Hello again dear readers! Last night I had the pleasure of attending, with a friend, the final show of Portland Fashion Week. Well, I say pleasure. And it was fun- we sat in the audience and took apart everything we liked and didn't like about each garment. But it was a bit of a disappointment, all in all. The show was DREAM LUXE, supposedly featuring luxury and avant-garde looks from various "edgier" designers*. It struck me, however, as decidedly alongside the Garde, rather than Avant it. In the words of my gentleman companion, regarding one look, "I think I saw someone wear that to a junior high dance."
The general tone of the show was, I suppose, unusual to those who aren't plugged in to what's going on in the more unusual areas of fashion, but to anyone who is at all aware of the various influential street fashion scenes worldwide, it was downright prosaic. I saw a lot of details, particularly graduated hems, that I've been seeing for a while all over the place. It was frustrating. Designers should design what they want, and if that means doing exactly what everyone else is doing then so be it I suppose, but that's not the kind of fashion design I want to do.
At work prior to the show, I had read an article one of my co-workers had posted on her cubicle. It was a piece written by John Waters about the sack dress and the idea of fashion making people angry. After the show, I re-read the article and was struck by how well it aligned with how I think about the role of fashion designers in society. He talks about how fascinated he was with the idea that an article of clothing could be so divisive, could make people so angry.
I guess it got me thinking- I don't want to make fashion that's "safe". I understand why people do, especially designers who are making their living off of their work, but I want to question things. I don't know if I want to make people angry, though. What I want to do is make things that people didn't know they needed until I made them. I want to design clothes that break all the rules of fashion, written and unwritten. I'm unsure if this is a viable business plan, but goddammit I'm going to try. My hope is that if I get good enough at what I do, and put my work out there, people will want it.
*I really, really hate the word edgy.
