FASHION WEEKS − SPRING SUMMER 2019 COLLECTIONS
NEW YORK, LONDON, MILAN, PARIS. SEPTEMBER 2018
Who can describe fashion weeks more profoundly and intelligently than the masterful Tim Blanks? No-one − for he is the absolute genius analysing, putting in context and describing what was going on for spring 2019 this September in New York, London, Milan and Paris. As I cannot compete with Tim Blanks, I will try to give my humble comments. Dressing-up however we want and however we like might be the only freedom left to us in this new society; bodies and minds are globally different and we will continue to make the choices for dressing-up or dressing-down. Political influences, the #MeToo movement and gender freedom apart, we dress, we shop, we like, we dislike fashion. In this hybrid post-modern society, let’s search together for the “Modern” in it!
Starting off with the New York fashion week in mid-September, press, critics and fashion lovers could witness the variety of styles fashion was going to offer. Focused on diversity, New York fashion week was not really about content but more about freedom of expression. And what freedom there was! Diversity in gender, race, styles, colours, models, sizes and front-row stars. Families were on the stage as well as friends, children and finally the models. This created a chaotic moment where fashion was subordinated to the wild expression of anything that could be called design based on tailoring. Even Calvin Klein was disappointing and I felt as if Raf Simons and Pieter had missed a season; we wanted fresh summer spring details and we were given heavy blazers, skirts missing pieces because of a shark bite and no coherent ideas, all mixed together in a repetitive way that lacked impact. Too many references made the collection look like the work of a recent fashion graduate. Raf Simons can do better…
