As many of you may or may not know (depending on when you came on board to Cut, Sew and Blog) I will be presenting my Spring/Summer 2008 collection during Paris Fashion Week on/or about October 7, 2007 via the internet. Because of my plans to show in a new format, my daily routine hasn’t changed very much during New York Fashion week. Therefore, I have spent most of my lunch and dinner time checking out various designer fashion shows whilst recruiting for our upcoming Designers For Darfur event. Well, I must say that I have been pleasantly surprised by the talented designer and amazingly disappointed with some of the nuances of our beloved industry.
I had the pleasure of sitting front row and several established and emerging designer shows and therefore was able to see things from a entirely different perspective. Firstly the models… Some of these girls are still frighteningly thin… And for the first time, I was able to see my own role in this current state of sad affairs. Many of the models that I have seen on the runway have also been in my previous presentations and some of which I consider to be friends. Therefore, I can tell you this – most of these girls are naturally thin… But that isn’t the problem… The problem I believe is the fact that this is the image/ideal that we are heralding as being the look of fashion… When did this happen??? When did I become so brainwashed and so blinded that I bought into this as well… I left one show and actually felt ashamed of myself for not being able to see it sooner… As I type this I can almost remember the day and date that I got sucked into the matrix (only if I had a blog at the time, we could retrace my steps)… But in brief, it started when I began to listen to casting directors that would say to me “Oh you must use this great girl… She is doing eeevvvveeerrryyy thing… Both Stevens (Meisel and Klein) love her…” In my gut, I knew that these 15, 16 and 17 year old girls were wrong my clothes. The fact that I was taking in my size six and eight sample dresses and ruining the intended silhouettes should have been enough to send off warning bells, but the need to have the “it girl” in my show overrode all logic. Why, why, why did I cave in… I should have known better – I am a guy that used to idolize Cindy Crawford, Naomi Campbell, Christy Turlington... I truly should have known better... We should all be ashamed of ourselves. What is even scarier is the fact that this particular scandal has been once again swept under the well laid and decorated fashion carpet… I even overheard several front row types whispering to one another, “The girls look so much healthier this season. Isn’t it great.” I almost screamed at one editor that was clearly 150 “healthy and well nourished” pounds, “Have you also lost your mind? Some of these poor girls look like they can’t even blink their eyes they are so emaciated and dehydrated. Put the f***ken KoolAid down.” The fact that I am actually talking about it at this current moment might even get me bashed by my colleagues as being “so last season”… But to be quite honest, I could care less what they think of me anymore... I don’t mean this in a middle finger in the air kind of a way, but in a way that simply tries to explain that it is more important to be truthful than liked…
I have one other bee in my bonnet than I will allow you all to move on to your next blog experience…
When did all the designers in New York stop thinking… Everyone seems to be afraid of being criticized. Even when they weren’t being adventurous in their designs they were being too safe in their presentations. I myself am no Galliano when it comes to being “a wild and crazy guy”, but the very first question that I always ask myself when I am designing is this - - - “Have I seen it before?” If the answer is yes - I start over…
Okay, in the famous words of Forrest Gump – “Well that’s about all I have to say on that subject…”
Have a great weekend…
I had the pleasure of sitting front row and several established and emerging designer shows and therefore was able to see things from a entirely different perspective. Firstly the models… Some of these girls are still frighteningly thin… And for the first time, I was able to see my own role in this current state of sad affairs. Many of the models that I have seen on the runway have also been in my previous presentations and some of which I consider to be friends. Therefore, I can tell you this – most of these girls are naturally thin… But that isn’t the problem… The problem I believe is the fact that this is the image/ideal that we are heralding as being the look of fashion… When did this happen??? When did I become so brainwashed and so blinded that I bought into this as well… I left one show and actually felt ashamed of myself for not being able to see it sooner… As I type this I can almost remember the day and date that I got sucked into the matrix (only if I had a blog at the time, we could retrace my steps)… But in brief, it started when I began to listen to casting directors that would say to me “Oh you must use this great girl… She is doing eeevvvveeerrryyy thing… Both Stevens (Meisel and Klein) love her…” In my gut, I knew that these 15, 16 and 17 year old girls were wrong my clothes. The fact that I was taking in my size six and eight sample dresses and ruining the intended silhouettes should have been enough to send off warning bells, but the need to have the “it girl” in my show overrode all logic. Why, why, why did I cave in… I should have known better – I am a guy that used to idolize Cindy Crawford, Naomi Campbell, Christy Turlington... I truly should have known better... We should all be ashamed of ourselves. What is even scarier is the fact that this particular scandal has been once again swept under the well laid and decorated fashion carpet… I even overheard several front row types whispering to one another, “The girls look so much healthier this season. Isn’t it great.” I almost screamed at one editor that was clearly 150 “healthy and well nourished” pounds, “Have you also lost your mind? Some of these poor girls look like they can’t even blink their eyes they are so emaciated and dehydrated. Put the f***ken KoolAid down.” The fact that I am actually talking about it at this current moment might even get me bashed by my colleagues as being “so last season”… But to be quite honest, I could care less what they think of me anymore... I don’t mean this in a middle finger in the air kind of a way, but in a way that simply tries to explain that it is more important to be truthful than liked…
I have one other bee in my bonnet than I will allow you all to move on to your next blog experience…
When did all the designers in New York stop thinking… Everyone seems to be afraid of being criticized. Even when they weren’t being adventurous in their designs they were being too safe in their presentations. I myself am no Galliano when it comes to being “a wild and crazy guy”, but the very first question that I always ask myself when I am designing is this - - - “Have I seen it before?” If the answer is yes - I start over…
Okay, in the famous words of Forrest Gump – “Well that’s about all I have to say on that subject…”
Have a great weekend…
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