoiding it. Colour combinations and cuts that we left in the past and outgrew were recycled as we replayed the years when things were calmer, safer and more familiar. We had to take comfort in what was familiar as the prospect of facing a future marred by evil intent was too much to handle. As is, we weathered the hype of Y2K; the ramifications of that scenario was hypothetical. The 9/11 event soon after, though, hammered home some dark realities that coloured visions of what the future could hold and unlike past horrors that could be viewed with a psychological barrier of distance, we all got it in real time and watched as the world shut down for a day in response. this was too much, too real and too soon.
Now, we have distance. Time has afforded up the ability to heal initial wounds, to process the events and fit them into the world we see and live in. Along with that, the decade ushered mass elevation of our technology at a pace that was, at the time, incredible. Now, of course, it's routine as we expect exponential innovation (and are rewarded with incredible items daily to marvel at; check the @FashionObserved Twitter feed to see what we see). When it comes to fashion...well...this is a bit trickier.
Fashion always embraces the newest materials but has had to balance the push for newness with economic realities, such as balancing that newness with familiarity. Make the changes too great and the public tunes out, feeling they cannot keep up. Make it too stagnant and the public loses interest because there is nothing new to stimulate attention. Make it too innovative and too fresh and it loses relevance, but fail to provide some creative vision and...well...you can see how hard this can be for any designer. Add to this a punishing schedule now that fashion has four major collection seasons, pressures for on-demand sales to compete with fast fashion imitators, market supersaturation...the pressure is such that it has taken its toll on some creatives as the news will attest. The show must go on because business is business.
Most collections are following a safer route, primarily taking modern clean aspects of retro fashion. The 70s had its share of different aspects of evolution, and the later part of the decade saw a cleaner incarnation ushered in by Halston. It took the geometry and sparseness that somehow become key hallmarks of modernity and united it with the silhouettes of the times, shaped by the stiffness of the textiles that were considered cutting edge back then.
Similar sociological influences found its way into the 90s and into today, which support the return of these silhouettes and aesthetic choices. the innocence of those periods and similar coping mechanisms in our entertainment and outlook harmonize with nostalgic views of these eras which feed our connectivity, so the trends stick. The merging of other elements of past decades show the intricacy of awareness of world events we now have as opposed to then. Our technology has given us the capacity to be more aware of the largess of the world, and our collections reflect this in kind.
Our evolution of healing allows us to now go through what we created post 9/11 as a way to revisit the path of healing as face new threats that have been rising since ISIL has expanded its grip beyond the Middle East. It's another new ingredient in the fashion mix, chopped and layered with others as we inch closer to the inevitable newness that will be our 21st century costume. So, as we continue to find comfort in the tried and true from previous decades that have been part of our upbringing, we seek to push us closer to now.
What is ours is the combinations and the layering to drive us to whatever we hope that newness will be. Quirky tweaks of unexpected detail combinations and layering aim for that delicate balance were in different degrees in many collections. But while many stood with the retro modernity spoken above, some collections, such as from Adam Lippes, Alexander Wang, Calvin Klein and Opening Ceremony showed more prominence in this experimentation that we have grown accustomed to in recent seasons.
With only a few years left until we face the real entrance into the 21st century's creative expression (and the expressions from those with no previous ties to the last millennium who will lead the way), we should hope for more hints as to where we are going as opposed to where we are repeating. It is to our betterment that we embrace growth and progress, and as fashion reflects interpretation of what's internal, we want that.