Call me old-fashioned (or gatekeeping) if you want, but for me minimalism stopped after Helmut Lang and Jil Sander retired (and yes it may include 80s early 90 Calvin Klein and Donna Karan, when they were good). But it died in 1999.
What we saw with Phoebe 10 years later was imho a reaction, to the hypersexualized and or logomaniac Y2K fashion. It started as a rejection of the "Dior J'Adore" t-shirts and that's perfectly understandable.
I would not call Phoebe minimalism at all, at least not like Lang and Sander were... She has never been that severe.
Her approach is in many way similar to Miucca Prada, both are more interested in womens sensibilities than being purely minimalistic. For instance, both used silly/funny/artsy prints (Klein and Brassai, bandanas, for Phoebe, bananas and 50s prints for Miucca) which were definitely not minimalist but which adressed the moods, even the light-hearted moods sometimes, of their customers.
Imho, Phoebe is from the Miuccia's school of fashion, ofc they are 23 years apart so they are different, but I see more similarities than differences.
(small edit; that's the reason why I find the Row very different than Phoebe, the Olsens twins are much more in the line with the OG Jil Sander, imho they have more similarities with the OG Jil Sander than they ever had with Phoebe or Miuccia, I recall the Jil Sander stores in Paris and Zurich, and The Row would have perfectly fit in them).
I agree!
We sometimes forget that minimalism at it core was a reaction to the excess of the 80’s. And Jil Sander and Helmut Lang became the throne of that style because they were probably the most radical in that approach.
And because their approach was radical, it was extended to every part of their vision, which turned out to be a lifestyle.
And what I have always found interesting was that their clothes were about active people. They were clothes, styles meant to serve a purpose which I think it’s different than just do it as part of a creative expression. I hate the use of the word intellectual in fashion. I prefer the word cerebral.
I think at the time, people who bought Helmut Lang or Jil Sander embraced their lifestyle. They probably bought stuff from brands that were somehow related like Costume National. It was more than a fashion proposition.
The Japanese were the first ones to come with that concept of kind of empty stores and that radical stuff but I’m not sure that, except people from the Art world, the fans of CDG transformed their interior. It was still a fashion proposition.
Prada, much like the work of Phoebe is a fashion proposition. I think that Phoebe is maybe more instinctive than Prada.
The act of minimalism in Phoebe’s work is probably the fact that she removed all the excess details from the clothes from the 2000’s. There’s a purity and a pragmatism in her clothes but it’s still playful and frivolous.
I wasn’t an instant fan of Phoebe’s Celine. Tbh, her work reminded me too much of what Stefano was doing at YSL. If we look at what Stefani’s work was about 2007/2008, which are the season around the time Phoebe came back into fashion, the foundation of what will become Celine were there imo: the neutral color palette, the boxy shapes, the monochromatic looks, the oversized silhouettes.
When I looked at Phoebe’s first collection (resort), it was the baby of YSL’s FW07 and SS08 collections. Or at least, it was the same language with a different accent.
Stefano was maybe less radical or too precious however. His work, his life had still that glossy filter of luxury.
What Phoebe did was to pair her fashion proposition with a more raw, probably down to the ground approach. I remember the first few Celine stores were kind of brutalists in their architecture and her therefore her work became more eclectic.
Her ecclectism spoke to me because I love Nicolas and his work is the epitome of that. Balenciaga stores were a mess in a good way. It’s really about that idea of not being a monolith.
And part of the reason I can’t connect with The Row is that. It’s a very monolithic approach. We see it, you wears The Row, you live in a beige space. For me it was glorified loungewear.
And suddenly with The Row, Taste is ruled by the absence of expression.
