If the creative director at one of the world’s most recognized and widely loved fashion brands is bored with fashion itself, what hope is there for the industry?
Last month, Dior’s creative director, Raf Simons, told ELLE:
“Too much gets smashed in people’s faces. Fashion is now pop, where it used to be a niche. It moves with such speed [that] sometimes it leads to a lack of depth. The mystique is gone. Now being a fashion designer is like becoming a lawyer.”
Then, in an about-face, he adds, “Fashion is overtly about commerce. That’s okay.”
The Death of Fashion?
There’s a bit of resignation, some powerlessness in those words. As much as Simons loves the art and architecture of dressmaking, the industry is not a friendly place. Between the obligatory showmanship, insane delivery schedules, the demands from press and publicity, the cattiness from critics … it’s hardly surprising that the creative heart might flicker out among these howling winds.
Simons is not the only one who feels that things in the world of fashion are seriously amiss.
Authors like Teri Agins, Elizabeth Cline, and Dana Thomas have long written about the unsustainable human, economic, and environmental hurt that have been inflicted in the name of fashion.
Leading trend forecaster Lidewij Edelkoort wields the heaviest hammer of all, taking the entire machinery of fashion to task in her the soon-to-be released manifesto “Anti_Fashion.” She’s been declaring the death of fashion as we know it, and “Anti_Fashion” will be a detailed indictment, point by point, from fashion education, to manufacturing, to marketing.
