Camel Tone

Dries Van Noten blazer, Club Monaco t-shirt, J. Crew pants, seal mocassins by Odette LeBlanc

 I had all these grand blog plans for NYFW.  I would finally be inspired by new creative visions daily to resuscitate my style from the ease of the dog days of summer.   I would create outfits based on my favorite collections!   To my chagrin, that turned out to be a total of two-and-a-half collections, (with a handful of honorable mentions) which made me think to give up the whole endeavor altogether.   Even the "trends" that have emerged as NYFW draws to a close are weak and half-hearted at best:  sheers, nudes, whites, the '70s, seafoam green.  Is this all American fashion has to offer?

But first the good, I loved the direction and aesthetic of the Richard Chai Love show.  This was sheer taken to a new level--not merely addressed, but reinterpreted really.  There are bits and pieces of the sheer elements seen in some recent Marc Jacobs shows, some Helmut Lang influence in the minimalism, but I think Richard really put something together that subsumed those influences  successfully to create an attitude and look that was truly his.    

I also thought the Rodarte collection was fantastic.  While they may have toned down the other-worldliness of their fairy/elfin/warrior/princess creations in favor of a down to earth and  (literally) roots-y collection, I don't think much was lost in the transition.  To me, it was easily the most inspired and inspiring collection I had seen all week.  It was the only collection I didn't have to intellectualize and rationalize.  The only one that seemed to speak to that intuitive part of me that adores fashion.  The amalgamation of wood prints (and I thought only McQueen could pull off such a daring concept), Chinese porcelain prints and lumberjack plaids hit a strong chord in me--and while it might be a little dissonant, that's what makes it all the more provocative and stirring.

The last collection that caught my eye was Proenza Schouler, although it was no where near as innovative and evocative as the last two seasons where they really had strong  and unique points of view.  This season was still very Proenza cool, but muddled with some Chanel and ladies-who-lunch thing.  There were  indeed many pretty things, many cool things, many chic things, but I didn't really get where this girl came from or was going, other than from a very cool boutique. Will I end up wanting and buying pieces from the collection?  Definitely.  Just wish they had gone a little further with the concept because we all know they can.

And this brings me to my overall critique of what I saw everyday from NYFW:  reiteration not innovation.  I fear that the "nostalgia obsession" that seems to have consumed all other aspects of American culture has finally gotten at American fashion as well.  In small doses, and in the right context, nostalgia can be an effective vehicle through which to achieve emotional resonance with one's audience.  But nostalgia for nostalgia's sake does nothing but suffocate originality.   Not to say that  the past should not influence the present and future.  To the contrary, intelligent study of the past is the key to future innovation and success; however, nostalgia shouldn't be confused with history, it is sentimentality plain and simple.  A forlorn remnant of something past.  There is no zeitgeist in that pleasant memory to forge ahead on which to pave new paths and to improve older ones.  There is instead a yearning to recreate the pleasant feeling--it's the ultimate opiate.

American politics has fallen prey to a misplaced nostalgia for the good ol' days, back when women and minorities and homosexuals and poor people weren't given the time of day (thank you Glenn Beck and FoxNews).  It goes: things aren't so great now, so let's re-create the past, but not even how it actually was, but in how we mistakenly wish-remember it!  Yes!  Historical revisionism at it's best.  Same goes with pop culture.  Pop music is just lesser and lesser auto-tuned copies of Madonna or Michael Jackson or the Beatles or Nirvana or something else from decades ago.  The "independent" music scene is no better.  Hipsters love their nostalgia like no other, first supposedly "ironically", now with reckless abandon.    Even restaurants have gotten in on the nostalgia kick, each week some new restaurant dedicated to some kind of gluttonous comfort food you only got on special occasions when you were a kid.  And, of course, all are supremely successful because they give people want they want--a fuzzy feel-good but completely sedated life, drug-free!  I had hoped that at least fashion would not fall prey to such an easy cop-out.  An industry obsessed with the new couldn't become complacent with mere copies of the past? But then Marc Jacobs sends out a horribly literal amalgamation of '70s Yves Saint Laurent, Missoni, etc., and is lauded all around.  Yes, the clothes are pretty--but that's it.  There was  just no point of view,  no statement, only some pretty things to pass the time with.  I guess that's ok.  But it's definitely not great.