I am in the clouds, its misty; where am I? In the sky between the gods? No, I am on the ground looking at the clouds feeling the gods on my skin. From here I can see them, the designers, the gods of fashion, searching for immortality; Here I see Alexander Mc Queen and there Karl Lagerfeld walking on the cloud avenue, finally having a fifteen-fruit cocktail with Coco Chanel in the cloudy Ritz palace on cloud number 5. Azzedine Alaia just arrived, quiet as a surprise, as he was in a good shape, working, collecting for his archive and having fun provoking the fashion system. His work timeless, he himself a longtime immortal god above all the others watching and criticizing their stupidity behaving like workaholics producing to many garments anyway. While Alexander, Karl and Azzedine are walking in the clouds, in the section “creators” they eventually met; they talked briefly to each other, Karl about his experiences in a very exciting life, Alaia, critical as always, and witty in attacking the fashion world and the lovers they had, and Alexander a bit timid in presence of these two famous stars. But when they met again a few clouds later, they spoke about fashion and what fashion became the last 10 years. Alexander, partly the reason everything changed, was silent, but when the topic ‘design’ came up they all three get again excited and there was a nice feeling; finally, they can talk freely about the stress, that especially Alexander felt at the moment he left the earth. But they enjoyed so much each other company, that without planning it they started having this idea of working together and launching a next line; no name, only lightness. What was so exciting was the fact that, here in the clouds, the pressure is gone, no time to be ready, no seasons, no drops, no collaborations, no extra shows for promoting whatever new idea. Just the three of them sitting together not even drawing as Karl left all his pencils behind. They look upon the work of the younger gods but are not really impressed by their creativity. Suddenly Coco passes by; there was a kind of embarrassing feeling as if they were doing a kind of reunion without inviting her. It was she who changed dramatically fashion with her minimalistic style for woman. Some wide trousers and a small sweater! Amazing how simple her style was and how modern, exactly the style to be successful today on earth! A few clouds later they saw each other again as the section ‘creatives’ in the clouds is not that huge. They abandoned immediately the idea of working together; the embarrassing moment encountering Coco was crystal clear to them that those situations were over! No fashion, please, only friendship, love, dream, enjoying the clouds; no misery of fashion systems, old dated and so time consuming! All those years running behind time! Forget it! Let the new gods struggle for their freedom, we have done enough; The younger gods smile, dreaming of heavenly bodies to dress; they think heaven might be boring and sad; the theatre of fashion is on earth. While we, humans,  celebrate the gods in the clouds, the living gods receive awards, trying to keep their believe in the religion called ‘fashion’ high. Maybe, one day, they will become human again! But then, from the earth arrived a bad dream, the apocalypse; the earth burning, thousands of animals dying, followed by the virus, stronger than the fashion virus killing people from all over the world. They watch from above saying they escaped this traumatic moment the earth is undergoing. Karl and Azzedine looked at Alexander as he knew that the apocalypse was threatening the fashion system, a system sick of greed and money. He knew when leaving the world that all was wrong, that we focused on the wrong topics, namely doing billions of turnovers, focusing on new markets, forgetting the small and beautiful, always more, always more, he knew! He understood that the (fashion) virus kills humans by contamination, without compassion, creating fear and isolation obliging the humans to buy more; 2020, the year we thought would be beautiful symmetrical, energetic turned out to become a nightmare as schools closed, flights are canceled, borders closed. The gods in the clouds look at us, worried but also preoccupied and a bit pointing the finger to us as they predicted it all. We, humans, designers, models, influencers, the new stars on the firmament, overwhelmed with something stronger than fame and glory,  because stardom becoming ephemeral, goddesses to disappear. They thought to be immortal, dreaming of dresses that will never be produced becoming living posters on the cloud. Suddenly the dream is gone, finished, broken! The gods in the clouds are hearing a lot of noises, rumors, thunder storms, then a strange silence…The human voices first raw, heavy, become silenced, the lightness gone. They wrote about ‘Green thinking’ ‘sustainability’ creating a new vocabulary that became in use by all generations concerned about Mother Earth. To late! Fairs canceled, cruise collections canceled, parties and traveling canceled. The pleasures of the fashion system, dead, finished! Coco, the smart one, thought the ‘apocalypse’ seen from the clouds will be forgotten soon, like wars, like 9/11 or floods and fires as so many other catastrophes happening on earth. And fashion? Well it’s a money go around circus; who will have the courage to stop this useless business after the days of an ‘apocalypse’? Not one virus will be able to stop consuming fashion, is it?

Linda Loppa

March, 12, 2020