Some people are fasion zombie-slaves, sad or fun :]

[Z...]

What's just as sad is that the expensive stuff eventually filters down (as you said) to the less expensive stores. My term for this stuff has now become psychopathic fashion.

I'm all for creativity (in the 80's, kids were cutting up their shirts), but there's nothing inspiring about this.

Well to be fair I always admired people who are ingenious enough to make such brand of their name, that even if they put it on the piece of crap it would sell for big bucks.
Admired their genius not their products ;)

 

[Joe]

Here's the item's description:

Editor's notes

Go for stylishly dishevelled cool in Balmain's olive green distressed detail cotton t-shirt. Work the runway look by teaming this statement staple with cargo pants and ankle boots for a luxe spin on utility chic.

stylishly dishevelled cool...luxe spin on utility chic...

The fashion industry seems to have created its own novlangue.

Or joined the rest of the planet and gone insane!

 

[Mrs.Tigersoap]

Insert Quote
It's a sad day when the "Derelicte" fashion (basically a fashion based off of how homeless people look) from the movie 'Zoolander' actually is a style.

The 'homeless' look showed in Zoolander was actually a reference to a 2000 Dior collection (designed by John Galliano) which had caused a scandal at the time. He had been 'inspired' by the homeless along the canals of Paris when he was jogging... He got a lot of criticism for it (but the house of Dior chose to keep him as artistic director, mind you - I guess any publicity is good publicity) but several magazines found the idea apparently appealing, since they made shoots inspired by the idea:
_http://www.twolia.com/blogs/teacups-and-couture/2009/10/02/bag-lady-haute-homeless/

The fashion industry is in the hands of pretty disturbed people and it's not surprising that things like that are encouraged.

 

[Jeremy F Kreuz]

my first reaction seeing these shirts was ´well I guess if they could claim this shirt was worn by a soldier fighting in Iraq or Afghanistan they probalby could charge the double,or if it was worn by one that got killed the triple.´ there seems to be this tendecy among many rich (who will never do the fighting) to mask themselves with clothing that make them look they belong to the grunts fighting the wars. Or maybe it is laughing in the faces of those who do the fighting.

 

[Gertrudes]

my first reaction seeing these shirts was ´well I guess if they could claim this shirt was worn by a soldier fighting in Iraq or Afghanistan they probalby could charge the double,or if it was worn by one that got killed the triple.

Exactly what I thought. And then I stopped and said, no wait, this is really done like this and double for the price.

_http://www.twolia.com/blogs/teacups-and-couture/2009/10/02/bag-lady-haute-homeless/


The fashion industry is in the hands of pretty disturbed people and it's not surprising that things like that are encouraged.

I agree Mrs. Tigersoap, the fashion industry really is in the hands of almost incomprehensible minds. I have always found interesting to look at magazines from the 20s, 30s and 40s. I used to collect them because I enjoyed looking at the trends, I found you could tell so much from the spirit of the time. I have a few images in my mind, I believe from the 40s (not sure though) of healthy girls smiling dressed in a very feminine fashion, that would on the other hand transmit the ideal of the good house wife so typical of that time. It really is interesting to see how much fashion has shaped the minds of people.

Nowadays, we have adolescent bodies with a facial expression that borders a poor attempt to look rebel or plain disgusted. At least that is what it transmits me. Walking in the city one can feel bombarded by these ads, you literally have them everywhere, and it is no wonder that adolescents are copying this rebel/careless attitude themselves. I'm not saying it all comes from fashion of course, but I think that fashion has been a great mind "sculptor".

 

[Oxajil]

Just read this...

Models with bald heads and faux beards were all the rage on Patrick Mohr's Berlin Fashion Week runway, last week. These UFO lookalike models had bald caps fitted on their heads, and long whiskers sprouting from their faces. Even the female models. The most bizarre thing? The clothes were surprisingly normal. But who was looking at the clothes, while trying to make sense of all the excess hair?

http://www.sott.net/articles/show/211948-The-Scariest-Runway-Show-in-Fashion-History

 

[dannybananny]

Just read this... Shocked

This is repulsive, especially the beard on woman. It 's maybe programming people to get used to bald heads because we are going to have soon a lot's of non-earthly balded aliens. I also wonder why this all models are so skinny(greys are also skinny). Do we see here maybe some corporate interests in disorders like anorexy and of course where is suffering there is a food foe upper floor.

The fashion industry is in the hands of pretty disturbed people and it's not surprising that things like that are encouraged.

Or they have to much free time. Today's standards for modern art and fashion had declined like they also want to lower peoples creativity and values of what's nice what isn't, it's dumbing down population, or maybe art and fashion is infiltrated with psychopaths and normally we can see degrading of it . I wonder how much people are wearing that kind of clothes? Most people see it repulsive but they don't, like living in their different world.

 

[Oxajil]

Or they have to much free time. Today's standards for modern art and fashion had declined like they also want to lower peoples creativity and values of what's nice what isn't, it's dumbing down population, or maybe art and fashion is infiltrated with psychopaths and normally we can see degrading of it . I wonder how much people are wearing that kind of clothes? Most people see it repulsive but they don't, like living in their different world.

That's what I think also. And I honestly see no creativity in that at all.

 

[Alana]

Just read this...

Models with bald heads and faux beards were all the rage on Patrick Mohr's Berlin Fashion Week runway, last week. These UFO lookalike models had bald caps fitted on their heads, and long whiskers sprouting from their faces. Even the female models. The most bizarre thing? The clothes were surprisingly normal. But who was looking at the clothes, while trying to make sense of all the excess hair?

http://www.sott.net/articles/show/211948-The-Scariest-Runway-Show-in-Fashion-History

Why would anyone want to make women look like that?! :O

Honestly, fashion is getting more and more unfeminine looking, beauty is distorted literally, but also in the perception of the beholders. We are (especially the younger people) being programmed to accept ugliness and unhealthiness as normal, even to become it. The model featured in photo of the sott article above looks like the result of radioactive experiments

 

[Laura]

What's just as sad is that the expensive stuff eventually filters down (as you said) to the less expensive stores. My term for this stuff has now become psychopathic fashion.

I'm all for creativity (in the 80's, kids were cutting up their shirts), but there's nothing inspiring about this.

Well to be fair I always admired people who are ingenious enough to make such brand of their name, that even if they put it on the piece of crap it would sell for big bucks.
Admired their genius not their products ;)

I agree with truthseeker, it's psychopathic, i.e. not genius, but con-artistry.

 

[mada85]

Why would anyone want to make women look like that?!

That was my first thought . . . why?? Frankly that photo on the SOTT article is really disturbing. There's no real creativity there, just some sick, jaded mind's attempt to go one step further than its competitors.

The model featured in photo of the sott article above looks like the result of radioactive experiments

Remember those people who were being experimented on by the lady doctor, in the film V for Vendetta? The model reminds me of that, too.

 

[truth seeker]

Well to be fair I always admired people who are ingenious enough to make such brand of their name, that even if they put it on the piece of crap it would sell for big bucks.
Admired their genius not their products ;)

I don't think it's true genius. I think what's happened is that the designer was either born into circumstances that allowed them access to people who could help them get their product out there or they learned how to play the game (essentially look at what everyone around them doing and do the same thing). Basically, if you don't do what we do, you won't be successful (fit in). This idea is at the core of the psychopathic corporation model.

In my opinion, this is why there is such a big deal made out of what women are wearing at awards ceremonies. Designs are sent out to actresses in the hopes that they will be worn at the awards. It's free advertising. As soon as the show airs, the media goes into overdrive about what designer a particular person wore. Shortly afterwards, knockoffs (imitations) are produced at lesser value. I believe some form of this system plays out on other levels as well (reality shows, television tabloids, movies, etc). It's even started up again in politics with the obsession of the wives of Obama and Sarkozy.

It comes from the top down - the styles and colors are decided on by a few (which is why you see virtually the same thing in every store and in remarkably similar colors). Every 4 or five years, they move in the opposite direction and tout it as "new". An example of this would be long skirts versus micro minis. In addition to all that, there also seems to be a 30 year (or so) turnaround. By this I mean they'll have a throwback style which hooks into people's sense of nostalgia like the 60's, 70's 80's.

Fashion is used to keep people in a constant state of feeling like they have to belong to a particular group while at the same time encouraging feelings of being separate/alienated from others. It is also used to shape "values". Because they're currently trying to normalize war, much of the fashion has a military look to it. The same goes with the gangster style (pants that don't fit and hang down, lots of "bling").

They would easily have us believe that it's "just fashion", but in reality, it's just a way to further control the thoughts of the overall population.

 

[truth seeker]

This site has an interview with the designer from the Sott piece.

_http://www.sleek-mag.com/sleek_daily/mercedes-benz-fashionweek/the-road-to-hell-is-paved-with-good-intentions-–-patrick-mohr’s-disturbing-show/

 

[Hildegarda]

It comes from the top down - the styles and colors are decided on by a few (which is why you see virtually the same thing in every store and in remarkably similar colors). Every 4 or five years, they move in the opposite direction and tout it as "new". An example of this would be long skirts versus micro minis. In addition to all that, there also seems to be a 30 year (or so) turnaround. By this I mean they'll have a throwback style which hooks into people's sense of nostalgia like the 60's, 70's 80's.

Here is an interesting account ago which confirms that this was the fashion industry's modus operandi since its inception. It is from a book, "LIfe Stories of Undistinguished Americans as Told by Themselves", collected and published at the turn of the 20th century. Says Amelie de Moulin, a French dressmaker who had immigrated temporarily to New York, about her early years in Paris:

_http://www.archive.org/stream/lifestoriesundis00holtrich/lifestoriesundis00holtrich_djvu.txt

It was not very long before I found out just how the fashions are made. There are three great establishments in Paris that lead
all others. These have very clever men work ing for them as designers of cloaks, hats and dresses. These designers not only know all
the recent fashions, but also all the fashions that there were in the world hundreds of years ago. They have books full of pictures to help
them, and what they try to do is to make the women change their dresses just as often as possible. That s the reason they keep chang
ing the fashions.

Each time they make a new fashion they make it just as unlike the one that went before as can be, so that things that are six months old
look ridiculous, and the women all over the world who are trying to follow the fashions put the old dresses away, even though they
have only been worn once or twice. One time the sleeves are big at the shoulders and narrow at the wrists and at another time narrow at the shoulders and big at the wrists. One time the dress is tight at the waist and another time loose, and there are all sorts of changes in the
size, shape and hang of the skirt ; and in addition all the changes of fashion in colors and materials.

The keynote of fashion making is change, for the women all over the world are watching Paris, and they say, " You might as well be
out of the world, as out of the fashion." The greater the changes the more dresses sold.

When these great milliners have decided on the new fashions they get some of the best known women in the city to lead off with them.
These women are given magnificent costumes of the newest design to wear, and, in some cases, are even paid for wearing them. Of
course these women are great beauties, and when they appear in the parks, or at the opera, all the other women envy them, and all those
who can, run away and get something of the same kind.

 

[Hildegarda]

Fashion is used to keep people in a constant state of feeling like they have to belong to a particular group while at the same time encouraging feelings of being separate/alienated from others.

To be fair, the fashion is also created by a genuine "bottom up" process of people polising and evolving their own style, utilizing both their own creativity and what's offered in specialty and mainstream retail. Looking at others for inspiration and exchanging ideas or skills required to realize them is a natural process for people. The designers are also known to routinely scan streets for a whiff of the next wave of fashion development.

Celebrities come into this picture because they are in the view and present some image that people genuinely relate to; this process can be subverted by the industry but the popular drive does remain. Michelle Obama has already been mentioned, and IMo she is a case in point: she is admired for her style but is actually a very "democratic" dresser, which is a big part of her style's appeal. Even for official functions, she favors JCrew which is a mainstream mid-priced mall brand, and her favorite designers are smaller names that favor simplicity rather than opulence. One of them, Maria Pinto, has just recently closed her shop and filed for bankruptcy: her stuff wasn't selling in today's economy despite all the attention she received as "Michelle Obama's designer".

The designers can offer "the bearded women" look all they want, but ultimately the power of natural selection of those things out of existence lies with us, and I like to remind that to myself when I look at something ugly and cringe. What they are showing on podiums is a "test-drive" of sorts, and if they do bring it to mass market and it flops, then the joke's on them. E.g., starting at about 2005-2006 women's shops were taken over by voluminous long blouses and wide-sleeved boxy cropped jackets, which flatter no figure at all other than a petite and boy-thin frame. Then finally some bright mind in NYT wondered, "could the apparel retail sector be doing so particularly badly in this economy because today's fashion just doesn't appeal to women?" Well, duh!

fwiw