Controversial Opinions on Fashion

[LadyJunon]

Mugler was always a better, stronger, powerful costume designer than a RTW designer. And that the best of his designs are pure pop art kitsch that was a reflection of the very shimmering plastic, loudly colorful and ultimately camp drag era of his reign, makes perfect sense why this generation of influencers and its followers would so predictably be attracted to his aesthetic: It’s very Pop, very faSHON 101. Take away the Vegas showgirl costumes (many were very exquisitely executed, to be fair), the Warhol color-palette, the drag pageant circus, and the RTW is just a lot of very plain geometric shapes in basic bright colors— which is very much the sensibility of this fashion generation. (Those lapel-less suitings with the huge shoulders in bright primary colors were always the ugliest designs— but they absolutely stand out when you’re desperately seeking followers to be a faSHON influencers on Insta.)

While I like Mugler's clothes, I always felt that his clothes lacked the human intimacy that I feel distinguishes Gaultier and Galliano's fashion from Mugler's costume.

When I mean intimacy, I don't mean comfort or ease, but more like attention, nuance and care. It's like they weren't made with any emotion, just solely for artifice. Like a very well made costume.

I definitely feel that his protégés, Alaïa, Ghesquiére and Vauthier, were more interested in fashion beyond showmanship and artifice. Even their wildest fashion still looked like fashion.

Demna, Jacquemus and Roseberry all remind me of him in that aspect: lots of grandiose theatrics, but nothing very complex behind it.

 

[fenty]

Hedi Slimane still stuck on the same aesthetic since the early 2000s and we haven't seen anything new since, his artistry has PEAKED tremendously and the only reason why Celine is doing well is because of Lisa and her cult following.
Alton Mason (aka botcx, slayomi cuntbell iykyk) rebrand as a twitter menace to male model of the year recipient multiple times needs to be studied! but he sucks as a model.
Anthony Vaccerello's Claude Montana cosplay is eating and idc what yall say the 80s were FAB

 

[Cocteau Stone]

I've always enjoyed Thierry's work (to an extent; I don't revisit it often unlike McQueen, Yamamoto, Alaia etc.) purely for the extravagance and also for the fact the he himself took the craft seriously, but never really himself all that much. The kind that had a wicked sense of humour and knew what he was about without getting all that pretentious. Plus, he's always mentioned about his work being more costume than not which I appreciate. Very of its time, but in a way that was necessary because without Mugler, we wouldn't have some of the immaculate fashions and designers that we have been privy to.

Great for inspiration, and seeing how far one can push things, but never really something that fully translated well into reality unless you're THAT kind of person. Like a Helmut Newton femme fatale come to life.

Speaking of social media and accessibility, I think what it has also done is warped the sense of time it takes to be good at fashion. In the business itself, designers are now given the shortest time frame to be "good" and profitable, no longer given a moment to develop who they are or what they're about. SM definitely hasn't helped with this at all too.

Not only that, but my god, some of the things younger designers are peddling are some literal knockoff bs. I get fashion needs clients, but it also doesn't need a surplus of knock off wares with no POV. Iterations of that Westwood bustier, a hack and slash op shop top akin to Margiela, a poorly made slip or dodgy digital print lycra thinking they're like Calvin Klein and Gaultier respectively. Like yeah, a b*tch gotta make money but it's depressing, and really shallow.

 

[Phuel]

^^^ The hustle these days is in cultivating followers on SM and achieving fame and fortune through the most basic of “design", not in creating and developing a distinct POV with innovation and fresh vision. (I’d love to know what An & Filip are teaching their students. It's individuals like them that are the only hope for a new generation of potential design visionaries.)

Demna, Jacquemus and Roseberry all remind me of him in that aspect: lots of grandiose theatrics, but nothing very complex behind it.

LOL Only Demna is worthy of a showman out of the three. Like most of us, he grew up with the showmanship of Gaultier/McQueen/Galliano, and it shows. And he’s got something new to bring to the fashion discussion. Of course he went too far, got too comfortably arrogant and pretentious— and creepy; the trio of Demna/Gosha/Lotta have a creepy history with inappropriate fascination with those on the pubescent spectrum... However, there’s no doubt he is talented, both as a creative and a designer. Hopefully this creepy stumble will smack some humility into him, and he’ll stop trolling and concentrate on his creative talent again, rather than his marketing talent. I'll leave it at that.

Daniel Rosenberry is revealing to be a one-trick pony way too soon. His whimsy, surreal and even charming take on couture initially was endearing. But this consistent take on black/gold on everything, with OTT styling— now as a walking bouquet, is boring now. What was once charming is becoming intolerable. He seems capable of construction, and I wish he would concentrate on that, instead of all the embellishments, ornamentation, and frankly, distracting clutter to disguise what are very basic, albeit well-constructed basic, staples.

…That last person… It’s this plague of mediocrity that’s infested the entire industry: design/presentation/publication/creatives, that’s made him the star. Frankly, he would be so much more tolerable, despite his lack of creative talent and technical skills, if he weren’t so damn obnoxious and arrogant. It’s admirable that he’s become the success he has without being associated with the giant corporations Kering and LVMH, I’ll give him that. Maybe when he’s dropped for the next new SM-sensation— and he will be because his followers are kidz, just like Alexander Wang before him, then he will concentrate on improving his construction and creative skills. But I highly doubt it. Designers like him, and brands like his are dime-a-dozen and easily forgotten in time when they’re quickly no longer the “It” brand. And "It" never lasts long.

 

[gallianostan]

^^ ehh, i’m probably in the minority of those who don’t believe demna has any talent at all. the man is a provocateur, nothing else. certainly not one in the vein of greats like galliano, and especially mcqueen. it’s just that fashion has been so starved of theatre in the last 10+ years that anyone who puts on a “show” is instantly lionised as some kind of showman when, in reality, they’re just doing the bare minimum. the fact that he’s supposed to be a successor to the architectural master cristobal balenciaga is a joke.

as for roseberry... the man is a one-trick pony. his approach to schiaparelli is mindlessly one-dimensional; just more gauche fodder for the instagays/high faSHUN twitter kids whose fashion education was built on a strict diet of mugler/verSAYCE/drag queen imagery. i’ve been meaning to rant about the dragification of fashion but i’ll leave that diatribe for another day.

 

[Phuel]

^^^ Demna îs absolutely not even in the same orbit as Gaultier/McQueen/Galliano. He’s not even in the same stratosphere as the Greats’ successors Ghesquiere/Theyskins/Tisci. But within the context of the supposed New Guard, he is by far the strongest with a design vision. Can’t say I’m a fan nor a customer. However, there’s no denying he has talent and he forged a new fashion vocabulary that’s of, and relevant to the times. Now, these aren’t the best of fashion times, so the talent is a reflection of that...

You know, my first fashion loves will always be Helmut Lang, Tom Ford’s Gucci and Prada. But their brand of design vision of which speaks to me, was never on the same creative level as the mentioned Greats, whom are all on such a newly discovered level of design vision. And in that sense, that’s how I rate Demna. He’s not even close to the talent of Helmut/Tom/Miuccia— but he is nevertheless, a talent.

 

[jeanclaude]

I have always wondered if Anna Wintour is bald, and she wears a wig...mostly because her hair looks like a wig.

 

[LadyJunon]

I have always wondered if Anna Wintour is bald, and she wears a wig...mostly because her hair looks like a wig.

I'm not so sure about today, but I definitely think it was real at some point.

 

[blueorchid]

I have always wondered if Anna Wintour is bald, and she wears a wig...mostly because her hair looks like a wig.

Where's the girl who ripped off Warhol's wig when you need her?

 

[Machinegumm]

Size 0 models who have to starve themselves non-stop walking alongside average-sized nepo babies and plus-size models must feel like they're the butt of some cruel joke.

 

[Phuel]

^^^ LOL The children these days have mistaken lowered standards for breaking boundaries. Fashion is in the depths of its sloppy hungover moment. It's time to sober up and clean up.

Where's the girl who ripped off Warhol's wig when you need her?

Always misremembered this OG wig snatched as weirdo Valerie Solanas …God— Valerie would have been such the superstar with the SJWs/manhaters/virtue-signallers of pre-Musk twittermob of today. Sucks for her she was born a few generations too early. (Lena Dunham played her to perfection in one of the American Horror Story series— as if she wasn’t even acting out a character… Who’d have thunk.)

 

[gallianostan]

^^^ LOL The children these days have mistaken lowered standards for breaking boundaries.

this. putting fat girls on the runway isn’t breaking boundaries, it’s just cheapening the clothes! fashion is as much, if not more, about fantasy, aspiration and the allure of the unattainable as it is about function and utility. the new kids just don’t realise that.

 

[blueorchid]

this. putting fat girls on the runway isn’t breaking boundaries, it’s just cheapening the clothes! fashion is as much, if not more, about fantasy, aspiration and the allure of the unattainable as it is about function and utility. the new kids just don’t realise that.

Skinny or fat models, there's nothing aspirational or fantastical about fashion in its current state, anyway. The problem isn't the models. You can't cheapen what's already sh*t.

 

[LadyJunon]

Size 0 models who have to starve themselves non-stop walking alongside average-sized nepo babies and plus-size models must feel like they're the butt of some cruel joke.

^^^ LOL The children these days have mistaken lowered standards for breaking boundaries. Fashion is in the depths of its sloppy hungover moment. It's time to sober up and clean up.

this. putting fat girls on the runway isn’t breaking boundaries, it’s just cheapening the clothes! fashion is as much, if not more, about fantasy, aspiration and the allure of the unattainable as it is about function and utility. the new kids just don’t realise that.

Skinny or fat models, there's nothing aspirational or fantastical about fashion in its current state, anyway. The problem isn't the models. You can't cheapen what's already sh*t.

I don't really care about the size of the models who walk in a show, but I actually like that designers have more choices on how to show their clothes (if they want to, not if social media forces them to).

My main issue is that you have these significantly larger women who probably don't have to do much to maintain their bodies next to these sample sized girls who work harder (not necessarily unhealthy, if their bodies are built in that way) to stay sample sized. If I was one of those girls and I had to walk with a model like Precious Lee or Paloma Elsesser, I'd feel very spiteful towards my higher-ups.

To add to that, I don't really see any new fashion developments post-2015 in a positive light and body diversity is unfortunate enough to fall in this lesser era. Had body diversity had been a thing in the 2000-08 era, it would've had a much more positive association in my mind.

 

[Drusilla_]

^I think the negative association you have might be because of the general lacklustre output of fashion overall in the 2010s, like by the end of the decade standards were lowered everywhere, in pretty much every department - mediocre photographers, mediocre clothes, mediocre models hired for their follower count (at any size) rather than what they can do on a runway or in front of a camera, you name it it was bad. Who knows, if Jill Kortleve was modelling 2008-era Chanel (when Gemma Ward was basically run out of modelling and called "fat" for putting on like 5 pounds) instead of being lumbered with either the ugliest or most boring pieces Virginie puts out, it might be different.

mid-later 00s fashion could be amazing, but the expected measurements/weight for models - and for everyone around them - were insane, like Gemma being called "fat" for being what, 125 pounds at 5'11' and age 19? Lara Stone being the "fat" model because she had breasts? It got to a point where it felt like 90s Kate Moss would have been too "fat" for some of these magazines and runways. I'm glad that under-16s are no longer standard on the runway, because that's the only age demographic that could be expected to maintain a 32 inch hip circumference without risking their lives and health. But modelling isn't meant to be anyone's personal therapy/self-esteem boost over whatever issues they have with their looks any more than it's meant to destroy the minds of girls who starve themselves to do the job, both things are bad. I don't support a lowering of standards, btw, like I feel like some of these current people would get mad and call you -'phobic' and '-ist' if you told them their walk was bad or they can't pose.

 

[LadyJunon]

You might hate me for saying this, but I actually really like Mulier's Alaia. There's obviously quite a few flaws in his vision for the house (specifically on the runways and campaigns), but the offering in stores looks really desirable.

 

[Drusilla_]

^same, I do like it overall despite its imperfections and the odd bad look, I think if the house has to be carried forward then he's doing decently so far, he's just not Alaïa himself (and no one would be, we have to accept that).

And especially in light of what's being done at certain other houses that don't have their founders anymore, his work looks even better in comparison. I mean, it's superlative genius compared to whatever is going on at current Mugler.

 

[penny609]

I badly want to see Stefano Pilati back to something big. I was in love with his YSL looking like pajamas.

 

[Drusilla_]

He did have a good way with accessories, the cage sandals remain a high point in 00s shoe design for me (though maybe lower them by an inch and they'd be truly perfect).

 

[huedgrey]

I think Martine Rose#s's consultation for Balenciaga's menswear deserves way more flowers than Demna