Time operates in an upward, linear trajectory, but how we experience life is in a cyclical manner. Moments are re-visited and recycled, there are the occasional deja-vu’s and experiences that constantly resurface. Fashion operates in the same way. Perhaps fashion is just one big Proustian experience all together because what contemporary fashion has proven is that the past is inescapable. No matter how much time passes, or how much the industry progresses, we are always reminded of certain moments, and instances. Whether intentional or subconscious, we can not deviate from what was already established. Many of what is seen in fashion today are allusions to works that were created decades ago.

Sheridan Barnett, 1971/Damir Doma FW2010

This then raises the notion that the progression of fashion is debatable. Motifs and themes that we come across in editorials and runways are derivatives of past moments; residual strands of the garments that preceded them. 

YSL Le Smoking/ Givenchy FW2010

Yves Saint Laurent’s Le Smoking, the grandaddy of androgynous fashion, gave way to the menswear in women’s wear trend and has undoubtedly informed the way many women dress and how designers design. Androgynous dressing, which many naïvely think is synonymous with Rick Owens or Ann Demeulemeester, arguably would not have been pushed to such heights without Le Smoking. The trickle-down effect is so prevalent in fashion, yet often the references go unnoticed.  Claude Montana had theatrics, asymmetry and sculpted shoulders before Gareth Pugh’s apocalyptic androids and Christophe Decarnin lit the fire of “Balmania.”  Just so we’re clear.

claude montana/Rick Owens SS2010

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  • runimations
  • proust
  • history