New York, Febuary 11th, 2012
Military-inspired trench coats; wool sweaters and tweed jackets — waxed and with vinyl visors for effect. Leather, shine and chiffon in black, oxblood red and an optic white. Alexander Wang makes safe clothes, for safe people. No risks here. Ready for the office or a night on the town, as they say here in America; these clothes will do the trick.
Safe & Boring; can be the epitaph of American Fashion today. Designers are taking fewer and fewer risks; and American based designers are taking even fewer risks than their European counterparts.
Yes, Alexander Wang is maturing into a more sophisticated designer; but is that all there is to Fashion? Apparently, in today's Fashion world it is. Why take risks? Everyone wants to fit in; and to fit in today means to conform to what everyone else is wearing. When Fashion is ruled by Bloggers; who all dress the same; and everyone reads and is up to date, minute by minute to the latest trends; everyone knows what everyone else is wearing and thus dress the same. This is Boring.
Sometimes; who cares what everyone else is wearing. If you really want to be edgy take a real risk. Despite all the hype in the fashion world about being hip, and edgy, the major retailers are drawn to what is safe, and what will sell. Buyers buy clothes they think will sell; and they buy what they say their customers will buy. I've heard this before; I've gone into Barney's and other stores and asked why they didn't carry a certain brand; and they say; oh our customers won't buy this; there is no customer base in this city that will buy these clothes etc. The public doesn’t know what it wants; it should be given options and choice's, it would never make on it's own; and encouraged to try new things. If you only buy a lot of the same clothes, for your customers, how do you know that's all they like? You have rigged the results.
American Department stores offer less fashion choices than European Department stores. New York Fashion Week is just perpetuating the undeveloped fashion sense of Americans.
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