Will Beautiful, Chic, Jet-Setter, Classic Ever Return?

[lowfive1715]

As a fashion observer, I’m at an underwhelmed point in fashion. It appears, at least to me, that fashion is nothing but “lazy” street wear. I use the term “lazy” because the outfits lack heavy construction along without presentation aspect. I remember the jet-setter chic ness of TF’s Gucci or the imagery of Galliano’s Dior or McQueen. It was all something to aspire to.

Will the pendulum swing back to “dressing up” and “beautiful clothes” or is this where fashion will stay?

 

[Phuel]

If it’s any consolation to you— and if I were to be (overly) optimistic, then I have to keep the faith that fashion is an everchanging and ever-evolving beast. And even these dire current days will pass (the only way is up when everything have sunk to its lowest depths…)— with hopefully a renaissance of sort to usher in better and more creative days. But if fashion were to move forward, then it really needs to move forward and onto newer horizons and frontiers— it can’t regress and return to the days of Tom’s Gucci and McQueen’s surrealism, as sublime as they were, since we’re not in those time anymore, with different values and principles. Learn from them, as they've learned from past Masters and adapted to the times they were in, and build from there on.

 

[bc collector]

But if fashion were to move forward, then it really needs to move forward and onto newer horizons and frontiers

Just adding some random thoughts to this.

It's not just fashion, it's culture in general that hopefully should evolve.

It is quite obvious there is a strict link between the streetwear craze that has tightened its grip on fashion and the rise of populism in politics: both have elevated mediocrity to a new standard and labeled as elitist anything that smacks even remotely of taste.
I know this is a contentious point, but for me real fashion is inherently elitist, or it's not fashion at all, just garments, however commercially successful.
If it's new and daring and personal, it's a small group of people that will embrace it first, real creative geniuses have never addressed the hoi polloi, neither in fashion or other expressive mediums.
As long as suits will keep thinking that designers have to censor their ideas in order to please the masses first (wealthy ones, but still masses), there is not going to be an end to the shock horror that fashion weeks have become.

Also, following from here, maybe we should remind ourselves that fashion is first and foremost a form of design, not entertainment: the embrace with celebrity culture has transformed the industry into a circus for mid-western housewives. Talking of which: may the days of Anna Wintour soon draw to an end (btw, instead of jumping on the BLM conversation, why didn't she apologize for the 30 and beyond years of the most uninspiring magazine ever conceived?).

 

[Phuel]

^^^ Ideally, the strongest and most creative forms of fashion is and will remain elitist. And frankly, I wouldn’t prefer it any other way.

Realistically, the current state of fashion— and culture, is at this extremely polarizing and politically-charged herd-mentality that’s all but taken over creative vision and innovation. The identity-politcs infused accessibility/relatability/inclusivity has shaped the course of fashion going forward (for better or for worse depending on your perspective. Much much much for the worse as far as I’m concerned: Fashion is extremely dumbed down to be as neutral as possible these days…), and this political imprint isn’t going to be discarded as a value and principle component in fashion’s next cycle: Reactionaries can’t just decide we will be as politically-incorrect and offend the masses in the name of fashion. All I can hope for is that fashion will evolve creatively alongside that PC-prerequisite. And by that, I mean a return to common sense and context; that designers/photographers/editors aren’t going to be cancelled by the mob when the mob doesn't see an equal headcount of “diversity” for every show/campaign/editorial/creative team. Hopefully people will apply common sense and take into consideration every show/campaign/editorial for its creative vision and innovative technical skills. Because after all, high fashion at its core is meant to challenge/provoke/disrupt the normalcy of the herd and stand out from it. (And how can you stand out when every brand, every show, every campaign and every editorial is so dumbed down and looks the same????)

 

[bc collector]

All I can hope for is that fashion will evolve creatively alongside that PC-prerequisite.

Let me have some doubts as to whether this can ever be possible: politically correctness and free creativity are at opposite ends of the spectrum.
There is a very common mistake at the base of the current BLM conversation: social justice and equal opportunities are definitely a goal worth fighting for, now and forever. But this pertains to the realm of politics.
I am not entirely convinced about applying the same criteria of social justice to cultural production or when judging the creative fields, for the very reason that the designer is always to be assessed as an individual, for the quality and progressiveness of his personal ideas, rather than his social or political background (however these elements might have contributed to forge those ideas).
We respect the work of Lee McQueen because it was a punch in the belly of every possible common-place notion of what fashion should have been, not because he was the child of a working class family and we had to shed our pity on him.
It really irritates me to think that I have to attribute extra-value to the likes of Virgil, Telfar Clemens or Shayne Oliver because of their ethnicity, whereas in fact I find the quality, material and not, of their work to be appalling.

 

[LoveFashion25]

I would wish these fashion brands would take the philosophy of the original designers, input it and make something thats modern as well. It seems like the fashion industry is going through a weird phase.

 

[MyNameIs]

Wanna bump this thread to see if we think we're any closer to returning to this two years later.

 

[Cocteau Stone]

Well we've cycled from late 80s, to all of the 90s a couple of times into the skimpiest of early 00s dressings and going back to 80s again all in what... a couple of years? All of which are feeding from similar references when they make their returns because the attention spans are really that fickle from a lot of people.

It might take a while for THAT kind of jet set look to come back into style. People are still hooked onto the paradox of "stealth wealth" dressing so perhaps "jet set" dressing will follow on from that but not in an enjoyable way.

 

[LadyJunon]

Well we've cycled from late 80s, to all of the 90s a couple of times into the skimpiest of early 00s dressings and going back to 80s again all in what... a couple of years? All of which are feeding from similar references when they make their returns because the attention spans are really that fickle from a lot of people.

It might take a while for THAT kind of jet set look to come back into style. People are still hooked onto the paradox of "stealth wealth" dressing so perhaps "jet set" dressing will follow on from that but not in an enjoyable way.

Whenever GenZ tries to revive an era, they always do so in the most literal, one dimensional, costume-like way, before discarding of the aesthetic in one to two years.

The revival of y2k (a.k.a y2k22) is a very good example of this, it was insanely popular in 2021-22, but it plummeted when the recession hit earlier this year.

The worst thing is that there is now a whole generation of designers, stylists and photographers who have built entire careers on this short-lived revival and are about to fall into obscurity.

 

[NYLA22]

^^ It's interesting to think about Gen-Z, and completely agree with your assessment about their aesthetic. I'm an older Millennial, and to me, Gen-Z just seems so one-dimensional in so many ways. I don't want to sound like a grouch, but their style is so bad, they don't think critically through anything, and live and die by social media -- which gives them such an inauthentic vibe, IMO. I also think they find anything that is conventionally beautiful or sophisticated as "elitist" and therefore are really into ugly looks as an intentional choice. As an aside, I also find them quite lazy in the workplace and not passionate about anything. This is all a generalization, of course, and maybe I would be like them too, if I felt like the world was ending in our lifetime (climate change, etc), which seems to be the outlook many of them have.

 

[Drusilla_]

Whenever GenZ tries to revive an era, they always do so in the most literal, one dimensional, costume-like way, before discarding of the aesthetic in one to two years.

The revival of y2k (a.k.a y2k22) is a very good example of this, it was insanely popular in 2021-22, but it plummeted when the recession hit earlier this year.

The worst thing is that there is now a whole generation of designers, stylists and photographers who have built entire careers on this short-lived revival and are about to fall into obscurity.

yeah they aren't the first generation to revive older fashions (that goes all the way back to the Teddy boys and girls) but the first to do it so literally. Like I keep seeing think pieces insisting that they're "putting their own spin on [insert millennial-youth trend here]" but all I can think is, bish WHERE??! The number of 2021 or 2023 outfits (since we are into the 90s minimalist trend) that would have been indistinguishable from a 2001 photo if not for the picture resolution or the iphone in the wearer's hand, was telling - it's not just the clothes and shoes but that comes paired with the exact same hairstyles and makeup as people wore back then.

Compare that to 90s kids doing 70s trends (platforms, straight hair) or late 00s hipster millennials doing 1950s-early 90s trends (clothes from one decade, worn with shoes from another and hair from a third era). I think it's partly the result of social media - things aren't being worn for real life anymore, just for how it looks on a screen so no surprise that their clothes and trends - all the 'cores', 'coastal grandma', '[insert fruit name here] girl', 'mob wife', 'indie sleaze' and whatever comes after it - tumblr, probably - come off like costumes because the only real thing that's a defining feature of this generation specifically is....tiktok.

 

[passionfourfashion]

yeah they aren't the first generation to revive older fashions (that goes all the way back to the Teddy boys and girls) but the first to do it so literally. Like I keep seeing think pieces insisting that they're "putting their own spin on [insert millennial-youth trend here]" but all I can think is, bish WHERE??! The number of 2021 or 2023 outfits (since we are into the 90s minimalist trend) that would have been indistinguishable from a 2001 photo if not for the picture resolution or the iphone in the wearer's hand, was telling - it's not just the clothes and shoes but that comes paired with the exact same hairstyles and makeup as people wore back then.

Compare that to 90s kids doing 70s trends (platforms, straight hair) or late 00s hipster millennials doing 1950s-early 90s trends (clothes from one decade, worn with shoes from another and hair from a third era). I think it's partly the result of social media - things aren't being worn for real life anymore, just for how it looks on a screen so no surprise that their clothes and trends - all the 'cores', 'coastal grandma', '[insert fruit name here] girl', 'mob wife', 'indie sleaze' and whatever comes after it - tumblr, probably - come off like costumes because the only real thing that's a defining feature of this generation specifically is....tiktok.

Gen Z here and I agree lol. When I toured parsons, there were a couple of girls in the sewing studio who looked like they shared the same TikTok feed; deconstructed knit, layered grunge blah blah blah. You gotta reevaluate your choices if your ‘individualism’ leads you to look like a carbon copy of everyone else in your social media bubble.

 

[Drusilla_]

^truly I don't have a problem with people looking like each other, that's how trends become apparent and how fashion works - we (00s-early 2010s) looked like the people in our circles too, same outfit templates etc.

The thing I was pointing out was that the kids now look like carbon copies of the ones they're 'inspired by' from 20-30 years ago in a way that didn't seem to happen earlier. For example, no one was ever going to think the nu-rave kids of 2007 (an annoying concept and tribe, to be sure) looked like they were from the 80s because there was something of the present day (which was 2006-07) in their overall looks. Now the 'something' is an iPhone.

 

[passionfourfashion]

^truly I don't have a problem with people looking like each other, that's how trends become apparent and how fashion works - we (00s-early 2010s) looked like the people in our circles too, same outfit templates etc.

The thing I was pointing out was that the kids now look like carbon copies of the ones they're 'inspired by' from 20-30 years ago in a way that didn't seem to happen earlier. For example, no one was ever going to think the nu-rave kids of 2007 (an annoying concept and tribe, to be sure) looked like they were from the 80s because there was something of the present day (which was 2006-07) in their overall looks. Now the 'something' is an iPhone.

Agree overall, it’s just that there’s a difference between following trends and looking like you shop from the same place and borrow each other’s closet.

A lot of intimate personal things have been commodified and standardized; I mean look at the Free Palestine protests, how many of those young protestors are actually joining in because they’re passionate and informed about the issues at hand, and how many do it out of a sense of belonging/solidarity for a defined ingroup? Fashion I feel is being used in the same way to signal, because we don’t even have a coherent idea of a public anymore in the US (not to get too deep into theory here). There’s so much splintering, factionalism, polarization here it’s crazy. On top of that, there’s a deep seated nostalgia because my generation has no identity.

 

[blueorchid]

How can the jet-set return when the Concorde doesn't exist..? Think about it. The mere concept of flying isn't remotely glamorous anymore, no matter how many gas-guzzling private jets you own.

 

[Nimsay]

Hm? The jet set is a thing. Its the flock of people into the things you will be into before you even know about them.

Technically thats me bc everything I do becomes mainstream and popular. Then Im onto the next thing so I can avoid exactly this…

Fashion I feel is being used in the same way to signal, because we don’t even have a coherent idea of a public anymore in the US (not to get too deep into theory here). There’s so much splintering, factionalism, polarization here it’s crazy. On top of that, there’s a deep seated nostalgia because my generation has no identity.

I will never look like a normie. Ill never use it to signal anything other than “i have nothing to do with you”