If you are anything like me, you have totally watched this video three million times. I'm still kind of addicted to it though. A couple of weeks ago I was lucky enough to be invited to Mugler's menswear show. The first collection designed by Romain Kremer under the eye of art director Nicola Formichetti really was the thrill of Fashion Week. As I watched Rico Genest walk up and down the catwalk, like a living skeleton covered in white tulle, almost mystic, I realized something that has been confirmed with the appearance of Lady Gaga inside a sort of egg/chrysalis yesterday: fashion is getting devoid of all boundaries.
Is this good or bad? For some people it seems to be outrageous, but I simply love it! It's like the XXIst century fashion is a case of "can we go any further than this?" It's something that started last decade but I'm seeing more and more clearly how it will develop during the 2010's.
Not long ago I read an interview with photographer David Bailey in which he stated he felt like it was the 60's all over again: new ideas, young people with initiative and creativity all over the place. Well, it certainly is like that in fashion. It's not about breaking boundaries any more, but about not having any. I like to think this decade will carry the stamp of designers like Rick Owens, Gareth Pugh or Rodarte (to the point even Zara will imitate them, though I'm really not sure how I feel about that), that it will be aesthetically and ideologically influenced by a woman (Lady Gaga bien sûr; I mean who else?) and filled with innovative projects. Of course as Woody Allen says it's so difficult predicting things, and especially the future; but at a time when 13 year-olds like Tavi can be ranked among the most influential presonalities in the industry, when a male model like Andrej can go beyond male and female genres, when a fully skeleton-tattooed boy can become the inspiration for a respected French brand and a singer can appear at the Grammys by coming out of an egg (instead of posing with her hand on her hip like all the other boring "stars" do), we have a good head start.
Is this good or bad? For some people it seems to be outrageous, but I simply love it! It's like the XXIst century fashion is a case of "can we go any further than this?" It's something that started last decade but I'm seeing more and more clearly how it will develop during the 2010's.
Not long ago I read an interview with photographer David Bailey in which he stated he felt like it was the 60's all over again: new ideas, young people with initiative and creativity all over the place. Well, it certainly is like that in fashion. It's not about breaking boundaries any more, but about not having any. I like to think this decade will carry the stamp of designers like Rick Owens, Gareth Pugh or Rodarte (to the point even Zara will imitate them, though I'm really not sure how I feel about that), that it will be aesthetically and ideologically influenced by a woman (Lady Gaga bien sûr; I mean who else?) and filled with innovative projects. Of course as Woody Allen says it's so difficult predicting things, and especially the future; but at a time when 13 year-olds like Tavi can be ranked among the most influential presonalities in the industry, when a male model like Andrej can go beyond male and female genres, when a fully skeleton-tattooed boy can become the inspiration for a respected French brand and a singer can appear at the Grammys by coming out of an egg (instead of posing with her hand on her hip like all the other boring "stars" do), we have a good head start.
