If 2007 was the year of re-invention and the brief debut of fresh, new burgeoning talent, then 2008 so far, has been the year of the “meh”. Everything is tired, old, and dare I say it, done. The industry that has relied so heavily on reinvention, is in desperate need of a pick me up. Like the housing market, the golden days of late, are exactly that and the fashion world has been bracing itself for the couture crash.
Thankfully though, there are some in the industry that are bucking the trend, a graduate fashion designer that made Anna Wintour turn up at his degree show at age 23 has entered his formative years with a bang. Christopher Kane, and his design partner/sister, Tammy, are the genius behind the Christopher Kane label, and if the industry was depressed, they were the first pill it so desperately needed. Last year had Kate Moss, Kylie, and Chloe Sevigny all wearing their creations.
The sibling duo were the ones who sent neon down the catwalk and brought an updated version of the 80’s to fashion week. This year they’ve been holding their own against designers who have been trendsetting since before the Kane’s were born, with their fall collection. Even if some critics have described it as lacking any accessible concept, what they can’t deny is that the collection contained something fashion hasn’t seen in a long time, original designs.
The second pill taken in the battle against the recession was in the form of a tall, blond, northern lass who used to work in a chippy, and has a name that is impossibly difficult to pronounce. It’s Agyness Deyn. She recently knocked Kate Moss off the top spot in Tatler’s annual “Best Dressed List”, has had Perez Hilton foaming at the mouth, has been setting trends every time she steps out into the glare of the paparazzi, and was the inspiration for a slogan tee for her old flatmate, Henry Holland‘s, first collection, “Flicking the bean, for Agyness Deyn”, indeed, fashion was.
In his fall 2007 show, Henry Holland was seen as a designer who was out to shock, and had no longevity. His designs all had one thing in common, they used the name of the industry’s elite and put it into a crass, but fun rhyming couplet. He inspired the many slogan tees seen that year, and everyone, thought he was done. Not so. He bounced back with seemingly endless energy and originality, along with the third pill that would begin to stave off the crash. He went from slogan tees, to patent leather hot pants and now to tartan miniskirts. His ability to predict what young London want, and to create accordingly, is uncanny in someone with so little experience. What’s even more amazing is his ability to set trends for the fearless teens, the one’s that will stay with him for a very long time.
The final pill comes in the form of a fashion legend Tom Ford. It was unthinkable to ignore the man who saved Gucci from a future of certain destruction, a man whom, like no other has been so coveted by so many, and a man, who is not afraid to take risks in anything that he does. In the latest issue of GQ Style, Ford put a naked male model on the cover and made this the theme of the entire magazine. His editorial took pride of place and caused for the entire edition to be rethought. Likewise the ads for his perfume and eyewear collection are bold and sexual, sex definitely sells. Oozing pure, unadulterated sexuality they feature naked, sweaty models wearing nothing but his perfume, with the bottle providing their only cover. Nothing has ever made a splash like these ads, and indeed the people featured above.
Tom Ford, Agyness Deyn, Henry Holland, and Christopher Kane, Style salutes you.
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