Color trends in high fashion directly affect colors to be found down the food chain to mainstream fashion. Colors for interior decorating are likewise linked throughout the industry. Colors for each season are not just random selection, but big business. Just like the NBA!
I’ve probably seen as many pictures of fashions shows as you have. Perhaps even more! The models are very thin & very young–but made up to look “interesting” on the catwalk. Yes, it’s theater–created by & for people who don’t care whether or not you consider the models fuckable.
There are too many people’s jobs, too many consumers’ money and too many women’s self-images involved (whether or not the crazy runway stuff ever gets mass merchandised).
That’s why “why.” Calling it art excuses all real-world causes and effects.
There are always a few fashion victims, but most women are pretty good at figuring out what suits them. I buy most of my work clothes at Target, but usually check out the September Vogue to see what the designers are up to. Even the stuff that will never affect my wardrobe can be interesting or amusing.
Or maybe some people just really appreciate the craftmanship and artistry that goes into these clothes just as some people like to stroke their sad, little egos by labeling other people’s interests materialistic and shallow?
Hey, I appreciate the craftsmanship and artistry that went into popular dance music in the 1920s and 30s, but it’s so unmarketable, unprofitable, and unfashionable that I’ve long since given up hope that anyone outside a fringe of eccentrics will ever appreciate it.
I appreciate craft and artistry in anything, really, but as high fashion goes, a lot of it just seems tawdry and derivative, without much to say. I imagine the fashionistas would react similarly to my record collection.
PS: I will be the first to concede that my “little ego” is entirely too big.
People outside a scene are often lack the context to understand the nuances that make something interesting to people inside a scene.
I find soccer boring. But I realize that it’s because I know almost nothing about soccer. A soccer fan is seeing all sorts of things that are completely invisible to me. All I see is some guys kicking a ball randomly around the field. The soccer fan sees sophisticated strategies unfolding and being thwarted.
I imagine the same is true of high fashion. The fans know the designers and the history of their work and can then appreciate what appears on the runway in a context that gives it a depth and meaning that’s not there for the rest of us.
This sentence. Having continued to read here I wonder if some people are reacting to the infamous attitude that goes along with the fashion world. It’s not exactly taking place in a vacuum where like-minded folks get together to enjoy what they find mutually enjoyable.
Insiders-outsiders. I wonder how much of that dichotomy is involved in the aversion.
Yes, but. Fashion is a privileged scene. Because of money and aspirations to high art - and probably some other factors, such as the prevalence in the industry of socially important out-groups - everybody’s somehow supposed to be especially respectful of fashion. (Insider-outsider? More like elite-unwashed.)
Not everybody (certainly not in the USA) feels a particular reverence towards soccer. No one gives a millishit about my record collection.
Not every fashion designer with a runway show and unusual creations is considered haute couture. In Paris there are strict laws about which designers can use those words in describing their businesses. Each year a list is drawn up.
Other countries feel a little more comfortable in swiping the French expression to use in describing their collections.
Art museums certainly recognize creations designed from fabric as works of art and house them all over the world. If you have never seen an exhibit, I can understand you attitude. A gown by Charles Worth is something to behold.
Some of you might be interested in seeing some of these gowns by Charles Worth. Consider that everything was done by hand in tiny stitches. And we can’t even begin to see the details here.
Nope. If I had meant that, I would have said that. I’m aware of the history behind haute couture clothing and the Syndicale but for its purposes today, haute couture works as a publicity tool. IMHO, one of John Galliano’s shows does more to promote his brand than a bazillion magazine ads.
“Creates jobs” and “drives the economy” relative to what? If the shirt had been a slightly different shade of blue, would any fewer people be employed? If the top 100 designers became monks and the next 100, slightly less bizarre people took their place, would we really notice their disappearance? If not, then how can they be said to be important?
But you haven’t addressed my question yet. How does the “color of the season” affect what people may or may not buy from Target? Shades of blue are still just blue to the vast majority of the shopping population. The same goes for red, green, brown, etc, etc, etc.
I’m not denying that high fashion can be art (I reserve the right to think its stupid however), but I think it has a much smaller affect on mainstream fashion than some of the people in this thread would like to believe.
Certainly didn’t start the thread to whine – I"m just trying to understand the purpose. The shows must cost a bundle to put on, and I don’t see the end benefit to the designers or the public. If, as others have pointed out, it’s an artsy type show for designers to go over the top and possibly influence designs in some new, stylish direction by putting rhino horns on someone, umm… ok, that’s fine. I’m just trying to figure out what’s going on.
I think the whole point of that scene in the movie was that that would never happen. There is no item exempt from the influence, so there could be no maroon sweater colored that way for another reason. There is no other reason.
I’m not sure that’s true, I think plenty of people will buy a blouse in one shade of blue (or green or brown or red) that they wouldn’t buy in another shade.
Also, if you pay attention you might notice that pretty much all of the stores (from Neiman’s to Target) will have a variety of clothes in stock for the fall but all of them will share some key characteristics (that blue, or skirt length, or texture).
Even if you just people watch on the street you’ll notice seasonal trends, maybe everyone is wearing boots this year or short coats instead of long ones or whatever.
This is the influence of those shallow useless fashion shows…and the point is that they bring people pleasure.