Fashion Is Boring ... Have they Run Out of Ideas?

[thejarc]

I like what you said about style. I think thats why so many designers that rather work with a style than a fashion (Yamamoto, Alaia, Ann Demeulemeester, Margiela the man) have/had such a loyal following. I recently read an article that brands that rely heavily on trends, like Prada, have very few loyal customers while brands that stick to their vision (!) tend to have less but a lot more loyal customers (eg. Dries van Noten)

 

[alonsoJonathan]

Thanks for reviving this thread, by the way, it's such a great read!

i dont know i just feel that some of my faves Fashion houses just have or are changing little by little. i mean Last versace collection have been awful(male/females) this past Dolce collection are just soo not inspiring. or maybe they are just not my style

 

[ssgghh]

^ I really dont think fashion is getting boring. There are always interesting individuals and inovative labels, but versace and Dolce & Gabbana will not be the head inovators, will they, I mean they are strong brands with a large machinery behind them and alot of money circulating so they will be les inclined to risk and instead play it safer. Maybe eaven solely for the fact that they aim for such a broad audience. And the broader audience, the more unwilling they are to be shaken, changing stuff all the time, and having to adapt to strong novelty too much or too often.

Thats at least how I explain to myself why I rarely feel as drawn to their collections as much as to collections of some less famous designers (who may not always be so constant and solid and make that much money but they do shine more brightly sometimes).

 

[GERGIN]

I feel like the only thing we can do with fashion at this point is modernize looks from past times. And I don't think fashion has become boring but more so unoriginal, and that's not always a bad thing. I think we can be new on fabrications but not on shapes or silhouettes but seeing things made in different fabrics is definetely fun and inspiring.

I also started to notice since the dawn of the new decade is that anything people where is accepted regardless of what time period is originates from, and season after season we are adding on more new and old trends into the acceptance of dressing.

 

[iluvjeisa]

^Yes, it's certainly a relief to not have to read those inane "What's hot now" columns...every decade is in, if it's done well - that leads to better fashion.

 

[freakinglondon]

The best example for fashion boredom is the berlin fashion week. Well at least most of the designers are just boring and don't really take a risk.
But in general fashion is NOT boring and it won't get boring for sure. Every designer has it's ups and downs I think.

 

[Egoiste]

Perhaps the most designers financially can't afford to do this collection like Alexander McQueen, because they wouldn't be a seller, but when such fashion houses like Dolce & Gabbana, who now have financial free, third year presents same, boring Sicilian collections, it's weird.
London became more than an innovative designer capital, but simply an expensive, high quality fabric collections crowded city. It's not anymore the first XXIst century decade half, when Galliano, McQueen & Lacroix show theatrical and very artistic collections, Dolce&Gabbana was full of new ideas, Tom Ford created "sex sells" ideology, and nobody wouldn't believe about minimalistic trends or commercial collections ...

 

[KoV]

I think for fashion to stop being "boring" it needs to take a giant leap. Something to truly revolutionizes the way people wear clothes. I mean, how many variations on a suit can you make? Personally, I don't see a problem. Yes, designers have weak seasons or weak years, but beautiful clothes are still being produced.

 

[fashionista-ta]

I think for fashion to stop being "boring" it needs to take a giant leap. Something to truly revolutionizes the way people wear clothes. I mean, how many variations on a suit can you make? Personally, I don't see a problem. Yes, designers have weak seasons or weak years, but beautiful clothes are still being produced.

I'm in favor of a revolution in various areas, but in my closet? I think I'd like to continue wearing clothes very much as I always have. I'll take my revolution elsewhere ...

 

[KoV]

I'm in favor of a revolution in various areas, but in my closet? I think I'd like to continue wearing clothes very much as I always have. I'll take my revolution elsewhere ...

I actually agree. Personally, I'm quite pleased with how fashion has become so.... varied. Historically speaking, clothing was so unified. Like... something was the custom and everything else was borderline unacceptable. Even up to the early 90s it was more clear-cut. You can look back and so easily identify a quintessential look from that time. But looking back on the past few years, in a broad way, what was a 2009 look, for example? We have no many options. Small trends come and go, but they never seem exclusive. I don't know. Maybe I'm totally off-the-mark, but it's my perception that in some ways fashion has never been less boring. I think you can "get away" with more now than ever before. And yes, alot of it is rehashed from the past, but how many new things can there be? There's nothing new under the sun, as they say. Which leads me to the point that if people want to see something less "boring" in the fashion world, what is left? Hasn't just about everything been done before? Just about every decade of the 20th century has been revisited (sometimes multiple times) in the past decade or so, it seems. What I'm getting at is... in order to do something not "boring" (i.e. something that hasn't been done before) designers would really need to think totally outside the box.

But personally? I love the number of options we have. Every season there's a handful of shows I loved. Classicism and revisiting the past isn't boring.

 

[loladonna]

I challenge people who think fashion is boring to give an example of something that would be considered "new" and make fashion not boring. There are so many types of designers out their from classic to avant garde that the choices are endless.

So what would be something "new" in fashion?

 

[LabelWhore4]

I think for fashion to stop being "boring" it needs to take a giant leap. Something to truly revolutionizes the way people wear clothes. I mean, how many variations on a suit can you make? Personally, I don't see a problem. Yes, designers have weak seasons or weak years, but beautiful clothes are still being produced.

I agree. I'm currently reading a great book on flappers and have found myself being jealous of the excitement of the new fashions and silhouettes back at the turn of the last century. They had such a zest for not only life, but how they presented themselves to the world. Almost 100 years later what have we done to push things forward? Maybe there's nothing left that can shock and enthrall this over stimulated generation of civilization. I'm hoping for the best though!

 

[softgrey]

new ideas are not necessarily profitable...
it takes a while for people to warm up to new ideas so they might not be accepted right away...
and since we now revere $$ over creativity, quality and innovation, new ideas don't get enough support...
innovators are necessarily rewarded for their efforts...
the guy who copies a great idea and sells a cheaply made, bad quality version of it gets rewarded with lots of $$ while the person who originally came up with it just watches on the sidelines and is often powerless to do anything about it...

doesn't even seem worth the effort to come up with a new idea sometimes...
just go ahead and copy another idea, since no one seems to think that originality is important anymore...

.......*shakes head*...

too many people say that there are no new ideas, everything has already been done...
but those are just people with no ideas...
...

 

[moobear]

Of course we haven't run out of ideas!

In fact you are right in the middle of an exciting fashion revolution. Armani can't go on for ever and when he dies and is replaced by young designers like Dolce & Gabbana we will see unstructured tailoring disappear from the catwalk to be replaced by sharp tailoring and hard-corsetry. Unstructured tailoring was part of a riposte to the fashions of the rich, a riposte that is no longer relevant in modern times when every major fashion house makes what was once considered sacrilege - jeans. Fashion is constantly evolving and hence never boring.

The dialectics of fashion. Hegel style.

 

[BerlinRocks]

I cannot say whether or not Fashion is boring ... But I can say I have come to a certain point where Fashion less appeals to me ... I won't talk for everyone, and can only talk for myself but I'm at a certain point in my life where I need calm and serenity. Fashion (Industry), therefore, is not something that I feel close to any longer ... I used to love to follow Fashion, and now I feel that field I was really attracted in my youth (I'm not really old!) is something that is completely deconnected from me ... The reality of Money and Trends and Hype and PR are probably the reasons why I'm not feeling any more connections to that world. The brutal reality of Fashion Capitalism is something that is not attractive at all ... And that is why I'm saying I'm talking for my own, but capitalism isn't (and has never been) a model I m attracted to.
Fashion in terms of design, beauty, tailoring and artisanat is something I still like. I still think Fashion plays a major role in someone personality. But I just think that nowadays only money and PR and Fame control this field, and no longer personality or passion or real technics, and amusement and joy ...
Of course, Fashion's always been linked to money and "royalties", but from the late 60s Fashion has opened its door and welcomed more people and perspective. But isn't that openness that actually kill Fashion ? When you leave your door opens to everybody, there are more stupid people that would come than interesting people. And we have reached, in the early 2000s, that point where more and more uninteresting people with excellent comminucation skills and that will to glitter and have their 15min of Fame (than actual sense of creativity and new ideas) are outmanoeuvring with the 21st century capitalist tools ...
All I'm saying seems very old fashioned and romantic ... But, I am at a point, once again, in my life where I need calm and slowness ... And envisage the world on its opposite side ... Because if the world is upside down, why not go and see what's the down, a little ...
I don't understand why people are not trying to see the other possibilities of the world, alternative ... (Hold on, I sound like an activist ...) Why should we Fashion passionate should hear and follow that annoying phrase "This is how it works, just handle it or move ..." what if I don't wanna envisage the world how it is now, and yet don't wanna move ? Should I stay ? Or should I go ?

 

[BerlinRocks]

I may have gone off subject ... I'm sorry but sometimes the titles are so misleading sometimes ... This should probably be copied/pasted in a thread like Fashion Insutry evolution or something ...

 

[Werther]

The latest Dolce&Gabbana collections (Sicilian included) are not boring in my opinion. But yes, I quite agree that fashion is becoming boring. I'd like also to add that there are not many people in the streets that dressed in D&G (i.e. not necessary in high end clothes but dressed according to some style or idea. There is just grey mass of people and a person with imagination and creativity catches the eye immediately. So if everyone wore clothes from runaways it would not be boring at all. The question is, are those fashion shows made only to reveal a dream and fantasy ? Should they connect in some way with reality? Fashion seems to me a dreamland with everything beautiful in which one can escape from boring life. Leaning from the point a bit, celebrities in my opinion wear clothes from well-known and seen collection not in a proper way they break the spirit of the collection /seeing those sicilian dresses on everyone that don't care whether they fit them or not/ steals some beauty from those beautiful dresses and they begin to seem not so well-made and beautiful to me.

 

[amour_amour363]

I cannot say whether or not Fashion is boring ... But I can say I have come to a certain point where Fashion less appeals to me ... I won't talk for everyone, and can only talk for myself but I'm at a certain point in my life where I need calm and serenity. Fashion (Industry), therefore, is not something that I feel close to any longer ... I used to love to follow Fashion, and now I feel that field I was really attracted in my youth (I'm not really old!) is something that is completely deconnected from me ... The reality of Money and Trends and Hype and PR are probably the reasons why I'm not feeling any more connections to that world. The brutal reality of Fashion Capitalism is something that is not attractive at all ... And that is why I'm saying I'm talking for my own, but capitalism isn't (and has never been) a model I m attracted to.
Fashion in terms of design, beauty, tailoring and artisanat is something I still like. I still think Fashion plays a major role in someone personality. But I just think that nowadays only money and PR and Fame control this field, and no longer personality or passion or real technics, and amusement and joy ...
Of course, Fashion's always been linked to money and "royalties", but from the late 60s Fashion has opened its door and welcomed more people and perspective. But isn't that openness that actually kill Fashion ? When you leave your door opens to everybody, there are more stupid people that would come than interesting people. And we have reached, in the early 2000s, that point where more and more uninteresting people with excellent comminucation skills and that will to glitter and have their 15min of Fame (than actual sense of creativity and new ideas) are outmanoeuvring with the 21st century capitalist tools ...
All I'm saying seems very old fashioned and romantic ... But, I am at a point, once again, in my life where I need calm and slowness ... And envisage the world on its opposite side ... Because if the world is upside down, why not go and see what's the down, a little ...
I don't understand why people are not trying to see the other possibilities of the world, alternative ... (Hold on, I sound like an activist ...) Why should we Fashion passionate should hear and follow that annoying phrase "This is how it works, just handle it or move ..." what if I don't wanna envisage the world how it is now, and yet don't wanna move ? Should I stay ? Or should I go ?

There are designers out there who don't just play into PR, fame and money. Of course money will always be an issue, you have to pay bills, but there are designers who focus on design, construction and aesthetic, just depends on whether their vision appeals to you.

Aside, I think softgrey makes some good points. If the majority of the fashion industry is now driven by money, the power lies with the consumers. Perhaps the title should be changed to "people are boring, they do not care for new ideas".

Innovation will always be there, but if people do not value it highly and are happy consuming a low quality knock off, then what incentive is there for designers to create things that will not sell? The 'problem' then does not lie within the fashion industry, but with consumer preferences.

In my view there is a lot of choice nowadays when it comes to clothing. The masses may seek to follow the low quality trends because it suits their lifestyle, but there are niche designers which cater to the more interested and adventurous fashion enthusiast. I think people need to extend their view of fashion beyond the large fashion houses that seem to dominate the media and the direction of trends, there are interesting things going on.

 

[FelipeV]

I don't think that new ideas aren't profitable for fashion houses, no matter what you show on runway, at the end of the day people still buy the same basic t-shirt and the same jeans, so for me it doesn't matter what you show in the presentation 'cause most of the people, the ones who make survive a brand, don't buy that expensive Versace dress or that impossible Rei Kawakubo's outfit, being boring it's not a consequense of finantial troubles. To me, big designers/creative directors get lazy with the time, or maybe they just don't have it. This has been a very uninspired boring sad season, where's trash dior, dark mcqueen, theatrical galliano? :,( There's just no inspiration. Globalitation, democratization ans others -ations, should be a boom for new fresh revolutionary ideas, i'm still waiting to see that.

 

[Lena]

hedi's debut collection for SL is so proving this discussion