Is the FW 2016 the worst season ever?

[reesewu]

Do you think this season is the worst season ever? I liked only two shows, Marc Jacobs and Loewe. Due to the change of creative directors, the overexposure on social media, all the big houses seemed to be all tired, awkward and at times, ugly. I know fashion got worse in recent years but I truly feel this is its rock bottom. I am sad because I feel like it can no longer inspire anyone anymore.

 

[Cosmic Voices]

Loewe, Louis Vuitton, Haider Ackermann and Marc Jacobs were spectacular for me. But many of my favourite houses flopped this season.

 

[disco54]

4000th post !
After being on TFS for 10 years, I would say the Paris collections were the worst I have seen. The Milan collections were good, NYC average.

 

[Lola701]

I don't know if it's the worst season ever but it is a very dull season. But FW has been dull for a while now...
The industry is changing and maybe we have to change our ways of judging fashion. I feel like for many designers, the main collections are more and more just an exercise of branding and marketing: it's about the spectacle, the accessories, the instagirls and chat could make fashion more accessible.

The truth is that if you want directional, memorable and innovative collections, you have to look at the resort because it seems like it's there that everything happens...at least for the bigger brands (Chanel, Louis Vuitton, Celine, Prada, Miu Miu..etc.) I don't know if it's because those collections are the best sellers but i believe it may being one of the reason.

I also feel like there is a big shift in FW: NYC is really relying on Marc Jacobs and Thom Browne IMO. they are the only "big" creative forces in the city. They still have some great talents (Delpozo, Phillip Lim) but it's an unmemorable FW.

London is dead IMO: too pretentious, too self-centred. I feel like they are talking to themselves and praising themselves at the same time. No real aesthetic, no identity, no individuality...just a bunch of silly "creative" clothes.

Milan is coming back in force! Gucci, Prada, Tod's, Marni, Marco de Vicenzo...etc. I love the new energy at MFW even if i was disappointed by Peter Dundas for Cavalli. Even Phillip Plein was acceptable.

Paris is still Paris but overall, both independent and big designers failed to deliver.
It says a lot about the state of fashion that Vetements is considered as revolutionary, new and supercreative.

I REALLY MISSED TOM FORD THIS SEASON...

The best shows:
LOUIS VUITTON...and TOM FORD (at this point, he is the only one who can deliver even if i'll have to wait until September)

Worst:
BALMAIN, BALMAIN, BALMAIN, BALMAIN

 

[masquerade]

I usually roll my eyes at these sorts of hyperbolic statements, but this season has been especially terrible. Without designers at Lanvin and Dior, those shows were disasters. The new Balenciaga designer is a bore. SLP almost redeemed itself only to double down on the awfulness. With these, there is no really big, exciting show in Paris to look forward to anymore.

Couple that with the fact that a lot of established designers did the bare minimum this season (cough miuccia cough) and you have a totally underwhelming season.

 

[Scotty]

Yes, this was pretty much the worst season, because before i had Lanvin but that was ruined. Balmain was ugly as usual, Miu Miu's casting was terrible.
Cavalli wasn't so good either Balenciaga's new look was terrible. YSL was a tacky Balmain copy, Pucci, etc... all horrible.

I especially don't like how everyone is copying the Gucci trend, a lot of brands were Gucci-esque this season.

On a brighter note Marni, LV & Prada were good shows.

 

[liberty33r1b]

It really was the worst season ever, one disaster after another, everything looks the same, what are women over 20 supposed to wear in their daily, professional lives?

I only loved Calvin Klein and Prada

 

[Yohji]

Prada was the only standout for me. But Yohji was reliable as always.

Even Haider was a little underwhelming to me.

The fact that this season was Elbaz-less made it even worse. I know people hated Raf Simons for Dior, but I even missed that.

 

[Pricciao]

Yes, it's without the doubt the lowest point I've seen. There's no huge outstanding moment, and it doesn't look like it can be better in the near future. Maybe we are entering a shaking up period, at least I hope so... There's the little joy to see designers put aside what they do best, how they want to reference elements from the past and what others do, try to achieve in a refreshing way, but fail it big time. Until the next absolute winning formula is settled, I guess this messy stage will go on and on.

 

[mistress_f]

In terms of shows i actually liked, i guess the numbers speak for themselves - prada, louis vuitton, thom browne, dries van noten, undercover, antonio marras, comme des garcons - that's not even 10 out of the whole season... there's others i partially enjoyed, but overall, it's either totally forgettable or downright ugly. When even usual favourites of mine like Yohji can't make me excited, i guess it's a sad state of affairs.

Also, even tho i'm barely 30 i often find myself feeling very very old when looking at whatever's presented for womenswear, constantly and desperately pandering to the young and hip crowd of fashion blogs or fighting for that most quirky / most ironic prize. Not exactly what got me interested in fashion and definitely not what i wear on a daily basis.

 

[Yohji]

In terms of shows i actually liked, i guess the numbers speak for themselves - prada, louis vuitton, thom browne, dries van noten, undercover, antonio marras, comme des garcons - that's not even 10 out of the whole season... there's others i partially enjoyed, but overall, it's either totally forgettable or downright ugly. When even usual favourites of mine like Yohji can't make me excited, i guess it's a sad state of affairs.

Also, even tho i'm barely 30 i often find myself feeling very very old when looking at whatever's presented for womenswear, constantly and desperately pandering to the young and hip crowd of fashion blogs or fighting for that most quirky / most ironic prize. Not exactly what got me interested in fashion and definitely not what i wear on a daily basis.

Oh, how did I forget Dries? His best collection in a while. I also forgot Delpozo.

Good call on Marras, too.

 

[Luxx]

Worst would be much more exciting than this.

 

[Spike413]

I don't know if it's the worst season ever but it is a very dull season. But FW has been dull for a while now...
The industry is changing and maybe we have to change our ways of judging fashion. I feel like for many designers, the main collections are more and more just an exercise of branding and marketing: it's about the spectacle, the accessories, the instagirls and chat could make fashion more accessible.

The truth is that if you want directional, memorable and innovative collections, you have to look at the resort because it seems like it's there that everything happens...at least for the bigger brands (Chanel, Louis Vuitton, Celine, Prada, Miu Miu..etc.) I don't know if it's because those collections are the best sellers but i believe it may being one of the reason.

I also feel like there is a big shift in FW: NYC is really relying on Marc Jacobs and Thom Browne IMO. they are the only "big" creative forces in the city. They still have some great talents (Delpozo, Phillip Lim) but it's an unmemorable FW.

London is dead IMO: too pretentious, too self-centred. I feel like they are talking to themselves and praising themselves at the same time. No real aesthetic, no identity, no individuality...just a bunch of silly "creative" clothes.

Milan is coming back in force! Gucci, Prada, Tod's, Marni, Marco de Vicenzo...etc. I love the new energy at MFW even if i was disappointed by Peter Dundas for Cavalli. Even Phillip Plein was acceptable.

Paris is still Paris but overall, both independent and big designers failed to deliver.
It says a lot about the state of fashion that Vetements is considered as revolutionary, new and supercreative.

I REALLY MISSED TOM FORD THIS SEASON...

The best shows:
LOUIS VUITTON...and TOM FORD (at this point, he is the only one who can deliver even if i'll have to wait until September)

Worst:
BALMAIN, BALMAIN, BALMAIN, BALMAIN

THIS. This sums it up perfectly. Fashion Week has been in decline for a number of seasons now, and if anything, this Fall showed me that some designers at least remember that fashion has to be slightly more than clothing which is either designed to blend in OR stand out on social media.

I think this sort of "is this the worst season ever" thing comes into play every so often, usually right before the pendulum swings mightily into the opposite direction of everything which has been going on in fashion. In 12 years on tFS I've definitely seen the same question brought up, and I've definitely thought it to myself. I think the only reason why it feels, not more real necessarily, but more oppressive right now is because everything tiresome about fashion (as well as everything good, though it is outweighed by the tiresome s***) is SOOOO saturated into our daily lives. Instagram, Facebook, Snapchat, YouTube, Twitter, Pinterest, Vogue.com, Elle.com, WWD...every conceivable outlet is constantly pimping out what's "new" or "hot" or "omg" at such a rate and volume that the fact that it's all kinda tired is just magnified. I think more than anything it's just much, much easier to get bored of fashion than it ever has been. It's never had a very long shelf life -- in a way that's part of its appeal -- but these days it's stale before it even hits the shelves.

 

[Zazie]

Yes, almost ALL the big brands were terribly disappointing, and rather ugly,...except Hermes.

The smaller names are exciting for me, Kolor, Thomas Tait, Lutz Huelle, Chalayan, Maison Rabih Kayrouz (though his Resort was much better!)

 

[mariemaud]

I wouldn't say worst, as Luxx said it would have been more exciting

but as every fashion week some
rather disappointing shows (thinking about Jil Sanders, Calvin Klein, Givenchy, Céline, Balenciaga)
some disasters (thinking of Balmain, Saint Laurent and Lanvin)
and the ones that prevent me from saying it was the worst FW
(Marni, Dries, Margiela, Marc Jacobs, Haider Ackerman)

 

[AnaD]

I wouldn't say it's the worst but it was certainly dull. It seemed like a three way split between designers copying Gucci, Celine and Dolce & Gabbana (who isn't even worth copying at this point) and the houses who didn't look to copy fell flat. For the most part I felt bored with everything until Paris started.
Marc, Dries, Delpozo, Ohne Titel, Prada and Louis Vuitton were my favourites overall this season.
I missed Tom Ford, but I can wait until September.

 

[paulsoptirean]

I don't think so! I enjoyed Marc Jacobs, Dries, Gucci, Pucci is also really great under Massimo Gioretti's belt, Balenciaga is effortlessly cool, Saint Laurent was also amazing with those furs even if they reminded me of Schiaparelli. Balmain is doing good. I mean this show wasn't as bad as SS one. This season I wouldn't say I saw innovation but there are cool and wearable clothes. So this wasn't a bad season but wasn't exciting either.

 

[Steddycam91]

I actually thought that F/W 2015 was the worst season since I started following fashion. Everything I saw from that season ranged from mediocre to terrible.

This season was...alright. There were some great bright spots. I think all of the in-house design collections this season almost don't really count as collections, so they're neither here nor there to me.

That being said, it feels like everything is so influx. Are we ever going to really settle down and move into a new era of design and creativity, or is the "new area" going to consist of designers constantly moving in and out of houses, leaving brands with confusing and/or sterile identities?

 

[Wolkfolk]

Worst would be much more exciting than this.

performanceandprotest.tumblr.com

Probably not the worst season but close or maybe even worse than worse, it felt dead and completely uninspiring. It's crazy to think that throughout the 4 city there's not even 10 ddesigners that delivered something remotely interesting. Prada, Loewe, Dries, Marc Jacobs, Christopher Kane and parts of Ghesquière at LV that's it. The rest was completely insipid or too try-hard.


What is really pisisng me off is how you the word "revolutionary" is being thrown around like nothing. There's nothing revolutionary going on in fashion at the moment quite the opposite, everything reeks of pretention, posers and stale ideas stollen from masters like Margiela without his talent.

I agree with Lola701 maybe at this point we need to quetsion ourselves and maybe change the way we judge fashion. Maybe we expect too much or are too elitist. But without any pretention I don't think we are the ones in the wrong here. I'd rather see the fashion world wake up and realize far from being a BIG Great turning point in fashion.

I wished critics, editors and even buyers would do something instead of thinking they're so cool because they've reduced fashion to the state of a submissive to likes on social media.

They need to confront the reality of the creative emptiness in fashon at the moment.


I just don't recognize or can't find anymore what made me fall in love with fashion in the first place. I almost don't want to comment the collections because everything feels so hollow. And I used to love that because I would get so inspired.
The collections are getting more and more vapid. Yet it feels like we're constantly bombarded with new shows and presentations so it's even more insufferable. At the same time magazines are in dire state , critics don't even do their job anymore, nepotims is a plague that seems unstoppable, the muscial chair of designers changing houses is going manic, buyers are shoving down our throats obnioxious posers like Vetements... And it's just like a big vicious circle. They all seem to be the consequences and the causes of the other while taking pleasure evolving in this mess.

 

[Morphe]

Certainly boring as f**k.