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Latest Column: Sickly Chic (08-15-03)
"I saw the best minds of my generation destroyed by madness, starving hysterical naked, dragging themselves through the negro streets at dawn looking for an angry fix..." Howl (Ginsberg)
Okay, so maybe that's a bit dramatic, but these days designers seem to be a sickly bunch, and I for one am worried. About the '90's superstar designers in particular. You know, Calvin, Betsey, Isaac, of the Kate, Amber, Shalom decade. I don't have a DSM-IV on hand at the moment, but something tells me these designers need more than a pep talk to get back in the game...This week's MegaStyles: Sickly Chic (and I don't mean grunge.)
Calvin Klein: Depressed
Calvin Calvin Calvin. I've seen the signs and the signs are not good. Your usually stunning minimalist designs look like Gap prototypes, your latest nymphet muse is a Russian orphan with caterpillar eyebrows, and your name litters T-shirts from Appalachia to Idaho . Where is the old king of voyeurism, pedophilia, and basement pornography I knew in the 90's? Silenced by sales to Van Heusen? Finally feeling the effects of a decade spent in Studio 54? This minimalist mediocrity is a desperate cry for help. Or more invigorating drugs anyway.
Betsey Johnson: Amnesiac
Between the Playboy Bunny models and the Mexican fiesta girls, year after year your catwalk thrills. So why are your stores stagnating? Past shows highlighted marabou coats, pastel brocades, and tiered ruffle skirts, none of which found their way to your clothing racks. In their place hang the same tired fuchsia and black mesh party dresses we've seen for the past five years. Are there two Betsey Johnsons or have you forgotten about your retail chains entirely? Whatever it is Betsey darling, don't tease us. That's just mean.
Isaac Mizrahi: Manic Depressive
Isaac, you do a lot and you do it all fabulously. Fabulous clothing line. Fabulous documentary. Fabulous failure of clothing line. Fabulous phoenix-like rising. Fabulous one-man show. Fabulous shoes. Fabulous Oxygen cable program. But a fabulous clothing line for Target? I think you've burned yourself out. There's only so much of fabulous you to go around. Yes, lots of your fabulous '90's contemporaries have done lines for Target--Mossimo, Cynthia Rowley, Todd Oldham. But I'd rather see you screaming at supermodels for a new ready-to-wear show. Either way, you're doing too much too soon and you're going to hate yourself in the morning.
Meghan
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