Now the Spring Summer 2016 collections have drawn to a close, and they leave us with much to digest and interpret. These presentations are not just about what we wear, but about how those who design navigate the mercenary components of the business to express what they see as how we feel in the continued quest for maintaining relevance. With the overload of information at the disposal of anyone with an internet connection, the elements are no longer as compartmentalized. They blend the information to present the combinations that mean the most to us.
Much of that information is in the familiar, placating our desire for security. The abundance of retro references is testament of our fear that the future, a huge unknown, is too much to fully digest. We are taking it in, but begrudgingly so. And yet the collections are increasingly venturing into the newer territories explored in the more recent decades where our technology has allowed creativity to transcend confines that held us back before.
Despite this internal struggle, some influences are perpetual. War has been on our minds for a while. The post 9/11 years have been one where society has been on a constant state of alert, as if we are being conditioned towards incorporating war as another facet of daily life. The routine that would have been considered absurd in previous generations is now our truth: being searched before travelling; scanning for weapons in public spaces; seeing various alerts as part of our news; war as part of budgetary consideration in politics branded as integral to personal safety; security measures in our communications equipment. Each addition ramps up the state of personal alarm that robs us of the simplicity of living as it justifies the effort of maintaining organized violence as a cultural component.
Fashion obliges. The presence of military aspects in fashion is almost as much of a mainstay as florals in spring collections. We appreciate the order it emphasizes in colours and cuts. They reflect the militant aspects our societies embody in our institutions. But now we have a unique scenario where retro aspects find a place in this trend aspect.
The long-simmering tensions of the Middle East and in particular Syria and Iran have brought about conflict between two superpowers with huge military might: The US and Russia. The potential for conflict is frightening now just as it was in the very decades expressed in collections. One, the 80s, has been felt in Europe for a while and as such influences from that decade have been more prominent in that part of the fashion world. The other points more to the originating tension: the 50s.
The Cold War was also a time of measured fear, where the threat of total nuclear annihilation and alert was the underlying post-war vibe forgotten about amidst the romanticizing of the 50s. The reality of this crescendoed in the early 60s with the Cuban Missile Crisis where tensions reached a near-catastrophic peak. But the stage we are at isn't as intense albeit just as disconcerting. One collection alluded to that decade when others went elsewhere. Over at Maison Martin Margiela, John Galliano incorporated some vintage 50s coat styles into the collection, a nod to a more elegant yet troubled era, much as ours is now.
The dichotomy of manufactured innocence, consumerism and public decorum facing emotionally removed idealistic destruction is a classic our society has found itself reliving. Our technology becomes the demon as much as our salvation from our basic desires of fight or flight, and fashion yet again holds up the mirror for those who are willing to look can see. Between this and the further romanticizing of Cuba's height, only time will let us know just how much of that decade we incorporate as our message to ourselves.