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"At the opening of the period, in 1770, a writer had projected a new scheme for providing for paupers. He called it a House of Terror: it was to be a place where paupers would be confined at work for fourteen hours a day and kept by a starvation diet. For a new type of personality had emerged, a walking abstraction: the Economic Man.
These new economic men sacrificed their digestion, the interests of parenthood, their sexual life, their health, most of the normal pleasures and delights of civilized existence to the untrammeled pursuit of money and power. Nothing retarded them; nothing diverted them...except finally the realization that they had more money than they could use, and more power than they could intelligently exercise. Outside the industrial system, the Economic Man was in a state of neurotic maladjustment. These successful neurotics looked upon the arts as unmanly forms of escape from work and business enterprise: but what was their one-sided, maniacal concentration upon work but a much more disastrous escape from life itself? In only the most limited sense were the great industrialists better off than the workers they degraded: jailor and prisoner were both, so to say, inmates of the same House of Terror". Technics and Civilization.
The fact is that most of the designers showing at New York Fashion Week Fall 2103 belong in a trade show not on a runway.
The runway used to be more exclusive.
It was not simply about how many dollars you could cough up to become part of the "fashion week" machine. If you can pay to show, your label can be part of Fashion Week today. The leveling down of New York Fashion Week is the outcome of corporate branding taking over the fashion industry in America. Or as CATHY HORYN of the New York Times says: “The problem is there are too many labels and not enough genuine talent”. This is the Celebrity Fashion of today where anyone can be a fashion designer. In fact; one need not have talent; like everything in America today; talent is not a prerequisite for ones employment. This levels down everything. The leveling down of the education system in this country is a good metaphor for what is going on in the fashion industry in America. Knowledge is not important; so why should talent be important for a fashion designer?
Fashion in America today represents the new police state that rules America. America is no longer the land of the free since 911; and the war on terror. The blandness in fashion is reflective of any authoritarian regime such as the former Soviet Union and up until recently China, which is now emerging as a center of fashion! If you want to understand today’s fashion go to Shanghai and see the cultural awaking of the sleeping giant.
Band of Outsider’s showed a quirky 1940s inspired collection that was less offensive than most of the shows shown so far. Big-shouldered shapes harkened back to Hollywood’s film noir; with a twist of modern technology.
Menswear pinstriped shirtdresses, and a variety of classic wool suiting materials. The dresses were a highlight of the show, particularly the nipped-waist pencil dresses with small Atari character prints; other strong looks included the slouchy pinstripe and micro-check suits and a pleated skirtsuit of patch worked Black Watch plaid. The capes, and the knit turban caps brought the show to a cohesive ending; which mitigated the lackluster presentation.
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