# Does anyone ever actually wear those wild runway fashions? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [March 25, 2009, 10:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-anyone-ever-actually-wear-those-wild-runway-fashions/490799 "2009-03-25T22:05:24Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 5\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Infovore](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/infovore/32/420_2.png) [@Infovore](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Infovore)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2009, 10:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-anyone-ever-actually-wear-those-wild-runway-fashions/490799/1 "2009-03-25T22:05:24Z")
We’ve all seen them, right? Those totally bizarre-looking “fashions” that you see parading up and down in runway shows. The ones with big poofy skirts and strange attachments, the ones that look like they couldn’t possibly be comfortable for more than five minutes? The one that prompted me to post this was a men’s ensemble that consisted of a pink mesh shirt and matching, shocking-pink shorts. It was the kind of outfit that the most flaming gay man on the face of the earth would take one look at and say, “No _way_ would I be caught dead in that!!” The designer was Riccardo Tisci, and [here’s the pic](http://cm1.theinsider.com/media/0/82/76/72dZb_uH2X7NcWsbAL_9mB3e.0.0.0x0.432x838.jpeg). Now, tell me: would any man on earth, unless he was very very drunk or paid a _lot_ of money, ever wear something like that? Even if he was a total slave to fashion? So, fashionistas: _do_ people (men or women–I’m not just picking on the men here, because the women’s stuff has been every bit as bad) actually wear these bizarre fashion designs? Or are they just there to shock people and get them talking about the designers so they can sell the more mundane end of their catalogs? ---
**Author:** ![ratatoskK](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ratatoskk/32/2987_2.png) [@ratatoskK](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ratatoskK)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2009, 10:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-anyone-ever-actually-wear-those-wild-runway-fashions/490799/2 "2009-03-25T22:13:04Z")
I saw some people in St. Tropez who were dressed like that. My friend and I laughed at them, and they were pissed at us. ---
**Author:** ![Chase\_Ransom](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/9de0a6/32.png) [@Chase\_Ransom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chase_Ransom)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2009, 10:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-anyone-ever-actually-wear-those-wild-runway-fashions/490799/3 "2009-03-25T22:22:48Z")
I WAG that there are fashion designers that look at fashion as an art form, and those are the ones that are pushing boundaries with their designs, sometimes inspiring other designers to go in certain directions. Then there are other designers who go for the more commercially plausible designs. No matter how you cut it, I wouldn’t be caught dead in that. Nor in crocs. Nor in a ton of stuff other guys wear. I just can’t pull it off. And I would have to send in my man-card. ---
**Author:** ![apollonia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/2bfe46/32.png) [@apollonia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/apollonia)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2009, 11:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-anyone-ever-actually-wear-those-wild-runway-fashions/490799/4 "2009-03-25T23:45:27Z")
In general, runway fashion is very out-there and wild and different, but the elements of its design are what counts. For example, if a model walks down a runway in Milan wearing a gigantic straw hat trimmed with rhinestones and feathers, a chopped-up black T-shirt, and a plaid tutu, then there are a lot of elements you might see in next year’s fashion trends right there. Maybe hats will be in–maybe embellished hats. Maybe plaid. Maybe short fluffy tutu-like skirts. Maybe shirts that look like they’ve been in the wars. Maybe black is the new black. There are lots of fashion designers out there who design because they feel it’s art. And there are some who design couture because they want celebrities to wear it. Or they design things for ordinary folks to wear. And so on and so on. In the film The Devil Wears Prada, there’s an interesting explanation of this fashion phenomenon that’s pretty much spot-on. > [@](#): > > Andy Sachs: No, no, nothing. Y’know, it’s just that both those belts look exactly the same to me. Y’know, I’m still learning about all this stuff. > > Miranda Priestly: This… ‘stuff’? Oh… ok. I see, you think this has nothing to do with you. You go to your closet and you select out, oh I don’t know, that lumpy blue sweater, for instance, because you’re trying to tell the world that you take yourself too seriously to care about what you put on your back. But what you don’t know is that that sweater is not just blue, it’s not turquoise, it’s not lapis, it’s actually cerulean. You’re also blithely unaware of the fact that in 2002, Oscar De La Renta did a collection of cerulean gowns. And then I think it was Yves St Laurent, wasn’t it, who showed cerulean military jackets? I think we need a jacket here. And then cerulean quickly showed up in the collections of 8 different designers. Then it filtered down through the department stores and then trickled on down into some tragic casual corner where you, no doubt, fished it out of some clearance bin. However, that blue represents millions of dollars and countless jobs and so it’s sort of comical how you think that you’ve made a choice that exempts you from the fashion industry when, in fact, you’re wearing the sweater that was selected for you by the people in this room. From a pile of stuff. ---
**Author:** ![solkoe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/919ad9/32.png) [@solkoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/solkoe)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2009, 12:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-anyone-ever-actually-wear-those-wild-runway-fashions/490799/5 "2009-03-26T00:02:09Z")
> [@apollonia](#): > > In general, runway fashion is very out-there and wild and different, but the elements of its design are what counts. For example, if a model walks down a runway in Milan wearing a gigantic straw hat trimmed with rhinestones and feathers, a chopped-up black T-shirt, and a plaid tutu, then there are a lot of elements you might see in next year’s fashion trends right there. Maybe hats will be in–maybe embellished hats. Maybe plaid. Maybe short fluffy tutu-like skirts. Maybe shirts that look like they’ve been in the wars. Maybe black is the new black. > > There are lots of fashion designers out there who design because they feel it’s art. And there are some who design couture because they want celebrities to wear it. Or they design things for ordinary folks to wear. And so on and so on. > > In the film The Devil Wears Prada, there’s an interesting explanation of this fashion phenomenon that’s pretty much spot-on. I love that quote from the movie. I remember watching that part twice. It says it all!