Spring/Summer 14 Better or Worse than Fall/Winter 13.14?

[HeatherAnne]

So last season we had this thread Fall/Winter 2013.14 - One Of The Worst Seasons Ever?:
http://forums.thefashionspot.com/f60/fall-winter-2013-14-one-worst-seasons-ever-225563.html

General consensus was that it was extremely weak.

So, was the current Spring/Summer 2014 season better or worse than the last one?

Feel free to discuss any other post-season reflections regarding Designers & Colletions as well!

 

[reesewu]

I thought F/W 13.14 was a really beautiful season. I loved Louis Vuitton, Prada, Miu Miu, Dior and even Saint Laurent. This season, however, the big houses in Paris just follow eachother's steps of presenting shockingly bland and bad collections. The NYfw is a bit better than last one imo.

 

[disco54]

This season is a bit better, but not much.

 

[VogueDisciple93]

Worse. A LOT worse.

Last season there were disappointments in major houses with only a few delivering stellar shows, and smaller designers doing the rest. This season has not only been disappointing but also disconcertingly awful, with only a minuscule amount of "great" shows, a vast majority being monotonous to the point of instantly forgettable, and a ludicrous amount of repugnant. A lot of top players - Céline, Dior, Jil Sander, Prada, Givenchy, Louis Vuitton, Chanel, Christopher Kane, Proenza Schouler, Alexander McQueen amongst many more - failed to impress, delivering either disappointing or nauseating collections. Some being the worst shows I've ever seen in fashion or from those designers; Rodarte, Saint Laurent, Marc Jacobs, and Lanvin being chief among them.

Outside the clothes themselves, this season lacked any electricity. There were no positive "OMG!" moments, for me anyways. Here in NY the mood at Lincoln Center was doleful. Others that also attended or worked at shows here in NY echoed this sentiment. It felt routine and kind of a drag. Show productions were also wanting. There were a few grand sets (Dior's, Chanel's, Prada's, Givenchy's, and Louis Vuitton), but the clothes failed to impress making the sets kind of a waste. The only thing that came close to a impressive production was Rick Owens, but the trite ill-fitted (Owne's, not the model's, fault) clothes and the sloppiest stepping I've ever seen made it all more of a gimmick than a show.

By the time Paris came around it felt like a task to check the shows instead of the joy it usually is.

 

[Egoiste]

100 % worse than fall/winter 13/14. Such a let downs from big brands......

 

[anlabe32]

Definitely worse, I thought only a few houses (Prada) were better than last season.
And I like F/W better in general.

 

[Naiala]

Getting worse! Most collections are lacking definition and consistency. Going around and around ideas without clear results, too confusing. I'm upset I saw awfull looks from designers I usually like.
Givency was one of the best for me with his draped tribal dresses but i had a bit of sense of deja vue.

 

[ogepma]

For me, I think it was significantly worse in New York. London, Milan (especially) and Paris were better. It was extremely hard to find one show to like in New York. Rodarte was of course the leader of the terrible pack of collections in New York this season, followed by Alexander Wang, et al. Most other shows were highly generic as always, I just thought it was worse this season.

On the other side of the Atlantic, London designers continued to prove that there is so much creativity and talent that lacked the financial and commercial know-how to become successful businesses. Milan surprised me, I thought most of the major shows were so good, Bottega Veneta, Prada, Marni and Salvatore Ferragamo especially. And Paris, I thought was mildly better than last season, especially at Givenchy.

 

[GivenchyHomme]

I just feel like a lot of designers have been really lazy. When you see collections like Prada and Louis Vuitton all of these other basic collections really have no excuse for being that way. I don't know if the fear of the economy is creeping in or people are just being flat out lazy.

 

[HeatherAnne]

I agree with the majority of you, for me it was much worse. At least last season some of the smaller labels were filling the void for me, but this season I wasn't impressed much by their efforts either.

 

[AnaO]

Most of us (including me) seem to agree that F/W was rather bad and S/S isn't better.
Why is that? Where are all the exciting shows gone? Who or what is to blame?

 

[Not Plain Jane]

It was worse imo.

I think a couple of interesting considerations are as follows:

1. Is this a sign that the pressure on designers to create too many collections (pre-season, resort, etc.) is starting to impact their work??

2. Is the musical-designers game causing houses/collections to have identity crises? What is Balenciaga, Dior, Saint Laurent, MMM, McQueen (unique case)... etc. It seems at least half the complaints about these collection is about "faithfulness" and identity.

It's arguable that some of the best shows/work is done by the stalwarts - the designers who do what they do, and they do it well (Westwood, Demeulemeester, Lemaire, Yamamoto, Howell, Kane, Preen, Erdem, No. 21, Rodriguez, etc...) Maybe it's about having a strong sense of fashion identity.

 

[gossiping]

definitely worse

all of the top collections were pretty rubbish imo, i only liked the smaller brands. i also thought new york was the best city. which i rarely do.

 

[Cosmic Voices]

I thought the bigger houses flopped the hardest this season. But then again I love fall collections opposed to spring. The likes of Alexander McQueen, Chanel, Rodarte, Dior, Saint Laurent etc

 

[Deleted member 7575]

much worse

 

[Creative]

The pressure of creating many collections is a very hackneyed argument to explain why the shows are so bad, but it lacks veracity.

In fact, top designers don’t work that hard. I feel much sorrier for those working in their design studios or for less recognized designers. Maybe it’s the pressure of selling more than that of creating many collections (they don’t do resort, pre-fall…), so they go safe to keep the post, and if they don’t, they end up dismissed or working for Theory.

And yes, this season has been terrible. Not a single good show… And I see less talented designers working today. Plus, in less than 5 years the whole fashion arena has changed a lot. The change by itself is not bad, but when it’s for worse…

 

[Not Plain Jane]

I don't know. I thought Menkes made a fairly convincing case. It's not just designers, of course, but their whole teams, etc.

http://tmagazine.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/08/23/sign-of-the-times-the-new-speed-of-fashion/?_r=0

 

[KKnardi]

I liked the collections for spring summer at large, but I thought many of them looked more like collections for fall...

 

[MyNameIs]

I'd say no. But it depends on how you look at it.

I feel like like season we had more collections that were just AWFUL. In fact, most of the big brands could qualify for that category. This season, we had few truly awful collections (Rodarte is one that immediately springs to mind) but they were just systematically mediocre across the board. So which is worse?

 

[Nymphaea]

I think worse, because for fall there were some items I wanted and untill now I haven't seen anything I want for next summer.