Controversial Opinions on Fashion

[Fulton St Critique]

What is your most “controversial” take on fashion? Something that when discussing the industry with your friends or colleagues, you may refrain from saying? If you are uber-confident this thread may not apply to you (and I applaud you), but I thought it would be fun/interesting too, in the spirit of anonymity, discuss an opinion you hold that would be considered unpopular in the grand scheme of the fashionscape.

*Disclosure*: While I do believe that what one considers to be fashionable or “good” is completely and entirely subjective, I find that there are many objective opinions that are held by the masses. If you care to share an opinion that may sway the crowd, please do so! I love reading about different perspectives, hence why I created this thread.

I’ll go first: I really liked KVA’s Dior Homme post-2010, I still hunt for some of his pieces on resale websites to this day and am fond of his time at the Maison! I loved the footwear, his tailoring, and the slight “wrongness” that arrived each season. I found that when he pushed for abstraction, though it did not always work, he furthered menswear in a direction that welcomed novelty and difference.

 

[aracic]

Huh, let's see.

I genuinely enjoyed Raf Simons' tenure at Dior and never quite understood the hate for it here. I don't like Raf Simons' own aesthetic and I don't like him at Prada, but his Dior collections always looked so soft and beautifully feminine. Those gorgeous suits paired with chic scarves and little net veils, the gorgeous gowns from his early collections or the futuristic take on retro in his later collections. I thoroughly enjoyed it and was sad to see him leave.

Olivier Rousteing also isn't quite as bad as people make him out to be. Surely he's no great master, but I never understood what it is exactly that people disliked so much about him. He created a great visual identity for his Balmain and it's very easily recognisable as perhaps one of the stand-out brands of the past decade, I always felt he had a great influence on street style girlies of 2013 and late.

I greatly miss Mario Testino's work and my heart skipped a beat when I saw a new photograph he took of Isabeli on his Instagram recently.

 

[susseinmcswanny]

Despite the last men's collection and the personality of the people who are in his "cult", i am starting to like the rick owens tyrone stuff SORRY it might just be my adhd

 

[MulletProof]

I actually find the in-person experience of sharing a controversial opinion a lot less risky than doing it anonymously. You usually do it in writing and without a voice so it stays somewhere forever, or at least long enough for people to manipulate its context or decide to install whatever personality or ideology they want around the words of a stranger, and frankly, I have a soft, slightly childlike voice that lets me get away without a filter around my friends lol, and I also usually don’t finish my controversial takes and resort to making faces, so yeah, hell no I’m not putting it all online but I will say most of my ‘controversial’ opinions on fashion are actually way too controversial for tFS.. I’d get removed in less than a day.

But just to add something for the heck of it: I think most people in fashion and who follow fashion have horrible taste. Even designers whose work I enjoy, I wouldn’t trust them being my personal shoppers ever.

 

[Salvatore]

I will say most of my ‘controversial’ opinions on fashion are actually way too controversial for tFS.. I’d get removed in less than a day.

Oh I’m so curious !

As for mine, I’m going to say that a bit of me feels the « gate » that fashion once seemed to have had needs to go back up. Not everyone is a designer, let alone a good designer. There’s a lot of trash out there.

 

[Phuel]

It’s really just TFS that’s strongly critical of Raf/Olivier Rousteing/Rick Owens. The casual fashion fan, fashion victim and industry adore them. Unfortunately, the critical musings/ramblings/rants of members here are the rare exceptions and not the norm. Industry people are much less critical— if at all, especially these very corporate-controlled days.

If you wish to enjoy your work in this industry in 2022— no matter how much you may dislike whatever/whomever you’re working with, learn to find the best and strongest element/component of your subjects/objects, and you will learn be be inspired again and again. If you possess the creative insight and experience, I guarantee you that even your most loathed brands that you hate everything about will have separates that can be envisioned to a superior reimagining. A talented team can easily win over the harshest of TFS critics (…maybe except for Mullet..) even if they were to produce an advertorial for Jacquemus. Just ask Fabien/Meisel/Karl, spinning straw into gold for Zara.

 

[Lola701]

Maybe I should jump:

- I miss the fashion work of Terry Richardson. Particularly with Emmanuelle Alt and Tom Ford. They bring the best of his aesthetic.

- Digital killed fashion photography.

- Yves Saint Laurent is overrated.
Don’t get me wrong, he is genius and I like and respect his work but everytime I hear people put him alongside Chanel or Balenciaga, I cringe. There’s this holy grail of designers like Vionnet, Schiaparelli, Madame Gres, Poiret, Charles James, Adrian and of course Chanel, Balenciaga and Dior, that is untouchable. Neither Yves, Karl or Azzedine is up there with them…

- I find the recent work of Rei Kawakubo boring and the reactions somehow a bit hypocritical. It has a very « Ivory tower » feel to it.

- I don’t like seeing big girls on the runway because It’s hypocrite to have those girls walking the shows, wearing the most uncomfortable outfits, for clothes they wouldn’t be able to find in shops in their sizes.

- I don’t have anything against nepotism in fashion. I don’t understand why people feel like fashion has a social responsability in that aspect…Even more because I remember when people working in fashion were seen as outcasts.

- Contrary to a lot of people. I actually like Anna Wintour. And I like her more today than I did 10 years ago. I wouldn’t be sad if she leaves Vogue but she is maybe one of the last great fashion editor.

- The Fashion industry has failed in preserving it legacy, celebrating it legends. There’s no gatekeepers. Nobody knows Stephen Burrows or Oswald Boateng. It’s insane to see that Margiela was more popular after retiring.
Designers are like architects or musicians and yet, it’s the least respected creative job ever. And that’s because the Art and engineering in the creation of a piece of clothing is totally overshadowed by marketing. And you have people like the guy of Amiri who thinks you have to print a tshirt to call yourself a designer.

And last but not least, the London fashion community is maybe as annoying as the Parisian fashion scene. I think that despite some talents, they are actually less cool than they think they are.

 

[blueorchid]

- Yves Saint Laurent is overrated.
Don’t get me wrong, he is genius and I like and respect his work but everytime I hear people put him alongside Chanel or Balenciaga, I cringe. There’s this holy grail of designers like Vionnet, Schiaparelli, Madame Gres, Poiret, Charles James, Adrian and of course Chanel, Balenciaga and Dior, that is untouchable. Neither Yves, Karl or Azzedine is up there with them…

Pierre Bergé's rolling in his grave tonight!!

 

[MulletProof]

Designers are like architects or musicians and yet, it’s the least respected creative job ever. And that’s because the Art and engineering in the creation of a piece of clothing is totally overshadowed by marketing.

Hm kind of but also because, they’re as respectable as musicians in a cover band.. cover bands are almost all there is left in fashion design, it’s disgusting.

I do agree with everything else though haha.. I do miss Terry’s raunchy work at times, but nothing like Weber.. he really left a void: sensuality, love for life, pleasure, nature and beauty.. it just hasn’t been the same and I do wish he was working again now that the lawsuits got settled. It’s not a reward, he followed a procedure in a system and it was solved.

 

[Fulton St Critique]

Maybe I should jump:

- I miss the fashion work of Terry Richardson. Particularly with Emmanuelle Alt and Tom Ford. They bring the best of his aesthetic.

- Digital killed fashion photography.

- Yves Saint Laurent is overrated.
Don’t get me wrong, he is genius and I like and respect his work but everytime I hear people put him alongside Chanel or Balenciaga, I cringe. There’s this holy grail of designers like Vionnet, Schiaparelli, Madame Gres, Poiret, Charles James, Adrian and of course Chanel, Balenciaga and Dior, that is untouchable. Neither Yves, Karl or Azzedine is up there with them…

- I find the recent work of Rei Kawakubo boring and the reactions somehow a bit hypocritical. It has a very « Ivory tower » feel to it.

- I don’t like seeing big girls on the runway because It’s hypocrite to have those girls walking the shows, wearing the most uncomfortable outfits, for clothes they wouldn’t be able to find in shops in their sizes.

- I don’t have anything against nepotism in fashion. I don’t understand why people feel like fashion has a social responsability in that aspect…Even more because I remember when people working in fashion were seen as outcasts.

- Contrary to a lot of people. I actually like Anna Wintour. And I like her more today than I did 10 years ago. I wouldn’t be sad if she leaves Vogue but she is maybe one of the last great fashion editor.

- The Fashion industry has failed in preserving it legacy, celebrating it legends. There’s no gatekeepers. Nobody knows Stephen Burrows or Oswald Boateng. It’s insane to see that Margiela was more popular after retiring.
Designers are like architects or musicians and yet, it’s the least respected creative job ever. And that’s because the Art and engineering in the creation of a piece of clothing is totally overshadowed by marketing. And you have people like the guy of Amiri who thinks you have to print a tshirt to call yourself a designer.

And last but not least, the London fashion community is maybe as annoying as the Parisian fashion scene. I think that despite some talents, they are actually less cool than they think they are.

Thank you all for your comments!!

@Lola701 While I agree with all your points- espeically when you mention how the industry failed celebrating its legends- I find the criticism of Mike Amiri to be slightly disingenious. Let me elaborate.

I am not an Amiri customer, nor will I ever be, but my perspective of the brand changed when I went to visit Ami’s store that recently opened in Soho which is located directly across the street from Amiri location. Mike and his team- I mention his team because I do not think of Mike as a designer- have really elevated their label and made it somewhat of an LA staple as far as RTW goes here in the US. He is certainly not onpar with anything happening in Europe, though, when he decided to begin showing during Paris fashion week the brand reached a new level in terms of image, design quality, and appeal. And this is apparent in the pieces he has in his retail shops. Amiri is still a driving force in the mens contemporary space, I don’t see that changing.

As Lagerfeld and Yves had their start thanks to entering competitions for illustration and winning, I think the new generation of talent will arise through social media and the design of something as basic as a t-shirt, as opposed to being able to cut like Alber, drape like Rei, or construct like An Vandervorst and Filip Arickx. How is that for a controversial take!!! IMO the new generation of designers will be image makers first. That is what social media has created, an entire generation of “talent” brought up in a 2-D pixelated world. For better or for worse, I think that is what is coming. I am not happy about it, but I do hope it will bring some interesting work in the coming years and decades.

I am unsure of Mike’s begginings, and if he started with a simple t-shirt I really applaud his efforts in terms of scaling his business to where he is now. To reiterate, I am not a fan of Amiri and I wish fashion would go back in time to a place where craft actually mattered, but I am excited in some sense to see what the next generation of designers will bring to the table, Mike Amiri included.

 

[THD96]

This is the TFS version of a burn book. If so we need a Regina .
I have a lot that bugging me about fashion right now so.

I never warm with Haider Ackerman's works. I like the few pieces from him but as a whole collection, it doesn't do much for me. But he is talented and it's a shame what LVMH did to him. It annoying me that today people think he is a Timothée plus one.

I hate the Birkin and Kelly. I find the whole thing around them so annoying. And the people that I know that have the bags are insufferable, so un-Hermès. The only Hermès bag that I like is the Roulis, too bad people don't care about it so Hermès already discontinued it.

I'm tired of Iris Van Herpen, she has been presented the same "groundbreaking" since 2017 and people still praise it like something they saw people.

I like Charles de Vilmorin for Rochas.

I'm feeling Marc Jacobs's last few years at LV. After looking at the LV Catwalk book, I preferred his earlier collections when he just started, it felt more focused and had a distinctive POV. His later collections that everybody seems to obsess but I'm not feeling it. The big set helps to sell the grand illusion of the collection but the collection itself is not memorable enough, I still can't remember what the carousel collection looks like.

I'm not feeling the current wave of young Parisian stylists, that's the reason why we the current mess at Vogue France. And that makes me worry. Because when the generation of Carine, Carlyne, Suzanne, Anastasia, and Alt ( I don't hate her, I swear) is gone they will have a big void to fill.

 

[blueorchid]

Designers are like architects or musicians and yet, it’s the least respected creative job ever. And that’s because the Art and engineering in the creation of a piece of clothing is totally overshadowed by marketing.

I'm actually not sure if my "unpopular" opinion is a) unpopular or b) makes sense (because I'm avoiding doing something else by writing this ) I think that while fashion can be an "art," the separation of fashion from technical skills/craftsmanship has been a mistake. And the same with photography, too.

You could probably create a fashion-family tree with marking who apprenticed with or who mentored who (like... Piguet/Lelong --> Balmain/Dior/Givenchy --> Cardin/Lagerfeld/Saint Laurent, or Balenciaga --> Ungaro/Courrèges/Givenchy), and these lists could go on. Those lines were broken along the way and I think a lot was lost when viewing fashion as a "craft." I don't even think viewing it as a "craft" or "trade" cheapens it at all, either. With fashion photography, that's also been broken. Think of how many great photographers apprenticed under OTHER great photographers (Yva/Newton, Avedon/Hiro, Gijon Mili/Dennis Stock, etc.). I don't know, something has been lost because I don't get the impression that knowledge is passed down this way anymore. Now you can pick up a phone and become a photographer (and some people may be clueless enough to believe that you are!!!)

 

[Kimihiro]

Restrictive casting can help communicate a designer’s vision better. Inclusivity can be patronizing and fake sometimes. Somehow related, designer fashion is inherently elitist, it’s futile to think otherwise. It’s somehow vapid, but I believe it’s supposed to be idealistic and fun. People over-intellectualize fashion sometimes.

Some younger fashion people try to “tear down walls” of gatekeeping only to create their own hierarchy.

It’s okay to like basic or simple clothing. Cuts, and proportions do matter after all. There should be room for practicality, but what’s criminal is a lack of POV.

 

[Lola701]

Thank you all for your comments!!

@Lola701 While I agree with all your points- espeically when you mention how the industry failed celebrating its legends- I find the criticism of Mike Amiri to be slightly disingenious. Let me elaborate.

I am not an Amiri customer, nor will I ever be, but my perspective of the brand changed when I went to visit Ami’s store that recently opened in Soho which is located directly across the street from Amiri location. Mike and his team- I mention his team because I do not think of Mike as a designer- have really elevated their label and made it somewhat of an LA staple as far as RTW goes here in the US. He is certainly not onpar with anything happening in Europe, though, when he decided to begin showing during Paris fashion week the brand reached a new level in terms of image, design quality, and appeal. And this is apparent in the pieces he has in his retail shops. Amiri is still a driving force in the mens contemporary space, I don’t see that changing.

As Lagerfeld and Yves had their start thanks to entering competitions for illustration and winning, I think the new generation of talent will arise through social media and the design of something as basic as a t-shirt, as opposed to being able to cut like Alber, drape like Rei, or construct like An Vandervorst and Filip Arickx. How is that for a controversial take!!! IMO the new generation of designers will be image makers first. That is what social media has created, an entire generation of “talent” brought up in a 2-D pixelated world. For better or for worse, I think that is what is coming. I am not happy about it, but I do hope it will bring some interesting work in the coming years and decades.

I am unsure of Mike’s begginings, and if he started with a simple t-shirt I really applaud his efforts in terms of scaling his business to where he is now. To reiterate, I am not a fan of Amiri and I wish fashion would go back in time to a place where craft actually mattered, but I am excited in some sense to see what the next generation of designers will bring to the table, Mike Amiri included.

I can respect the t-shirt thing as a motivational speak or even as a start to get a foot in the industry but I think it’s important to respect the cultural and technical characteristics that makes a designer. Obviously, Amiri understood that his credibility was dependent on achieving a certain level of excellence.
May he Rest In Peace but I don’t want the new generation to think that being a designer is like what Virgil Abloh did or what Jacquemus is doing. The world culture is often thrown here and there but there’s a culture of fashion. And the new generation already has that sense of entitlement that I hate. And by saying, « make a tshirt and you are a designer » doesn’t send the right message. No matter how glamorous the lifestyle of a designer is, it’s also a very humbling job. Once you have to explain the construction of a piece you designed to your seamstress, it’s humbling!

This is the TFS version of a burn book. If so we need a Regina .
I have a lot that bugging me about fashion right now so.

I never warm with Haider Ackerman's works. I like the few pieces from him but as a whole collection, it doesn't do much for me. But he is talented and it's a shame what LVMH did to him. It annoying me that today people think he is a Timothée plus one.

I hate the Birkin and Kelly. I find the whole thing around them so annoying. And the people that I know that have the bags are insufferable, so un-Hermès. The only Hermès bag that I like is the Roulis, too bad people don't care about it so Hermès already discontinued it.

I'm tired of Iris Van Herpen, she has been presented the same "groundbreaking" since 2017 and people still praise it like something they saw people.

I like Charles de Vilmorin for Rochas.

I'm feeling Marc Jacobs's last few years at LV. After looking at the LV Catwalk book, I preferred his earlier collections when he just started, it felt more focused and had a distinctive POV. His later collections that everybody seems to obsess but I'm not feeling it. The big set helps to sell the grand illusion of the collection but the collection itself is not memorable enough, I still can't remember what the carousel collection looks like.

I'm not feeling the current wave of young Parisian stylists, that's the reason why we the current mess at Vogue France. And that makes me worry. Because when the generation of Carine, Carlyne, Suzanne, Anastasia, and Alt ( I don't hate her, I swear) is gone they will have a big void to fill.

Except for Haider, I totally agree with everything you said. But I think what made me love Haider even more was his tenure at Berluti. To see that someone can have range and yet deliver something undeniably recognizable as him was very beautiful.

I Hate the Birkin and Kelly too. I prefer the Paris Bombay or the Victoria. I think I hate what the Birkin and the Kelly represents mostly because it seems like they are totally striped away from their primary function.

And I totally agree about MJ at Vuitton. It’s also an unpopular opinion but I really love what Nicolas is doing. And the fact that I see his clothes or bags in the streets makes me appreciate his work differently from Marc.

And Amen about the French stylists. And it’s maybe because the new stylists don’t have personal style themselves. A lot of stylists today are brands-obsessed. You can give a black pant, a black sweater to each of a stylist you named and you will have a totally different result and even more funny, I’m sure you probably know already what type of result you will have. Benjamin Bruno is talented tho but maybe doesn’t have a strong voice yet.
But I know there some young ones doing their things and who have a clear vision of their aesthetic. Maybe if French titles opened their doors to them instead of having Carlos Nazario and others American styling all the Europeans magazines, maybe they will have the opportunity to express themselves. Because the beauty of Carlyne, Carine And MAS among others is that they had a platform in their national market. They became international after…

I'm actually not sure if my "unpopular" opinion is a) unpopular or b) makes sense (because I'm avoiding doing something else by writing this ) I think that while fashion can be an "art," the separation of fashion from technical skills/craftsmanship has been a mistake. And the same with photography, too.

You could probably create a fashion-family tree with marking who apprenticed with or who mentored who (like... Piguet/Lelong --> Balmain/Dior/Givenchy --> Cardin/Lagerfeld/Saint Laurent, or Balenciaga --> Ungaro/Courrèges/Givenchy), and these lists could go on. Those lines were broken along the way and I think a lot was lost when viewing fashion as a "craft." I don't even think viewing it as a "craft" or "trade" cheapens it at all, either. With fashion photography, that's also been broken. Think of how many great photographers apprenticed under OTHER great photographers (Yva/Newton, Avedon/Hiro, Gijon Mili/Dennis Stock, etc.). I don't know, something has been lost because I don't get the impression that knowledge is passed down this way anymore. Now you can pick up a phone and become a photographer (and some people may be clueless enough to believe that you are!!!)

Exactly. That’s why I wish there were still gatekeepers in fashion and that it wasn’t open bar. The only gatekeepers now is maybe the Chambre Syndicale de la Couture . People like Imane Ayissi of Ralph Rucci worked for years to be in that circle…

A designer should know about the construction of a piece of clothing. Nobody asks Tadao Ando or Franck Ghery to be on the construction site and actually build the buildings. But they knows everything. They can answer all the technical questions required to guide the workers. It shouldn’t be possible to have someone who knows nothing about the construction of a jacket to direct an Atelier!
My grandmother was a seamstress for a big Haute Couture maison. She made clothes for me when I was a child/teenager and for everybody. I asked her why she never decided to be a designer. She told me that she didn’t have the imagination of les grands couturiers. « They make us dream » she used to say. But she had respect for them because she knew that it was more than the imagination….

 

[Cocteau Stone]

I think that while fashion can be an "art," the separation of fashion from technical skills/craftsmanship has been a mistake.

This is something that find aneurysm inducing working at a university. The core lecturers of the fashion and textiles department (my area) push fashion as "art", but they can't sew for sh*t. Can't set a zipper in properly, baste a pocket and disregard technical discipline almost entirely. One doesn't even know how to use a sewing machine. They tell students to "take the time to figure out your process" but also to forget about how to actually make good garments because ~ c o n c e p t s ~. Even worse when one of them tells students to look at these grand ideas for doing things and making work, but they themselves don't have the technical know how to pull it off so they pawn them off to me or to the pattern making lecturer who gets undermined all the time.

That being said, institutions that push the technical production side of it aren't great either. It is more "prep for mass manufacturing to help the local industry" and less about true construction of things. You can't win.

Now for me:
- I don't get the appeal of Christopher John Rogers. A lot of the work I find so chintzy and cumbersome looking because of all the fabric that it feels dated the moment it is presented. I guess they're trying to push him in a Halston kind of way but I don't get it at all. I also don't fully get JW Anderson as well. I kind of see it, but it never really gets there for me.

- I find, and have found, Vivienne Westwood to be overrated. And her activism is kind of patronising. Speaking of, I find activism in fashion often ends up looking tacky or very ill-informed most of the time. It is not the industry for it because it can also turn very quickly when done so blatantly.

- The democratisation of fashion via all the channels and avenues has actually killed the industry and I don't think it's going to recover. The industry is filled with enough sensitive idiots, it doesn't need more telling the world what they're like.

- I agree about Terry Richardson... I miss it too. I genuinely miss the hard core raunch and seduction of that kind of photography, which there is so little of nowadays. I want some tooth in some of my fashion imagery.

- Julien Macdonald isn't as bad as I think people set him out to be. In similar vein to the likes of Oliver Rousteing, sure its gaudy and tacky but it's usually done rather tastefully with some great fabrics and finishings. I'd rather well done tacky than forced tastefulness.

 

[aracic]

This is something that find aneurysm inducing working at a university. The core lecturers of the fashion and textiles department (my area) push fashion as "art", but they can't sew for sh*t. Can't set a zipper in properly, baste a pocket and disregard technical discipline almost entirely. One doesn't even know how to use a sewing machine. They tell students to "take the time to figure out your process" but also to forget about how to actually make good garments because ~ c o n c e p t s ~. Even worse when one of them tells students to look at these grand ideas for doing things and making work, but they themselves don't have the technical know how to pull it off so they pawn them off to me or to the pattern making lecturer who gets undermined all the time.

That being said, institutions that push the technical production side of it aren't great either. It is more "prep for mass manufacturing to help the local industry" and less about true construction of things. You can't win.

As a fashion design student, I wholeheartedly agree. As a generation we generally have a massive disregard toward technical discipline and most of us just fight tooth and nail to pass those exams and put them behind us, which shouldn't be the case. They constantly push us in the artistic direction, we draw and we draw and we draw and we disregard anything else because we get too involved in our art and our little concepts and then they throw something technical at us and our brains malfunction lol The education is very unevenly organised and it lacks a lot, at least here. We only got to sewing and garment construction at the end of our second year and up until then I never touched a sewing machine, let alone worked one (my fault admittedly, but I did expect my university to provide a solid introduction to it -which they didn't). Snapped a needle on my very first week, nearly gouging out my eye. We spent the semester sewing only 2 hours a week and having 10 hours of various artistic courses for comparison. 2 hours of garment construction a week as well. Today I know the basics to sewing, I did sew a skirt once (which looks horrible), I don't know any technical aspects to sewing (can't change the thread by myself) and I can't construct to save my life. May be my fault, but as you stated, most of the lecturers don't have the technical knowledge or they don't know how to pass it on to their students cause mine didn't teach me nothing. Youtube and research I did on my own taught me more than any of my professors and that's on them.

This entire push in the artistic direction really doesn't do well for future designers. We already come there artistically charged and most of us already have fine artistic skills, but what we don't have is the technical knowledge and that's what should be the core of our education. My fashion design course pushed me away from actual fashion design straight into fashion illustration as a future career prospect because of all the artistic subjects that we do.

I ranted there a bit, but you're right, there is something aneurysm inducing about all this.

And I definitely agree about CJR and JWA, I don't see it either. Like they're not bad, they have certain hits but I don't seem to understand the general appeal.

 

[Phuel]

...but nothing like Weber.. he really left a void: sensuality, love for life, pleasure, nature and beauty.. it just hasn’t been the same and I do wish he was working again now that the lawsuits got settled. It’s not a reward, he followed a procedure in a system and it was solved.

That void was left long before he was exiled from the industry.

The problem I have/had with the likes of Bruce/Terry/Mario wasn’t that they deserved to be cancelled off the face of fashion because of their alleged immoral trespasses— but that their later work leading up to them being cancelled was such a pale pale pale shadow of their former glory. I’m not sure if it was laziness, boredom, apathy, hubris or frankly, likely all of the above. Especially with Bruce— who will always be my first fashion love: His vision of fashion was always more than just clothes, but how the clothes come off gorgeous people is the greatest lesson in fashion imagery. And that ease of natural beauty and effortless smoulder of his best work was sadly long gone before his legal troubles.

The best of their work remains as inspiration, aspiration and full of life, beauty and wit as it ever did. Nothing will ever change that. If time and popular attitude will ever forgive them and allow them to work again, hopefully they will find that initial spark that will reignite what made their earlier work so glorious. A second chance absolutely reignited Galliano’s less-than-impressive last days at Dior with his newfound dedication at Margiela. However, if it’s just more of the same old same old that they were churning out in their latter days, then no thank you. Nothing personal, but once a creative’s efforts are simply not up to the highest of standards that they themselves had set, then perhaps it’s best that they retire, rather than desperately clawing for relevance and coasting on name brand. And that goes for all of them.

Back on track: Always found Margiela and Philo way way way overrated. Galliano’s producing more interesting designs currently for Margiela than Margiela himself, frankly. And Philo should be so thankful Helmut left fashion, opening the opportunity for her to evolved what he started.

 

[gallianostan]

iris van herpen is a talentless hack who stole a few looks from plato's atlantis and has been churning out poorly made, unimaginative variations for over a decade.

theyskens is one of the greatest living designers still working today. galliano is probably the greatest rn still working. rei kinda fell off and vivienne westwood's recent output has been abysmal.

roseberry's schiaparelli is (recently) terrible.

i'm glad gaultier has retired from couture because the last few years of his output were mostly pretty poor.

runway models should stay thin.

i actually enjoy rick owens' women's rtw.

 

[MulletProof]

^^ Phuel, I can’t quote for the life of me (my phone is being dumb) but weren’t Philo and Helmut in like parallel worlds? Philo was always for like that women who doesn’t necessarily like junk and does have decent taste but isn’t.. how to say it, let’s say an intellectual lmao , like she’s not going to think too hard, she’s a shopper! luuuvs her trendy ‘must-have’ bag, she’s primarily a fashion consumer, whatever that means.. whereas Helmut’s clientele and work was a lot more dense, at least they were convinced there was depth around fashion (and there is, fight mee!). I mean, Philo came via Stella McCartney. They existed together just fine. She just got that reputation because that gallerist complex took over in the 2010s and if there’s one thing she excels at, that’s riding a trend.

I really couldn’t stand Galliano’s cheesiness and vulgarity at Dior, the cheesy, ride-or-die, pAsSiOn FoR fAsHiOn fans he always attracted. His shows were definitely a spectacle and I thought they were the last frontier in fashion as an impressionable 10 year old, but once I was a bit older? it was just so vapid and as interesting as someone getting a shower in champagne. Whatever. Alexander McQueen was doing everything Galliano thought he was doing at the same time, with the soul and romanticism and criticism towards fashion that was absent from Dior and definitely with a real interest in fashion design once you took the spectacle out of the equation and were left with garments alone, not just fugly clothes disguised behind a theatrical display of opulence.

On the other hand, I don’t think the rant that sank his career was THAT awful? (see, Salvatore, this is where you don’t want to hear my hot takes and feel more like ‘why don’t you just.. keep it to yourself, honey?’ ). The man was drunk, most addicts behave in disgusting ways, and he was clearly trying to piss the s*it out of that person.. most people are like that because their ‘sensitivity’ and ‘acceptance’ is performative, especially nowadays, they tolerate and try to keep up with buzz words but sooner or later, they break character…

 

[Cocteau Stone]

As a fashion design student, I wholeheartedly agree. As a generation we generally have a massive disregard toward technical discipline and most of us just fight tooth and nail to pass those exams and put them behind us, which shouldn't be the case. They constantly push us in the artistic direction, we draw and we draw and we draw and we disregard anything else because we get too involved in our art and our little concepts and then they throw something technical at us and our brains malfunction lol The education is very unevenly organised and it lacks a lot, at least here. We only got to sewing and garment construction at the end of our second year and up until then I never touched a sewing machine, let alone worked one (my fault admittedly, but I did expect my university to provide a solid introduction to it -which they didn't). Snapped a needle on my very first week, nearly gouging out my eye. We spent the semester sewing only 2 hours a week and having 10 hours of various artistic courses for comparison. 2 hours of garment construction a week as well. Today I know the basics to sewing, I did sew a skirt once (which looks horrible), I don't know any technical aspects to sewing (can't change the thread by myself) and I can't construct to save my life. May be my fault, but as you stated, most of the lecturers don't have the technical knowledge or they don't know how to pass it on to their students cause mine didn't teach me nothing. Youtube and research I did on my own taught me more than any of my professors and that's on them.

This entire push in the artistic direction really doesn't do well for future designers. We already come there artistically charged and most of us already have fine artistic skills, but what we don't have is the technical knowledge and that's what should be the core of our education. My fashion design course pushed me away from actual fashion design straight into fashion illustration as a future career prospect because of all the artistic subjects that we do.

I ranted there a bit, but you're right, there is something aneurysm inducing about all this.

And I definitely agree about CJR and JWA, I don't see it either. Like they're not bad, they have certain hits but I don't seem to understand the general appeal.

Most lecturers in fashion are those that didn’t have the chops to actually make the most of the industry because of how insular they were and still are. The kind that peaked during their degree/studies so to make them feel validated they would do masters to shift their work as an arts practice as an excuse for their mediocrity.

No problem with those looking to do masters in the field of fashion, it can be very rewarding (I’ve done honours myself), but it can be bit of a cop out. Especially if it’s a theoretically driven masters where it’s more writing about practice rather than actually honing on the technical skill and craft.

These are also the kind of people that use students as a way of doing work rather than finding the time to do their own work. It gets really personal and the amount of times I’ve heard “it isn’t necessary for you to like your work” which means “make me happy as opposed to yourself” is ridiculous.

Bit of a side rant, but a lot of my bitterness and controversial opinions have actually stemmed from these experiences. Overall, lecturers in fashion have a tendency to suck the life and enjoyment out of fashion because they don’t fully know what they’re talking about because they make everything so dense/overwrought.