The big question for every fashion week is “where the hell are we going from here?” It’s a question that is always dictated by the social climate at the time, and this year was no exception. Especially with how we view women under such scrutiny and back and forth – we’ve had Lean In, Me Too, major threats to Planned Parenthood, debates over parental leave, the pay gap, and how healthcare desperately needs to understand intersectional feminism (see this article in the Washington Post on that horrifying can of worms).
Since what we wear is so so SO caught up with identity – whether we like it or not – it is understandable that designers seem to be scrambling with the question of “how the hell do we create relevant women’s collections?”
Like most things, the answer depends on who you ask. From where I’m sitting, most designers responded in one of three ways:
- Escapism (divided into two varieties – time travellers and world creators)
- Head-on approach
- AHHHHHHHHH!
Let me show you what I mean.
Escapism
Time Travellers
I do not see escapism as necessarily a bad thing. I mean, I watch Grace and Frankie or The Great British Bakeoff with the express purpose of escaping the clutter of my mind. Who doesn’t? Everyone needs a pressure valve of some sort.
There were a good handful of designers of the Time-Travel Escapist variety. Michael Kors, Naeem Khan, Longchamp, and Cynthia Rowley had a definite 70’s vibe going on. Kors even had Barry Manilow perform after his Studio 54-themed runway. Campy? Absolutely. But so much fun.
Zimmerman also went to the past for inspiration – specifically, to the life of Nancy Wake, a spy for the France in World War II, and whose story is little-known. There was an aggressive femininity to the show that I found incredibly appealing and totally on-point, even if it runs awfully close to the trap of “feminine mystique.” The cynic in me is waiting for people to say, “look at the Zimmerman show, see? Women can do it ALL!” That dreaded comment that is so loaded with ”shoulds” without ever saying them aloud, and that pops right back on that damn pedestal.
For me, that wasn’t the message of Zimmerman’s show – it was less “sexy femme spy” and more, “stay focused, you do you, you’ve got this.” Perhaps because Nicky Zimmerman is in fact, a woman, I saw this show more of a “woman-encouraging-other-woman” sort of deal than yet another glamorization of the femme fatal (eye roll). Way to go, Nicky!
Welcome to My Bubble
The other way that escapism came to the table was through world creation. That is, those designers that invited us into real and imagined universes. A very grown-up, very expensive episode of The Magic School Bus.
Christian Siriano went space-age, with lots of metallic silver pinstripes and puffer jackets. He even made Ashley Graham look like a space-aviatrix grabbing a cocktail after a spin on her jetson-craft or whatever it is she’d be driving in the future. There were also plenty of saturated dresses, mainly in jewel blues and purples, which for me tempered the collection nicely. Sure, he’s not dressing women for the board rooms of America, but Siriano’s innovation often more social than sartorial. He was one of the first designers to routinely cast models of different sizes and ages, which even now feels like a step into the future. Keep it up, CS!
We had Ralph Lauren, who recently reopened a coffee shop in New York, shockingly called Ralph’s (let’s hope that’s a reference to his name and not to your body’s reaction to the food). He replicated the cafe in his NYC boutique to host his Spring 2019 collection (he adheres to the see-now-buy-now model) and it was nothing short of charming. He created an insular world where everything was black, white, and/or gold and all you needed was coffee and croissants and everything would be a-ok. I do have to say though, he must have an incredible imagination if he thinks he can convince anyone that drinking coffee in one of his impeccable white suits is going to wind up as anything but a tragedy.
Oscar de la Renta sent us off to Cordoba, with beautiful patterns and embroidery inspired by carpets and tiles from the region. I LOVED it because everything was so damn pretty.
Alice + Olivia threw a party instead of a runway show, one that was heavily decorated to make it look like a butterfly filled wonderland. There were exhibits with black backdrops and 3D arrangements of intensely bright florals and sculptural butterflies that matched the incredibly fun and indulgent prints of the collection. It did touch on the rising popularity of vocal feminism, with the inclusion of t-shirts that read “go love yourself,” and “strong female protagonist.”
Head-On
There are some designers that will always produce streamlined, focused collections with an oddly avant-garde practicality. Proenza Schouler, Tibi, and The Row are all examples of this. Each house, in its own way, pumped out collections that speak to streetwear enthusiasts as well as women in positions of power. And that’s something I always ask myself – are brands making clothing for women in powerful positions? I think that says a lot about what we’re “allowing” women to be, don’t you?
If you know me, you know that I’m not at all a minimalist. I am definitely a maximalist. I love high heels, big hair, sparkly things, big buildings, extreme climates, spicy food, intense exercise, super intellectual books, super trashy romance novels, and not much that falls in the middle.
However, I have so much respect for the minimalists out there – and I see the necessity for that point of view in both our cultural and sartorial conversations. There is that fear I hear a lot of women vocalizing about not being taken seriously at their place of work – that the hair and the heels and the whole glam thing is a recipe for being perpetually infantilized, minimized, and spoken over.
That’s why brands like The Row (hey hey, Mary-Kate and Ashley!) are so important. They represent women who enjoy fashion, and want to engage with it in a way that doesn’t emphasize the flashier aspects of womenswear. These brands are meeting their clientele right where they are, on the front lines of the job market, with a laser-like focus.
On the flip-side, we had brands like Cushnie and Carolina Herrera producing much more effusive collections, including separates that could be worn day, night, or to the office. They both used color in ways that were both sophisticated and outspoken. In the real world, they’d be most usable in a creative-type office, rather than a traditional corporate environment. But either way, you could easily picture someone in a leadership position wearing pieces from these collections.
AHHHHHHH!
My eloquent way of describing that anxiety that comes with periods of cultural change. There are two designers that went the way of panic, each with their own spin – Jeremy Scott and Tom Ford. And each, still, had important things to say.
Jeremy Scott’s collection, although entirely black and white, was a complete assault on the eyes (and many people loved it). The patterns were all newsprint, in bold type, a mishmash of headlines and clickbait in a reflection of how inundated we all are with the media from the time we wake to when we lay down to sleep. I have this image in my mind of all of these headlines getting stuck in his brain in one messy salad (maybe a salad spinner, actually) and building up to the point where he couldn’t take it anymore and kind of vomited it out onto dresses. To me, it felt pretty unhinged.
OK, clearly this is not my favorite collection, given that it frankly makes me anxious just looking at it – but the man has a point. The collection is taking that panic that comes with just too much happening in the news and in our culture and shoves it right back to the media (I mean, guess who takes photos at NYFW? The press and all its associates, the Associated Press, if you will).
Tom Ford took the opposite route, saying to Vogue that he wanted to feel “security” in his collection as a reaction to so much negativity in the news, adding, “I feel frustrated and agitated and exhausted. And I don’t want to wear anything particularly challenging or anything particularly aggressive.”
I was so blown away by how honest he was with that statement. Most designers would be horrified if someone called their collection “safe.” In his case, that’s exactly what he was going for. And if this is safe, then I’m strapping on my seat belt because I’d love more of it, please and thank you.
I get that he wasn’t creating anything over the top, but wasn’t that his point? The collection is beautiful, funcional, and wearable at a time when we are so overwhelmed with the world around us. Some days, you’re going to want to rebel against that and wear that Jeremy Scott newspaper-clipping dress (well, maybe). And others, you’re going to want the simple route, the one that just feels comfortable and reliable. No shame in that.
So that’s it for the New York Fashion Week Recap! I’ll be doing a deep-dive into Marc Jacobs on Monday, because I have quite a lot to say about his show. Stay tuned!
love
Stig
