Paris is the last stop on the trek known as Fashion Week. It is the last point of contact, the zenith of fashion’s expression of what is to come for the season it portrays. After October 3^rd there will be time to re-examine the slow pace in which fashion is evolving.

It is a slower pace of evolution, perhaps slower than what our consumerist culture has conditioned us to accept in the past. The frenetic pace of changing styles to keep consumers at a brisk pace of purchasing has caught up with us as our economic scenario and ecological impact are, at the very least, causing us to have the conversation of our habits. Many of the looks are variations of what we have seen for a year, and while there are some new directions introduced (more so by the shows in Paris) the bulk of collections have a familiarity that betrays our ingrained expectations.

Create too much change too soon and the consumer will bow out of the process. This was proven in the late 80s/early 90s when that economic downturn made debt restructure more important than status participation and fashion made an abrupt change from the ostentatious and hypercreative to a more minimal and utilitarian slant. Make it too slow and it gives more cause to delay purchase as one’s wardrobe needs less refreshing to remain relevant in society’s eyes. For the survival of the players in the industry these are nervous times if only because the scenario that faced the 90s is more intense this time around and, with our interconnectivity providing more real-time information at a higher volume, is letting us know more than we want to know. Denial is harder to cultivate in the face of plentiful, accessible facts.

To add to the insecurity, there are confusing signals delivered in the media that portray contradictory information of whether things are economically rebounding or whether our prudence needs to be further heightened.  These psychological obstacles put the designer in a precarious position when it comes to the creative process.

Designs reflect a greater sentiment when people remember better times and better circumstances. And just as in human relationships, people tend to romanticize the past when faced with less than ideal present conditions such as what we face (or how the media spins it) today. For fashion, the better times for creativity, freedom and support come from the past. Of course there were problems in every decade, but we know that the further we are from those realities in time, the less they become part of the romance we cultivate in order to cope.

So even though there were problems in the 60s, the 80s and the 90s, fashion was truly exciting. The 60s is where fashion catered to youth, and sexuality was greeted with open arms. it was optimistic, jubilant and hopeful about the future and its posibilities. The 80s was an explosion of broken rules ushering in new visions of fashion that we still marvel at, incorporate and re-translate in our quest for a modern expression of our personal uniform. The 90s took the body-consciousness that was introduced in the latter 80s and mixed with a revisit to the 70s with better fabrics, newer colour combinations and later exciting textiles that came as technology grew more sophisticated. And if you look at fashion right up to Sept 11^th, it pretty much resembles what we have today.

Everything up to that point was a happier time for many people. Even past recessionary events were more tolerable because our times were simpler compared to the way things are now. Festivals and gatherings were more casual, regulations weren’t so stringent, security meant a few extra bodies instead of fencing, ID checks and armed personnel ready to sweep away any sarcasm for fear of it being a literal declaration. Our ease of communication can now be tracked and even scrutinized, removing confidential freedom of expression from anything electronically transmitted.  

Fashion was more contained and presented in gradual doses over time. Now fashion is broadcast and copied almost instantaneously from the point of release, with everything connected to it becoming more centered around commerce and marketing than in the joy it was before, which was focused on the creativity.

Those days are gone. We have new conveniences and new wonders; those come at a rational price that is expected in our evolution. But the speed of its arrival is like the shift in climate and not everyone is able to automatically acclimatize without enduring some emotional impact. Our fashion reflects that in the rehashing of past styles, and in particular styles of happier, freer moments when creation aiming for a new tomorrow came from a more naïve and optimistic place. That placed is everything before Sept 11^th.

And so our fashion reflects us. We know the future is here. We know that looking forward is where we want to go. And for now we really have no idea what the future truly is. But we have everything from the past to refer to. They are the sweet memories where sentiment offers a rosier point of departure to set our future forward, and if we are going to go bravely forward, at least we can start with a happy note, even if it comes from memories over present realities.