Falling Short

Fashion Week Follow-Up

Fill in the blank to make the following statement true: The designs shown at Fall 2009 Fashion Week were not _____.

                               a) chic
                               b) diverse
                               c) wearable
                               d) original

If you answered “d” then you answered correctly. Congratulations! You’ve won an all-inclusive trip for two down my personal memory lane. (C’mon, you are reading my blog, after all. What’d you expect?)

There were many similarities between my experience at Fall 2009 Fashion Week and that of last September’s Spring 2009 Fashion Week. Most of these similarities would be considered positive: the entertainment-factor was high, the gift bags were full, the after party invites were incoming. It’s too bad, really, that I was distracted from all these perks by a preoccupation with a far more glaring similarity—a similarity that created in me a sensation one hopes never to encounter along the runway: Déjà vu.

Though all the cool-weather creations were beautiful, many were a bit too familiar for comfort. Pants were still tapered, bedazzlement was still “in” and jumpers still dominated the runway. Yet, no one seemed to notice the big, pink (or, in this case, black) elephant posing at the end of the catwalk.

Apparently, as the economy plummets, so, too, does inventiveness. Why this is the case, I’m not certain. I mean, ingenuity doesn’t cost a thing, so what exactly is the excuse here? Am I mistaken, or is “create original designs” not the first bullet point in the job description? Nevertheless, we can always find a silver lining, and in this case it is an opportunity to pinch a few pennies. As we await the bailout plan for this creativity crisis, just follow this advice: Hang onto what you’ve got—you’ll need it again next season.

Images courtesy of Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week