^ it is very difficult to try to think of what could be completely new in fashion. for most of its history, fashion has been characterized by evolution (either slow or sudden), not revolution. even most designers considered avant-garde or trailblazing are usually making a reference to something that has already occurred, whether they are exaggerating proportions (e.g. mugler and montana), turning toward historical dress (e.g. galliano's and westwood's pirate designs from the 80s), or otherwise.
imo there have been very few truly revoltionary moments in rtw fashion; two that come to mind are when rei kawakubo and yohji yamamoto showed their subversively ratty and deconstructed garments in 1981 and when kawakubo showed her "dress meets body..." collection for s/s 1997, a collection that went beyond redesigning clothes and actually redesigned the body.
i feel almost everything else, even subsequent collections by those japanese designers, can be traced as part of an evolution. not surprisingly, those aforementioned collections were met with a lot of derision and confusion because they were so startling and new. some smaller designers as well as artists who work in the medium of fashion have the ability to do new things, but by and large, fashion designers who show on the runway either cannot come up with anything really new, or are afraid to do so because it would alienate customers (the majority of the buying public shies away from things that are too novel and unusual, in fashion as well as almost any other field). fashion designers have to consider what the public will buy in order to remain commercially viable, and in many cases, customers are attracted to and more comfortable with designs that are in some way familiar to them.
so the countless 80s references in current collections are not surprising, given the cyclical nature of fashion as well as the current dismal economic climate regarded vis-a-vis the empowering silhouettes and jubilant palette of much 80s fashion. additionally, some of the target demographic for current collections is young and perhaps not all that familiar with fashion history or even 80s fashion. a lot of fashion customers are probably not as knowledgeable as some of us TFSers, and while many of us recognize the allusions to vintage fashion in current collections, to many of the target buyers, it is something fresh and exciting.
