Inspiration vs. Influence
Plus: a PFW outfit diary
In the immortal words of Nas, I know I can be what I wanna be. Well, stylistically speaking. We all can. But sometimes it’s easy to get into a comfortable rut, out of pure laziness or lack of ideas, not to mention budgetary issues. Plus, as I’ve mentioned a million times, the time-efficient Paris neutrals uniform is a failsafe daily dressing hack. There are moments one wants more though. Moments of sheer unbridled inspiration…
Which is why a great fashion show still holds power. Despite all the twirling absurdity around Fashion Week, the feeling you get while actually watching a really, really good show, is just about the pinacle of emotion, where one’s sartorial psyche is concerned.
Sometimes you just see great clothes, and they remind you what precise, communicative personal style really looks like. You start thinking about how to copy them within the context of your own wardrobe, and maybe a necessary acquisition or two. In short, they influence you.
More rarely, a show transports you to another emotional space altogether, through some symbiotic relationship between music, choreography, casting, masterful styling and clothes. I can count on one hand the shows I’ve personally witnessed in twelve years of Fashion Week attendance that have truly done this latter thing. Inspired, rather than influenced me. Made me question, say, the role of women in society, or reframed my vision of the female body, while still selling me a vibe.
I’m not sure I saw new Top Five Ever contenders this season but I definitely caught that elusive buzz, where my senses were energised to the point of true inspiration. Where I thought damn! Wouldn’t it feel gloriously powerful, fun, sensual, erotic, invigorating to be that woman, just for a day (or evening). When a house manages to impart that feeling on their audience for the allotted fifteen minute showtime, they’ve nailed something that goes way beyond marketing. They’ve put their little mark on the psyches of the people in the audience, whose job, in turn, is to transmit that feeling to their own audiences. (This is my attempt.)
The three shows below gave me that fleeting frisson last week. There were others that were, critically-speaking, on par, but I didn’t personally fantasise about being in their woman’s skin on the same level. Saint Laurent was fiery-hot and Givenchy dead-cool but they did not reveal to me some eccentric version of myself waiting to come out. Fashion is at once collective and personal, after all. Here are the three that did:
Hermes — Horsy leather references minus bougie equals total seduction.
This fabled house’s leather and equestrian codes got their snappiest updates in a decade or so on Saturday, showing the best collection from Creative Director Nadege Vanhee-Cybulskiso, so far IMHO. Hermes’s most appealing looks exist between the land of the leather-glad dominatrix and the horse-stables of a Jilly Cooper heroine. Nadège should continue treading her yummy leather buckle boots within this space, for it is extremely desirable territory.
Chloe — I really didn’t think I’d be seduced back into the whole “boho” thing. But there was something darker and more attractive going on this season. This Chloe woman is a thinking-woman’s bohemian; a character actress; an entertaining off-kilter aristo throwing an afterparty for literary types at her country pile (cue Tish Weinstock seen on the runway). There was something refreshingly devient about the faux-fur dangles and boudoir details. Devient, and more powerful than Creative Director Chemena Kamala’s first outing for the house. This bohemian is anything but basic. Count me in for the afterparty.
Dries Van Noten — If you follow me on Instagram you’ll know I’ve been in a fervent longterm (if one-sided) aesthetic relationship with Dries, who recently retired and swapped in a youthful replacement. I was all nerves beforehand but Julian Klausner brought a 360-degree understanding of what makes the Dries fan of any age tick. Klausner’s woman was like the enchanting main character of a novel I’d kill to write if only I had the emotional intelligence, creative wherewithal and, you know, discipline. For now, I’ll just try really hard to be her in the tassel coat below (bottom left). Actually, in any of these looks I can get my clammy little hands on…
Phew. Now you know where my subconscious is heading let’s revert back to the present. Well, the recent past. Here’s are a few looks from this past week, including outfit deets as promised to my treasured loyal fashion detectives. Love ya longtime xx
You truly have inspired me. For years my uniform was blazers and t’s .I have had so much fun scouring the real real to find Prada and miu miu blazers! So great!!!
I always have that feeling when I watch the show by the Row. Oh how I want to be ‘that’ woman…