I think it would be even better if designers figured out how to 'test the water' while maximising sales in whatever technological climate they're currently in. I hate the idea of any artistic person failing for want of making decisions that keep their business afloat.
As for new technology and social change, John Gray, professor of European Thought at the London School of Economics, suggests that progress is mostly an illusion, and that people tend to be "over-impressed with present reality". People believe a utopian leap forward is almost upon us, when of course, it never really arrives.
But we have to be wildly optimistic about our future, or else we'd never do anything, we'd have no reason to go about our lives if we didn't think that in five years, things will be more exciting, and we'll all be groping holograms because that somehow represents an improvement on reality.
So in short, I do think Gareth Pugh would be better off making the effort to sell a few things, in order to fund the continuing presentation of his art. Holograms aren't quite here yet, so we still have to live in reality, at least for the 09/10 season.
