New York Fashion Week Preview: The 15 Questions on Fashionable Minds
By Maya Singer
Get ready for a change of scenery. The fashion pack is on the move: This season, as we bid a fond—or not-so-fond—adieu to Lincoln Center, it seems like the place to go is Cuba, the place to show is L.A., and the place to chow down during New York fashion week is the Lower East Side. The Instagram posts may all look alike, but at least the backdrops are changing.
Did you enjoy your week off?
Last fashion week kicked off with a truly magnificent, industry-wide chorus of bitching and moaning, courtesy of a seemingly earlier-than-usual start date.No, no, protested the poo-bahs who control the calendar. Labor Day fell early, and thus fashion week had to start lickety-split, straight after that. Did it, though? Did it have to? Anyway, who cares, because this fashion season is starting a week later than it typically does. The reasons are mysterious, or maybe they’re not, but we’re too psyched to probe. We’d rather go see a movie or something. Maybe even sneak off to Miami for a couple of days of sunshine. Or get a head start on our taxes. Whatever. A whole week! Sure, the calendar is still a mess, but seriously, we’ve got no complaints. Except maybe about the weather.
Related: Street-Style Shopping – Here Comes Fashion Month
Will a move downtown make the tents cool again?
That’s the idea. Folks at IMG—the entity that owns and runs the fashion show venue at Lincoln Center—aren’t talking on the record about the reasons for the shows’ planned move downtown after this season. Off the record, though, the message is: We hear you. With the bulk of New York’s runway action happening downtown—in West Chelsea, the Meatpacking District, and, lately, West Soho—tripping up to the so-called tents was getting to be a giant drag for everyone involved. IMG gets that, and they understand, too, that the lineup at Lincoln Center has lacked for, shall we say, quality control, and that the experience of checking in for shows at the sponsor-heavy Lincoln Center lobby was, in a word, oppressive. The goal is to find a space downtown for the shows that’s less costly and that will allow programmers to be both more curatorial in the selection of designers that show and more considered in the sponsor presence. Meanwhile, Simon Collins, the former dean of the School of Fashion at Parsons the New School for Design, has been brought on as a consultant, and IMG is in the final stages of its planned acquisition of Made Fashion Week, headquartered at Milk Studios. In the past few years, Made’s founders—Jenné Lombardo, Keith Baptista, and Mazdack Rassi—have established Milk as a secondary mainstage for New York fashion week. Whether IMG can re-establish “the tents,” as they’ll forever be known, as the city’s main mainstage is a question that will be answered in September—though let’s just say the only way is up (but definitely not uptown).
Is the Lower East Side the new _____?
While fashion show geography consolidates along downtown’s west side corridor, fashion scene geography would appear to be migrating east. If you’d like to take a meal during New York fashion week where you can see and be seen, plan on heading to the Lower East Side. All the buzziest new dinner joints are in that neighborhood: The folks behind Carbone opened Dirty French in The Ludlow hotel last fall; Mission Chinese has just reopened on the edge of Chinatown; Tijuana Picnic, the brand-spanking-new place from Indochine and Acme honchos Jean-Marc Houmard and Jon Neidich, is located on a previously moribund stretch of Essex Street. Meanwhile, Ivan Ramen is still packing ‘em in, and longtime fashion favorite Dimes is planning an expansion from its postage-stamp-sized space on Division Street. After a few years in which industry hot spots have been here, there, and everywhere—resulting in more than a few hair-raising surge-priced Uber charges—there’s some comfort to be had in anticipating that most of this season’s hang time will occur right off the last few Manhattan stops on the F train.
Will Cuba be the new Tulum?
Hold your horses, people. We all know that fashion folk love to pioneer new getaway locations, and in light of the recent defrosting of U.S.-Cuba relations, Havana and its surrounding Caribbean beaches look mighty tempting. What’s not to like? Short flight from New York; authentic architecture that may be in need of repair but that hasn’t been ruined by mall culture; and in case of emergency, the health care is excellent. (Thanks, Castro!) But be forewarned: Tourist travel is still a no-go, according to the State Department. If you want to go to Cuba, you have to sign an affidavit swearing your trip is for one of 12 approved purposes. The most fudge-able is perhaps “professional research,” an omnibus category that could arguably include, er, seeking collection inspiration or scouting for models. As an article in The New York Times noted, however, you have to keep a record of your daily activities and hold on to all your receipts for a period of five years, and if you’re found to have spent all your time in Cuba lapping up the sunshine, you could, technically, go to jail. Probably not the exotic getaway anyone has in mind, even the most ardent devotee ofOrange Is the New Black. Better stick to Costa Rica for another year.
What’s the deal with that new guy at Gucci?
Two weeks ago, even the most tapped-in fashion watcher would have been hard-pressed to answer the question, “Who is Alessandro Michele?” Now, as everyone knows, Michele is the new creative director of Gucci. The longtime head of accessories at the brand, Michele was strictly a background guy until he took his bow at the close of the Gucci menswear show in Milan last month. And that may turn out to be a good thing: Although fashion’s chattering classes love nothing more than to float familiar names for potential job vacancies, the record shows that behind-the-scenes experience often trumps buzz when it comes to charting a major luxury house’s course. There are exceptions, of course—Marc Jacobs’ tenure at Louis Vuitton was game-changing, to cite but one example. But with the present demands on designers, who are expected to turn out four womenswear collections per year, plus two menswear collections at a house such as Gucci, it’s probably insane to think that a buzzy young designer with a label of his or her own could manage the creative and logistical demands of heading a huge luxury brand, as well. And in the meantime, names we once didn’t know are ones we’ve come to know well: Phoebe Philo made her reputation at Chloé, where she was elevated from second-in-command; Maria Grazia Chiuri and Pierpaolo Piccioli earned their stripes designing accessories at Valentino, under Valentino, before taking the reins at the house. Likewise, Alessandro Michele’s long experience at Gucci means that he comes to his new role with a profound understanding of the brand’s aesthetic vocabulary, not to mention knowledge of how the company works that can be gleaned only by day-in, day-out, year-in, year-out experience. The question is how will his approach differ from that of his predecessor, Frida Giannini, who started off on the accessories side herself? The answer would seem to be markedly, judging by the recent menswear collection that Michele threw together in a matter of days. Come Milan fashion week, we’ll get to see what he can do with more time—if only a little—on his hands.
Will Anthony Vaccarello bring sexyback at Versus?
All the Gucci talk the last couple of months got us thinking: Remember sex? “Sexy” was the Tom Ford signature when he revived the brand, back in the ’90s, and maybe we’re just under the influence of Black Messiah, but it’s hard not to feel nostalgic for those days. If D’Angelo can release a horny-making record after 14 long years, surely “sexy” can make a fashion comeback, too? Sure, sex is all over fashion ad campaigns and editorials, but it’s been in short supply on the runway of late—at least in sophisticated enough form for it to merit our attention (or our respect). But we’ve got high hopes for Anthony Vaccarello, now that he’s officially in creative charge of Versus. The Versace-owned brand is another one with “sexy” in its DNA, and Vaccarello is one of the few designers around with the chops to stay on the right side of the line separating “racy” from “porny.” That slit-up-to-there dress of his that Anja Rubik wore to the Met ball in 2012 had a certain Basic Instinctfrisson, for instance—to cite another ’90s throwback. Were people having more sex in the ’90s? If so, then Versus, another icon of the era, may be the perfect platform for a revival.
Is 80 the new 20?
It’s rare for our industry to step out of its age-normative default setting, but older women have been in the fashion spotlight lately. Note the Dolce & Gabbana campaign, and Joni Mitchell modeling for Saint Laurent, and Joan Didion, 80 and still cooler than the rest of us, in that ceaselessly Instagrammed Céline ad. Does that mean we’ll be seeing older models at the shows? Maybe. Lanvin went that route to much acclaim last season, but for most designers it will probably be a case of one- or two-off—happy-making stunt casting. On the other hand, if you’re a woman of a certain age, with a whole lifetime of experience behind you, would your first priority be to run around like a chicken with your head cut off, trying to make call times at five or six shows per day only to be repeatedly jostled by dressers, hairstylists, and makeup artists backstage? Leave that nonsense to the teenagers, we say.
Related: A Look Inside Dolce & Gabbana’s Extravagant New Collection
Can we establish some ground rules for avoiding the eye-glazing Insta-feed?
Dear Reader,
We write as confirmed fans of Joan Didion. Devotees, even. We’ve read Slouching Towards Bethlehem six times since high school. We wept through Vanessa Redgrave’s entire performance ofThe Year of Magical Thinking on Broadway. We donated to the Didion doc her nephew Griffin Dunne is making. We emoji heart Joan. And we never, never, never want to see another Instagram of that Céline ad, ever again.
Speaking of which. As we head into another fashion season, can’t we all agree that we’re tired of seeing basically the same shots from shows over and over again? Congrats, you sat front-row at Dior and have the runway pic to prove it. So do—minimum—12 other people in your fashion friends’ feed. Post from the shows, by all means, but for the love of God, find some way to make your photo stand out. Get a shot of a cool shoe. Catch a celeb’s reaction to an outré look. Something.Anything that would invite a person seeing said photo to think,Hey, this was taken by a person with a unique point of view. Because, seriously, the show spam is getting tiresome.
Also, if you’ve neverread Joan Didion, maybe you shouldn’t have re-grammed that Céline ad in the first place. Just saying.
Yours sincerely,
The Internet
Feminism: One and done?
Feminism was a hot topic last season, with all the front-row chatter about Beyoncé at the VMAs and Emma Watson at the United Nations culminating in that zeitgeisty faux-protest (faux-test?) on the Chanel runway in Paris. People had mixed feelings about that stunt—one editor described her reaction to Karl’s placard-wielding models as “a Situationist breakdown”—but if nothing else, it raised the volume on theretofore sotto voce conversations about the often-fraught relationship between feminism and fashion. Alas, that talk has died down. But women’s rights don’t lack for urgency just because some new hashtag is trending on Twitter. Consider the fact that, at the State of the Union address last month, zero Republicans stood to applaud when President Obama asserted the need to strengthen federal equal-pay laws for women. Consider, as well, that these Republicans now control both houses of Congress, and that we’re beginning another presidential election cycle, and that at least two of the staunchly pro-choice justices on the Supreme Court, Stephen Breyer and Ruth Bader Ginsburg, are likely to retire in the next few years. It would be a real shame if fashion folk decided to stop paying attention now, just because “feminism,” the shorthand we use for “women’s rights,” isn’t such novel cocktail party fodder anymore. It would be a shame for feminism, and it would be a shame for fashion, too. Outsiders already tend to assume that fashion insiders are glib and flighty. Let’s prove we’re not.
Can Björk be a fashion muse?
It’s part of the vernacular to refer to musicians, of all stripes, as “artists.” Björk is one of the few for whom the label rings absolutely true. Like a Mike Kelley, say, or a Gerhard Richter, her two decades’ worth of work is marked both by its range and its internal consistency. She invented that elusive thing, “Björk-ness,” and continually challenges herself to shift its formal parameters—testing audience expectations along the way. Björk is not a provocateur, she’s not engaging in exercises of studied reinvention; she’s making Art, with a capital A. MoMA has acknowledged as much: In March, the museum opens a retrospective of her work, across all media, organized by PS1 director Klaus Biesenbach. It will be interesting to see whether any fashion designers take the bait. Björk’s unconventional sense of style is as hard to pin down as her musical oeuvre—even when she’s collaborated with designers such as Hussein Chalayan or Alexander McQueen, it’s the Björk-ness that comes through. She’s never really served as a muse. But we wouldn’t be surprised to see a tribute or two on the Fall runways.
Click here for all the questions on fashionable minds this fashion week.
More from Style.com:
Tommy Ton Shoots the Best Street Style at the Couture Shows Chanel 2015 Spring Couture
Louis Vuitton Pre-Fall 2015
Exclusive: All the Details Behind Katy Perry’s Halftime Looks
photo: humzadeas/Instagram; Getty Images; Indigitalimages.com
