Culture and the arts of today are, it can be argued, in the valley. Fashion, unfortunately, is also in barrel with everyone else. There are a few factors that are contributing to the decline of the excitement of fashion shows and of the creative industries. Of course, there are many exceptions, as there are lots of people who do really captivating products of high quality, but generally speaking, things are... dull.
Fashion shows today are often a snooze fest both in terms of clothes and of presentation, even though labels go out of their way to create spectacular set designs and to convey a sense of grandness and perfection. Despite this, many sartorially-interested people still reference and look back at the fashion shows of the 1980s and 90, as nostalgia becomes an increasing trait of our times. Looking around, one can notice that not just in fashion, but in other fields such as video games, TV and music, there is a lot of looking back at different eras for inspiration.
It is highly mind-twisting how, as we can make things more and more precise with the help of computers, things tend to become less and less interesting, exciting and noteworthy. This is a phenomenon that we have noticed for a few years now: everything from cinematic special effects and film posters to photographs and clothes is extremely well-done, but at the same time, the appreciation people have for culture is indirectly proportional. Even though we can make a poster that is proportioned and laid out with an astonishing precision and we can make photographs that are almost unreal, we still look back at the posters of the 60s and the fashion shots of past decades.
We've seen it in trend books and everywhere else: people are always referencing the past and want to look at and buy "raw" things that look as if they were made by an artist farmer in the 1900s.
It can be argued that there are three main causes for this. The first one is of course the fact that we live in highly tense times. Our political, social and economic state inhibit creativity, as it is hard to let your creative juices flow when, for whatever it is you may do, you will probably be attacked by someone. If you don't play by the rules, someone will take offense and will do everything they can to erase you from the cultural landscape. This type of context makes it very hard to be highly creative.
Secondly, the global political fear and conformity of today has led to a standardization of aesthetics. We have become so accustomed with the "norm" that we don't really give many chances to those doing something different. If a film doesn't look the way distributors are accustomed to, it simply won't get picked up, if photos are not done by precise standards, they disappear, etc. It's not just aesthetics that are standardized, but people themselves. In a recent Mille article, Bin Boyer wrote: "As we dissect modern fashion, it isn't necessarily the clothing that's faltering, but rather the muses and idols behind the designs. Whatever happened to the days when a cool street urchin would be discovered skateboarding and plucked out of obscurity - there was something supernatural about it. Models presented themselves as only they knew: innocent, indifferent to the industry and irreverent. The halcyon days of those unfiltered 'it' girls are over. We live in an era when any girl can become a label's muse solely based on their understanding of manufactured 'cool' and an instant cache of the #. It's echoed in the stories of how magnificent faces will be passed up for a pedigreed last name or a girl with a larger social media count." To confirm this, one can simply compare the runway shows of Naomi Campbell, Eva Herzigová and Linda Evangelista to those of the supermodels of today.
Thirdly, the plastic "perfection" of our times is not something people can actually chew. Yes, everything today can be done by algorithms, robots can calculate everything to perfection, but all this has extracted us of our very humanity. Yes, everything is impeccable, but is there any humanity in it? We all know big brands are big and that they have all the resources others don't have to create things that are over the top, but the question is: do they have creativity and the courage to put it out there?
These three factors are also tied in with a strange economic situation surrounding almost every field of today. People who have lots of money want to invest only in things they know will work exactly according to plan. If they are to give money, they want to give it only to those they know and who they know will get them the results they want. There is no more "believing in someone" or "taking a risk with an idea". And so, in order to try to promote themselves as the exact, algorithmic human of half business, half creative, everything has become extremely corporate. Everyone these days is a "yuppie", as they were called in the 80s (YUP standing for Young Urban Professional), when the term was quite a derogative. Véronique Hyland talked about this in a "The Cut" article from a few seasons back when she said: "We've long since moved past the point where celebrities dressed for themselves, and expressed a kind of kooky personal style, for awards shows. Now that almost every A-lister is the face of a brand or has a collaboration to promote, gaming the red carpet has become a less and less thrilling exercise, and the swan-dress moments are few and far between." She also called fashion today to have a "creeping dullness" and to be highly risk-averse.
It needs to be pointed out that there is nothing wrong with precision, with making things as well as one possibly can, there is nothing wrong with trying to make money and there is nothing wrong with finding a happy medium between creativity and business. Many people do it and they do it well. However, when the focus is placed more on the form than on the content, there is a slippery slope until the balance moves all the way in the direction of the form. And this cancels out the emotion and the artistic communication, which can lead to an entire cultural collapse.
It is very likely that, as new voices are emerging more and more in the fashion world and in the world of creativity at large, that we will see a come-back of excitement in fashion shows, in photography, in the clothes themselves and in culture at large. It is high time that we get excited about our own lives and not just in those of those who lived in the past.
Fraquoh and Franchomme
Further reading:
Fashion show changes: A comparison between the 1990s and the 2010s Trend forecast: Fashion Weeks of 2019 (Trends for 2020)P.S. We want to hear from you! What do you think of the state of today's fashion? What about other creative fields? Do you think they will change in the near future? Share your feedback, questions or thoughts in the comments below! For more articles on style, fashion tips and cultural insights, you can subscribe to Attire Club via e-mail or follow us on Facebook, Twitter or Instagram!
