Fall fashion Paris 2012 is now officially over and the clothes that have been shown in the past days will be in store for Fall 2012 or in lay terms, these garments will be hitting the racks around mid-June thru September for fall selling and wearing....that is to say provided we don’t have Indian summer until November. So no matter where you shop, be it Barneys, Bergdorf’s, Bloomingdales, Saks, Jeffrey or eponymous boutiques or for that matter anywhere else, you will either be seeing these exact items or be feeling their influence. ..This collection will not be joining the others who have shown these past few days.
There comes a point when a designer pushes the envelope too far and sends out a collection that is so absurd and so outrageous that it might be called an insult to the intelligence of those in the audience and maybe even just a colossal waste of time. Mr. Browne who has never been known for anything other than shock for shock value may have outdone himself this time.
Obvious references to S&M and other fetishistic behavior took a star turn in this collection. Think Uncle Fester meets the Blonds, meets Dr. Frankenstein meets Quasi Modo meets Tim Burton meets Robert Mapplethorpe. My reaction is that this is an obscene waste of time and effort and can only be perceived as a play for the maximum amount of publicity based on the outrageousness of these clothes. After seeing this, one cannot be bothered with the blah blah blah nor any rationale for showing a load of crap like this…this is not theater, this is not pushing the envelope, this is completely and patently absurd and which would have qualified for a circus side show rather than a runway presentation.
As far as I am concerned, this is a collection that should be mocked and held up as an example of what is wrong with fashion today. 20 and 30 something editors and fashion victims who declare this as fabulous deserve to be fired and magazines that show this as editorial deserve to be boycotted by the fashion cognoscenti. There is absolutely no way that I can be any more subtle than what I have expressed and believe that anyone who has been around the block will agree with my assessment.
The collections have indeed closed Paris collections on a sour note and takes away and whatever dignity has been afforded to men’s fashion during its long history. Shame on the Chambre Syndicale and shame on Thom Browne.
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