Let's Just Move it Along

Prada Fall/Winter 1998 Campaign
Source: http://styleregistry.livejournal.com/

I've struggled to write a post for some while now, but it's not because I'm out of ideas, it's simply because I can't keep up. The fashion schedule is as busy as it's ever been starting the year with menswear then couture and then fall collections and then before you know it there are the inter-seasonal collections followed by spring collections and the cycle the repeats itself. I took some time out from writing about fashion to really reflect on what I wanted to make this blog into as well as reflect on the fashion year which had just passed. Generally speaking, a year is a long time but, from what I discovered during this time is that a year in fashion is chaotic, exhausting and most of all, short-lived. There's no time for celebration anymore. Every season, after months and months of preparation, a 15 or so minute fashion takes place and then it's onto the next season. The experience of fashion has been cheapened as we are presented with 'yeah, that's ok' instead of 'the next truly great thing.'

Fashion is cherished because it's always reinventing itself. Sprawled across the glossy magazines you find at the checkouts of supermarkets is what fashion is stereotyped and summarised into; the 568 must-haves for summer. But really, who needs 568 new things for a season? This constant need of something new and reinvigorating has become a disease. A disease created by us. It's not viewed as a want but, a need, a sense of entitlement to something brand new and unexpected. Yet as fashion progresses forward with every season, what happens to last season?

We don't really think about last season anymore. I mean we really don't even have time to because of the immensely chaotic fashion schedule. We cherish those truly iconic moments in the past and that's about it. Because, really, who cares about what Miuccia did last season right?

It's quite saddening to see fashion lovers and enthusiasts forget what someone did last season because they've just presented a whole new collection. Even the term "last season" has become laced with negative notes of dismissal and denigration. Last season collections are simply disregarded with absolutely no respect because you must simply stay "in" fashion darling. This happens too often as countless brilliant "last season" collections fall victim to this disease of needing the new. Although we fashion connoisseurs aren't just to blame, the media refuses to report on designers past achievements, only the present.

Some may argue that this really shouldn't be a problem in fashion as fashion is obsessively moving forward but, what happens to the future if we don't acknowledge the past?

While a large part of this concerns collections, even sadder, great designers of the past and their work are short-lived. What remains are coffee-table fashion books published by Taschen or Phaidon praising their legacy and work through a few hundred photo-filled pages and a short essay on the subject. Even now, Christian Lacroix just seems like a forgotten memory.

There is no respect for true fashion or true genius but instead, the amount of collections produced and the amount of progression brought to the table by a designer. Fashion wants to constantly move forward - no matter the cost.

So, let's just move it along because the past is just a thing of the past, right?