A lot of Resort 2013 came and went with so many designers showing that it overlapped couture week, something that is happening as you read. The volume of offerings, an evolution of marketing and brand development, is a relatively new aspect of fashion’s evolution as our technology speeds real-time actualization form concept to market. And with our technology providing more complex and comprehensive information over easy access channels the diversity of points of view provide a rich tapestry to examine.
Of course, in order to be relevant a savvy designer will steer their creativity into aspects that harmonize with the larger market. The delicate balance of being individual versus fitting it is a delicate dance in this industry. A customer will look for items from one’s competition and the importance of harmonizing to be included in the customer purchase make that homogeneity more imperative.
Fitting is a huge drive in our society. We are social animals and the sense of belonging is innate, hardwired into our psyche and exhibited in our drives and behavioral patterns. That fashion, a model of both expression and benchmark for conformity through social relevance, has evolved to a level of cultural importance in the manner we see today makes understanding of these changes more paramount if we are to understand the unspoken language of social commonality.
Our emotional expressions fit into this expression. The more powerful ones are, of course, the more base expressions. Fear, above all, is a powerful one to tap into and any advertising agent will confirm the exploitation of this base emotion when looking at successful campaigns within modern advertising. However, it’s the subtleties and reactions that this emotion brings forth that are also worthy of examining.
The current precipice of various factors has put this level of fear in a unique place. We have faced periods of economic crisis before. However, we have not had as much vivid information dramatizing its effects so readily accessible as we do today. We also have had our share of fear mongering post 9/11 infused into our daily lives and finished with various apocalyptic tales woven into pop culture. That copious images and messages come all at once does not help to cope with the stress in the publics’ daily life. Where do we go? What do we do? We shrink into the child inside. We want our mommy.
During the Red Scare innocence was our savior and for women the child-like femininity was present to aid our denial as we hid in domestic bliss. This showed in a different incarnation in the 60s with child-like baby doll dresses for the young and overwhelmed, a youth that demanded and saw more truth of the world they were inheriting. And in the 80s during nuclear concerns fashion dipped into some of this child-lie sweetness via Victorian inspiration.
We aren’t so literal as we aim for a new identity in the 21st century. Ours has a somewhat surrealist approach as we find more sophisticated expressions in vaguer terms. Here is the femininity via the flora and fauna that supports it (that works with the Art Nouveau thread as referred to last week). Lace and ruffles (like when there was fallout and aftermath of the economic shakeups in the 90s) are more prevalent in many collections as designers offer something of comfort for the little girl inside.
For example, Alberta Ferretti had pretty lace stripping on some very pretty and feminine dresses. Albino, Altuzarra, Bottega Veneta , Nina Ricci had some ruffling in a few pieces. Anna Sui had some hippy drippy sweet and pretty lace while Christopher Kane had some very feminine floaty chiffon and florals. Valentino also went girly while Moschino went for sweet bows. Both Moschino Cheap & Chic and J. W. Andersen reached into clothes pretty and prim enough for hosting tea.
Not every designer held this thought of primal retreat, though and a look at the collections showed that like all of us, we have many facets of how we see and face the world. For some it is about defiance and fight, and for others it’s about observation. But for these sweet flourishes it speaks about the safe places we sometimes go to, be it on holiday abroad or in our state of mind.