Dressful

With last week's news of Anna Dello Russo designing an accessories collection for H&M and revival of the brand Elsa Schiaparelli, I've been asking myself what is rotten in the fashion industry that the most exciting designers seem to be non-designers and dead designers.

Anna Dello Russo for H&M

I.
When the press release announcing the collaboration between Anna Dello Russo and H&M landed in my inbox, my initial thought was that these collaborations are getting old. While I had anticipated a number of them in the past with curiosity and enthusiasm, they no longer feel as exclusive and special because there is no space to breathe between one collaboration and the next. Once the hype in the media and online has subsided, you just know there's going to be a new collaboration tugging at your subconscious consumerist strings very soon. This cyclic course should really be linear because the way to progress is innovation, not repetition.

Though this is of little concern to H&M as their marketing strategy is collaborating with big fashion names – not even necessarily designers – to bring in tons of money, I would be infinitely more excited about high street brands employing young, emerging designers. It would reintroduce suspense and freshness, two elements almost all previous H&M collaborations have lacked (if you're familiar with the designer's signature style, you have a good grip of what the collaboration will be like) and contribute towards a less self-obsessed fashion industry.

Elsa Schiaparelli hats

II.
While H&M's decision to collaborate with Anna Dello Russo makes perfect sense in terms of appeasing the evergrowing online crowd of fashion bloggers, readers and commentators, the news about the revival of Schiaparelli took me by surprise. Diego Della Valle, CEO of Tod's, plans to open Maison Schiaparelli in Paris during menswear fashion week in June. His statement that "we won't be chasing the commercialism of the fashion world: this is a project that aims for the best in terms of taste and quality, and will provide all the calm necessary to achieve that" (source) indicates a possible radical shift in the brand's vision and aesthetic, much like revived Balmain. Elsa Schiaparelli was anything but toned down with her claw gloves, trompe l'oeil designs, walloping headpieces and lobster dresses. If she were alive today, her number one customer would be Anna Dello Russo!

The aim of the old-new brand is to revisit Elsa Schiaparelli's ideas in a contemporary style. Has fashion really become so dull that nobody has their own ideas? I don't think so. Besides, Schiaparelli's ideas were revolutionary in that moment in time. They would not have the same effect today, no matter how skillfully appropriated and turned inside out. It was easier to stand out in the 1930s than during reign of singers wearing raw meat to get attention.

III.
Refusing to employ new talent and ideas in the fashion industry is an enormous and deliberate waste of creative potential. As a creative person, you can achieve a lot by self-initiative, but you improve the most when you have to meet increasing demands that do not depend entirely on yourself.

The fashion industry is increasing its demands everywhere but in creativity.

Browsing fashion publications at Paris Charles de Gaulle airport last Saturday, I came across a copy of I Like My Style magazine. I was initially drawn to it because the girl on the cover is wearing all Yohji Yamamoto (à propos Yamamoto's Spring/Summer 2012 collection: this man can do no wrong, and once again I was overcome. Had to state this on the blog as soon as possible ...). I am vary of buying fashion magazines as they take up too much space and I never want to throw them away because they are aesthetic perfection (photography! typography! layout!). However, when I read that I Like My Style is the first user-generated fashion magazine, I knew it had to fly to Ljubljana in my big black bag so I can study it further.

The content of I Like My Style magazine is contributed by members of ilikemystyle.net, a social network where you can upload photos of your outfits and discuss fashion. I Like My Style magazine feels like a crossroads between "traditional" fashion magazines and the democratization (?) of fashion propagated by bloggers and the internet.

Editors-in-chief, Eva Munz and Adriano Sack, understand that today's readers want personal, subjective voices and distinctive, genuine style. They give them just what they like, packed in a magazine that, coincidentally, does not take up much space due to its small format. A big plus since all the cool people, including many contributors to the magazine, live in shoebox apartments in major world cities with sky-high real estate prices.

Notable content includes a hilarious section of cell phone photos taken by ILMS members in dressing rooms of high-end stores, little interviews where apart from other information everyone also gives their Zodiac sign, a comprehensive "school of fashion" with Rodarte, text chats where two members exchange views on issues like plastic surgery and skin whitening in Asia, and an 8-page editorial featuring eye glasses mounted on vegetables.

There are several articles (one of them by Aliona Doletskaya, former editor-in-chief of Vogue Russia) but they are short, written in stream of consciousness mode, and they don't delve deep in the way well-researched articles in "traditional" fashion magazines would. I would have loved to read a longer article or five, but my conclusion is that people today have increasingly less time, attention span and will to read, so it makes sense that I Like My Style magazine is mostly visual.

The biggest value (and potential) of I Like My Style magazine is the fresh, unedited ideas it communicates to an audience larger than just members of ilikemystyle.net. While there has to be a certain amount of control should you want the magazine to be a complete work, I hope I Like My Style will not progress in a more editorially restrictive direction. In the right context, blurry photos, ruined make-up and sometimes slightly off grammar are indispensable.

I miss the times when fashion
was about clothes,
not who got fired.

The issue of rail-thin models is one of the most recurring in fashion, but despite heated debates and unwordly remarks that would be terrorist attacks on said models' hearts, nothing ever changes. The latest to jump on the bandwagon of complaint was designer Hervé Léger. He said he doesn't do catwalk presentations for his Hervé L. Leroux label any more because models nowadays are too skinny and too sad.

"... If I had to go back to catwalk presentations I would be in a panic because today people are so out of touch with the reality of everyday life. Already the models I find are too skinny, too sad. And I knew the age of the super top models, Linda Evangelista and Cindy Crawford, who were always lively and smiling. Today you go between several défilés and you will see the exact same type of girl - it just doesn't inspire me."

Cindy Crawford at Léger in 1993 / Daphne Groeneveld and Caroline Brasch Nielsen at Léger in 2011

Hervé Léger is most famous for his invention (or, rather, popularization, as invention in fashion is always questionable) of bodycon dresses in the 1990s. It's no surprise he thinks today's models aren't a good match for his dresses because they undoubtedly look better on women who are not very, very thin. However, as a designer, he has the possibility to set a great example by using lively and smiling models in his catwalk shows instead of simply giving up on catwalk.

Many people feel alienated by skinny models. Would they appreciate such a mindset shift? No doubt.

The problem with skinny models/women/anyone lies in the subjectiveness of "thin". What is thin? Where do you draw the line? The answers to these questions are different for each one of us. This is why I felt upset when a few years ago they banned skinny models (below a certain BMI) from Madrid Fashion Week in order to promote a healthier image. A lot of models starve in order to meet their agencies' requirements, but some are naturally skinny. Are you going to tell healthy models to put on weight? What sense does it make to put them out of work?

It's just another set of standards, no less hypocritical than the demand to be thin. We're people, we're not made in factories and sometimes we don't meet standards. Not even all factory-made products do.

If I were a designer, I'd be pretty pissed off if someone told me I shouldn't use this or that model because she's too skinny. High fashion is art and it must have absolute freedom. I don't think models have to look like "normal" people (let's not go there and attempt to define what "normal" is though). The problem arises when people don't realize the distinction between the so-called fantasy and reality, when women see an ad in a magazine and believe the young, beautiful and skinny model clad in a $10,000 worth of clothes and accessories is what they should aspire to.

This is not entirely the fashion industry's fault though. Not enough people actually follow fashion for the thin model-induced dilution of our self-esteem to spread widely. It's the media that takes those "epitomes of perfection", adapts them and feeds them to the masses, e.g. promoting a thin celebrity as a beauty ideal, endorsing dieting tips and suggesting you buy revealing clothes (that will require you to lose weight). There are billions of dollars behind our insecurities.

Beauty ideals have been changing extensively throughout history, and I believe one day the cult of thin models will decrease. It will most likely stem from a radical shift in the general fashion aesthetic, meaning fashion will have a different significance and function than it does today.

Tavi Gevinson (Style Rookie) has recently written a great post describing her disenchantment with the fashion industry. For those who don't know, Tavi is the epitome of fashion blogger success - she's sat front row at fashion weeks, collaborated with Rodarte, interviewed John Galliano in Paris, written for Harper's Bazaar etc. - and she's only 14 years old. She also said her blog will be focusing less on fashion in the future.

Fashion Week is weird. It is very high schooly. Someone will take that and decide that it means Fashion Week highschooliness is getting me down hard without realizing how highschooly what they're doing is. I love fashion but it's disappointing when you have to sift through a lot of junk before you get to, like, the clothes, and the whole point of it all. It's more disappointing when the clothes aren't very interesting. Lately I've been looking to other places for a creative outlet and for inspiration. I miss following magazines and obsessively checking style.com the way I used to but something is different about it now. A year ago I got to go to Paris to interview John Galliano at Dior, and a couple weeks ago today he said he loved Hitler and got fired.

I think I've been following Tavi's blog since I knew fashion blogs existed. She's a brilliant writer with an approach to fashion that's completely different from what you'd expect (in general, not just from a 14-year-old) and she has personality in spades, so her blog always has that flair and uniqueness drawing you in.

Reading her post made me feel a little sad she's experiencing disappointment with fashion at such a young age. Then again, maybe she's experiencing (and voicing) it precisely because of her young age. You know how we're all very perceptive, honest and unrestrained when we're younger, and then "growing up" also means you learn to sometimes pretend you don't care or omit truths or keep doing something without noticing it doesn't fulfill you in any way? You learn the new rules and you also figure out people don't want you to be honest and unrestrained. If you stay that way, it's a kind of luxury. In that sense, I'm glad Tavi is going strong.

I wanted to be mature and witty and polite and strike up a conversation with Anna Wintour, I really did. But like, it was the end of the day? And I was exhausted, in so many ways? And not prepared to enter a room as the last one to be seated and find out two seconds before sitting next to Anna Wintour that I was sitting next to Anna Wintour? And I was wearing the sweater Kathleen Hanna gave me and felt kind of in the middle of an overdramatic identity crisis, like I had no right to wear the sweater OR sit next to Anna Wintour? And when I did look around a bit, no one looked happy and it was kind of a huge downer? So I let myself be kind of shy and quiet that night, to join the rows of sullen-faced people who looked as though they secretly wanted to be at home with their pets wearing comfortable clothing and eating fattening food.

Of course, fashion industry is not the only industry where people will be aloof and disinterested. People like that are everywhere. Ideally, you shouldn't let them get to you, but I know this is easier said than done. It's discouraging to see someone with your dream job and opportunities acting like they don't give a damn when you'd be over the moon if you were in their shoes. However, there are also really fantastic people working in the fashion industry, so maybe in the end it all evens out?

At Milan Fashion Week in February I realized that after a long time I felt like I belonged somewhere again. I went to Milan and Paris because after having decided I'd work in fashion, I wanted to see if fashion week is the kind of environment I'd be comfortable in (I know fashion week is just the tip of the iceberg, but sadly, as much as I'd love to, I can't hang around Vogue offices or designer studios ... It was the opportunity I could seize!). I was testing the waters because I'm sensitive like Tavi in the way that the things she found disappointing in the fashion industry would get me down as well.

I noticed how very few people looked happy to be there, the frenzy to be seen and photographed, the intimidation. It didn't bother me, though. Maybe because in the past few months I've finally been feeling content with myself, my achievements and relationships so I don't get so wrapped up in false insecurities any more. Yet maybe it was because I don't have as much fashion mileage as Tavi and I'm still too far away from "having seen it all" for it to leave a negative impression on me. You never know.

Here's a little secret: I belong in fashion, but I don't really see myself as a "fashion person". I think it's overrated because to be a credible "fashion person" nowadays means there must be extreme buzz surrounding you all the time. This is something I really dislike in fashion today: the cult of personality. The obsession with who wore what, who sat first row, who appeared on which blog, who knows who, who is "important". Give me a break! Fashion should revolve around fashion, not hype.

Ironically, there's a 99,99% chance Tavi wouldn't have achieved what she did - at least not in such a short time - without the very same "flawed" fashion industry. Because you see, there are also good sides to it, the most notable one being that (some) young people with a genuine interest in fashion and creativity get recognition easier via blogs.

Tavi is an exceptionally talented person who will most likely be successful at everything she chooses to do. At 14, the most normal thing is to change interests; I'm looking forward to see where they take her in the future.