I may be fighting a lost cause but I’ll fight it all the same. This may all be falling upon deaf hears but hurrah for the blog platform as a way of being a free voice opinionator so ye shall have to listen to me harping on about it all the same. It appears that 2008 may see a turning point in high street fashion where people are going to make a shift over from ‚ÄòMust Buy As Much As Possible‚Äô to saving their pennies for something that is a lot more sustainable. Bloggers, (always ahead of the game!) have started to self impose shopping bans or stick to buying only vintage items. My point is though, that it‚Äôs not just about spending money on fewer things that will ultimately last longer but also spending money on the ‚Äòdeets‚Äô that will really make your high street purchases sing. So I say by all means, hike the prices up a touch more for both the sake of a more ethical way of production but selfishly for my own personal taste‚Äôs sake, to bring us those all important ‚Äòdeets‚Äô or interesting features that are more than likely to catch a customer‚Äôs eye and ergo spend their dough. You might say that ‚Äòdeets‚Äô should be only reserved for designers who use the ‚Äòdeets‚Äô to distinguish themselves from the mass retailers. Whilst that may be true, and of course I‚Äôm still willing to pay for designers that capture my heart (purse strings dependent of course….), I feel that people paying say ¬£50-¬£60 for a skirt, ¬£80 for a dress and ¬£100-¬£150 for a coat (still a very long way from designer prices…) deserve a bit more oomph, right?
I use the recent London College of Fashion MA show where many of my favoured ‘deets’ were demonstrated. Perhaps I’m overreaching and perhaps I haven’t a clue what it would take to produce something of this ilk on a larger scale but like I said, I don’t mind fighting lost causes.
Mihrican Damba – The gradiated colours and the structural detailing have been employed here to flatter the body which makes it more of an incentive for the high street to get in on the body-flattering game and of course makes it even better for me to wear my beloved gradiated colours.
Pi Ying Chen – Why ignore the back when something this sculptural can be created. Ok, so we’re verging on something quite unwearable in reality but on a less exaggerated scale, something like back pieces jutting out would look amazing, contrasted with a plain front.
Siobhan McHugh – There are hints of Marios Schwab/Husam el Odeh here with the Perspex embellishment but I love the idea of screwing on pieces onto a top to add interest. // Tracy Oak – Ruching is nothing new and I’ve seen many a high street example but perhaps something quite exaggerated on an unexpected texture could work quite nicely.
Paul Robinson – Ruffles/tiers that aren’t perfectly regular gives liberty for mistakes in alignment to be made and I like the way it looks a bit haphazard and ‘wrong’.
Yoon Hyung Bae – Interested sleeve shapes such as the looser short sleeve over the tighter long sleeve here. // Hanna Jung – Prints that aren’t immediately obvious and rather than the loud and gaudy sort, I yearn for the delicate and slightly odd.
Asking for too much? Perhaps. I‚Äôve always been a cake possessor and eater though….
Buying (or designing) for the middle market is a treacherous enterprise. This explains some of the truly ghastly choices found on the High Street–there are plenty of shoppers out there who will buy the most execrable item on the rack. Buying and designing are scientific processes, not emotional ones.
A lot of thought and financial analysis has gone into what we (fashion lovers) perceive to be the most unappealing and useless items.
This is why you don’t see items like these as inspiration, yet the Burberry tough leather was (translated onto plastic). The great shopping collective can be counted on only to have the widest awareness, not the most artistic.
The spectacle print is stunning–I covet it. All the detail and attention put into each piece is so nice–clothing is so much more worthwhile and wonderful when each piece makes a statement.
Those are all gorgeous pieces!
It may be a lost cause, but it’s yours for which to fight. With more voices like yours (and your invites to Paris and now New York demonstrate that people are listening to you, yes you Suzie Bubble!) perhaps we will see this kind of change, where people will begin to take more pride not just in what they wear but also what they make.
at times i think i prefer students designs to actual famous designers because of the surge of creativity that goes on. they just seem to be much more original. loving the sunglasses dress:D
xx
Most of the pieces are cool. I like the idea of umbrella and dress on the same patterns, maybe not real, but very funny
I think that being a bit more restrained in my buying is a definite option for me this year. Perhaps not a total ban on purchasing (coz that would be crazy, for me anyway) but a more considered approach to the whole matter is needed I think. all things considered some of my best purchases have been on impulse but then again, so have some of my worst. i feel key pieces for ones look should be considered and carefully sort after, I tend to find I will spend on none essentials and end up with a pile of crap which end up in a charity shop fairly quickly.
A definite point of consideration I think.
I’m also find that MA shows are bit more exciting than some established designers out there, perhaps because there’s more at stake for the people concerned. Shame the same desire fades with time.
these are gorgeous deets… i think the solution is listen to your better judgement, and you always pick beautiful things…
really… i cant say which of these picks is my favorite, they are all gorgeous.
I don’t think it’s a lost cause, but it is a difficult one – to get consumers as a whole to wean themselves off cheap, rapid, disposable consumption. It’s terribly addictive, though the concept of ‘deets’ does help to curb it! I love the spectacle print – esp. on the brolly, and the hapahazard ruffles.
thanks for the link btw!
Certainly not a lost cause – you have my vote already – I love the body flattering dress – especially as it is body flattering
The gradiation and details on the Mihrican Damba dress are fantastic, something tells me high street won’t catch on so quickly to that one.
Everything you show/comment on in this post looks‚Äîand IS‚Äîfresh. These pieces represent a distilled and classical design approach‚Äîone that springs from creating something beautiful, or strictly for beauty’s sake, vs. creating something strictly saleable or marketable, or with mass-appeal. The pieces are esoteric, flattering, appealing, artistic, fantastic, beautiful and evocative.
The care and craftsmanship that went into making these pieces might cause the prices to outstrip what the high street can bear, but they should be in a class by themselves. These pieces are so beautiful that there will be plenty of people who will want to spend the money on them, regardless of the price.
Only the black-and-white dress with the back pieces seems patently “unwearable,” and even then, some devoted girl would wear it anyway, at a party where she could spend the whole time standing around looking perfect after she made her brilliant entrance.
i love Pi Ying Chen !! that kind of sculptural quality always gets me. gorgeous and even more incentive for standing only parties! as long as you’re not sitting on a regular chair i would think it wouldn’t be so bad in real life! ok, i may be going a bit overboard…but it is quite lovely.
I’m a fan of purple, but I’m not sure I could wear the first dress.The last one is also really fabulous.
the first dress could possible be the most beautiful dress I have ever seen.
Yeah for ethical production! 🙂
As a fashion lover with pretty much 0 income, I like the idea but it isn’t at all viable for me.
As I am a bargain hunting goddess and have a good eye for quality I manage to survive, but, shockingly, rarely spend over $5 on anything, even a dress! And that’s all I can really afford… I can’t even save up for higher quality “sustainable” stuff because if I don’t spend my spare cash when I’ve got it, it’ll just go towards bills or whatever.
And, ironically, a lot of people who have a disposable income aren’t at all interested in anything remotely avant garde anyway, and would rather have cheaper pieces.
I’m a poor student who’s constantly put off by how awful the offerings from Indian high street/chain stores are..one’s best bet here is to raid the export reject outlets/markets. Spending a little more on something really nice is something I’d definitely be willing to do, but there just isn’t enough nice stuff around if you don’t want to ‘dress ethnic’.
That said, the dresses in the pics above , esp. Pi Ying Chen’s, are all stunning.
I think I need to have more time to evaluate the logic you are using in your first para…I didn’t get the part about hiking up the prices. Were you calling some kind of bluff? Just speaking and questioning as someone on an extreme budget. I really like almost all of these designers. You are so lucky you get to go to the London grad students presentations!!
Riz (and Dru really…): What I meant was that as a consumer, I’m willing to pay just a leetle bit more for my high street fare if I’m getting a few more of these ‘deets’…. as it is prices at Topshop, Zara and even H&M have increased ever so subtly so for the increase, I’d like to get a bit more for my buck…. ‘a bit more’ meaning the aforementioned ‘deets’….
enc: Like I said, I was only using the LCF pics as an illustration of the sort of ‘deets’ I’m looking for but of course, in their own right, these pieces deserve much higher price brackets as the craftsmanship demands it….