why fashion designers don't wear the clothes they design

[Ella]

Well, speaking as a musician who also makes clothes, I find the analogy a little inaccurate...when musicians perform in public, they do so largely for the benefit of the audience, not themselves. When those same musicians go home and throw on some music, chances are pretty slim that the record they choose will be one of their own. I sure as hell don't sit around listening to my own stuff over and over again for recreational purposes...ok, I do know people who do that, but they tend to be fairly insufferable as human beings.

I'd attribute the lack of desire to wear clothing you've designed to a similar impulse. I wouldn't call it "boredom" per se...it's just that when you make something, it's usually for someone else. It's the same with many creative fields. Most painters don't ring their walls with their own paintings. Most sculptors don't fill their houses with their own sculptures. That being said, there are practical reasons for a designer to wear his or her own clothing - promotion is one, and frugality is another (i.e. it's a good way to save on your wardrobe budget ). But I think designing what you like and designing with yourself in mind are two different things.

Exactly. A designer might not design for him/herself, their designs may most probably be for an entirely different person. When I love a piece of clothing it's because I fall in love with something so different I've never seen before, something I could never have come up with myself...

 

[clay]

hello clay......
i was just thinking of you...

nice to see you...

Hi Softie! Nice to see you also.

 

[LoveLetter]

Consuelo Castiglioni wears Marni for a photo shoot. (From T: Style Magazine)

I heard she wears the clothes she designs.

 

[5AvenueMarceau]

Romanticism! Mystery! Intrigue!

 

[sakina]

Hum .. we have this saying en español ... "casa de herrero, cuchillo de palo" .. roughly translated means "in the house of a blacksmith, a wooden knife" .. it means that generally there's an irony of what you do for a living when applied to you ... I'll stick with the folk's wisdom

It's true, both my parents are in the medical profession and they're as anti-doctor, anti-medication as you can get.

Personally, If I were a designer though, I'd rarely wear anything I make it because it seems kind of show-offey. Plus, I'd get so tired of the clothes and wouldn't want to see them everytime I look in my closet.

 

[Yimi]

In reference to John Galliano I think he wears his own line for self-promotion purposes, just like Miuccia who is always in Prada. It makes good business sense, when the limelight is on you why wear the competition?

I wonder what Galliano wears in real life, I want to say tracksuit (made of silk and hand embroidered of course)...

Well, I am very sure that in this fashion world there´s a lot of reasons why a designer doesnt wear his own designs, but I love the way that galliano wears his own ones, because his designs are full of him!!! Full of all his crazy and cool fantasies things he loves, places he knows his designs has references he has lived, history he has enjoyed ejm. Clubs in London, bands he loves, Eton, Josefina, punks, etc, etc his gipsy roots, an everything that u know!!, all his designs has inyections of creativity, fantasy, energy, etc, etc! and it is JUST LIKE HE IS AND OF COURSE IF HE MAKES DESIGNS ABOUT THINGS HE LOVES A LOT WHY DOESNT WEAR THEM​

 

[no_name_4_you]

That is sooo ture... I sometimes NEVER see designer wear their own cloths... I know I would wear my own cloths...

 

[Phaeton]

The Martin Margiela 10 line is popular with some menswear designers.

From a Travel + Leisure interview with Marc Jacobs:

He's not really a big clothes shopper ("God knows, I have no reason to buy clothes", he quips). But when necessary, he picks up Martin Margiela designs at Maria Luisa. This small menswear boutique is a favorite (and closely guarded) address of the fashion elite, who arrive at the beginning of the season to pick their wardrobe from designers such as Ann Demeulemeester, Helmut Lang, Gaultier, and, of course, Marc Jacobs.

Also from the Vogue bio of Nicholas Ghesquiere:

He wears clothes by Martin Margiela, another designer he deeply respects. Like Margiela, he likes to keep his private life private and, keen to avoid the label of fashion's new celebrity a title that cannot be held for long Ghesquière insists that he has never wanted to be famous.

It makes sense because MMM seems to truly be a designer's designer if there is one, in the sense that his clothing appeals most to people who really care about clothing, and is sort of disconnected from fashion.

Hedi Slimane, although he may not wear the clothes, is a big fan as well. From this Hint mag. interview:

"My integrity is most important to me," he continues, wrapping up the subject. "I don't talk about this much, but I was an intern at Martin Margiela when I was a kid, at almost the beginning of the house. And for me he was the original one. For me, he invented integrity."

(Although regarding that quote, I guess it must mean that selling out to the corporates at LVMH and Diesel, respectively, doesn't hurt ones integrity, as both designers have recently taken a walk down this road...)

 

[Arturo21]

Maybe it doesn't hurt integrity, but honestly....they don't get to do all that they want to do and how they want to do it exactly, do they? Plus, it's not that great for the consumer either....lately all I hear of Dior Homme is " quality" and it's starting to get like that with Margiela too

 

[amchan]

Christopher Bailey wears Prorsum blazer~

 

[Pastry]

has anyone mentioned miuccia prada? there is a no nonsense woman. when she goes trough the design process, she begins with a piece from her closet.

anyway, i this topicis really interseting. it's something i always think about actually...for example, when i put together an outfit at work, sometimes there are "oohs" and "aahs", but then you look at me and you say, "that kid wearing blue jeans, kung-fu shoes, and a polo shirt did that?"

I think, that all my creativity goes into my work. plus i can't afford anything with my paycheck.

 

[smartarse]

i couldnt have said it better myself. excellent point! B)

I like the idea of a blank canvas. The one thing to really remember though is that they are always thinking 6 months in advance.....so by the time their production is actually finished they're working on the next season.....My designer comes in and hates everything because she's already beyond it....she's hysterical about it......the last time she was here she said, "isn't this lovely, are you selling it well? If it was black I would wear it"

I think that's why so many people in the industry choose black because it's seasonless, and it always looks good. (hence my work wardrobe of black/gry/navy/white)

 

[Fabulyss]

I think its more or less that it is simply more practical to wear jeans and a neutral colored t-shirt. I almost always wear jeans and a white or black t-shirt (or something simple as such) though I have a closet full of imaginative and creative, clothes. I play dress up all the time, but to be honest, I don't wear half of whats in my closet most of the time (unless I have an occasion to dress up)

 

[Yimi]

I can understand that a desginer that doesnt wear his clothes
there is not passion about clothes
because To do Clothes there have to be a passion
and a big and and a personal conection with the work u do...
Personally I am not fashion designer
but I adore full my clothes​

 

[Kaddie]

It was partly a joke, but my art teacher once told us that if we didn't hate our finished art pieces then they weren't good.

After looking at your designs all day and spending hundreds of hours on the collection I imagine you would be sick of all of it. Maybe it's just me, but after I've finished something I've worked on forever I still can see all the flaws...So it if it is the same for some designers I'd imagine it would be awfully painful to be wearing clothes that, to you, have many visible flaws.

 

[editorinchief]

a lot of designers wear their own clothes. Tom Ford and Miuccia Prada are good examples. but to draw a parallel, if i were an author, would i read my own book after its been published. i mean after all, i came up with the idea, i planned out the book, wrote the book, revised it, and then read it again, then somebody else read it and revised, and then i wrote it again and read it again and repeated the process again and again. and i think the process is a similar one that designers go through.

 

[Scott]

i dunno...ann demeulemeester,véronique branquinho,an vandevorst,sophia kokosalaki,anne-valérie hash,zowie broach of boudicca,ann-sofie back & dries van noten all wear their own work. their work is incredibly personal creatively so it seems logical they would wear their own stuff.

the only designers that i've noticed that don't tend to wear their own work is kate and laura mulleavy of rodarte.

 

[LolaSvelt]

Tell that to Georgina Chapman.

 

[ChristianThomas]

I think it all depends on who the designer is designing for...

If their target group doesn't correspond with themselves at all it would be strange to wear.
And of course there are designers that start designing with the idea of what they'd like and some that have other starting points..

 

[MulletProof]

the only designers that i've noticed that don't tend to wear their own work is kate and laura mulleavy of rodarte.

that's an interesting one, Scott. I read a few years ago that they hated wearing dresses (it's all changed now since I recently spotted one of them in a dress for an event!), yet what they do mostly consists of dresses.

I haven't gone through the rest of the thread so it's probably been mentioned already but to me, it can go either way and not be particularly puzzling, some people create a world around them, like Ann and Dries for instance, the places they live in, the consistency through all these years, the way they dress themselves.. there is zero fickleness involved, it's not strange that their clothes are a projection a defined idea of style and meant to convey a certain lifestyle and fit in harmoniously in their surroundings.
And then there are the people for whom fashion is clearly an entirely internal matter that is drained and becomes a final expression or statement, like Riccardo Tisci, Rei Kawakubo and like McQueen was.. they wear some of their designs but usually the most understated, not really their masterpieces.. they always seem to be dressed for hard work and sleepless nights.
I think both ways are very valid, it's just a different way of creating and understanding design.
I for one would probably be the kind of person that would just rather stay away from my own creations and just make it, expel it and continue working on something else instead of wearing it myself, I would try to detach my need of clothing as much as I can by keeping it simple and not having it interfere in my creative process, plus, unless I have managed to create such an inspiring balance and coherence in personal life and work the way Ann has, I wouldn't really be interested in making clothes meant to resonate with the rest of my life.