The centre point of NY fashion week was men. Either the clothes aimed to repel men, either the clothes were aimed at appealing to men, desperately. A total waste of time, if you ask me, straight men don’t really care about what clothes you put on. They picture you without clothes on anyway.
A few shows were aimed at appealing to little girls, which I did like. Because when I look at a fashion show I always wonder if I would have liked it just as much when I was a kid, if no, than I put it in the category ‘temporary fashion, eternally ugly’. Oscar de la Renta made a collection that would have made me swoon as a kid: big skirts, lace, feathers, everything. As an adult I still like those things and I still can’t afford them. Jenny Packham also made a collection I would have loved as a kid: flowy fabrics, fairy colors, flowers and sequins. As a grown-up I don’t love it as much as I would have as a kid, but I still like it. It makes me nostalgic about the times I would build camps with my friends, while we were dressed up like a princess.
The collections I liked the most were the ones from Vena Cava, Milly and Jason Wu, because I like them today just as much as I would have as a kid. Vena Cava was very much Classic Hollywood goes to Africa . The earthy colours made it grounded, the bright orange would light it up, the seventies glamour would add the chic and the big chunky jewelry would take the seriousness off. I find this one of the few collections that uses elements of traditional African wear without making it look like some kind of fetish.
Vena Cava Spring 2012
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I honestly never heard of Milly before, but I did like it. Because when I would try to find an outfit for a job interview, I would find it extremely hard to find one that would make me look like the interesting person I described in my resume, while I would still show that I would take the job seriously. Business like clothes would make me look like a little girl drowning in a suit that wasn’t meant for her and the more casual clothes would make me look as if my only 5 year plan was getting married and making babies. Catwalk outfits often are extremely inappropriate to wear in daily life, but the outfits of Milly were very wearable and a lot of them were even perfect for business.
When designers choose to revive the past, it often looks like nothing more than a ‘copy paste’ from the past. It often ends up looking even more old-fashioned than the original. Jason Wu is one of the few that knows how to translate it in a whole ‘new look’. Michelle Obama is a very smart woman with good taste in clothes and in men. I think Jason Wu deserves a position at Dior.
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