Back To The Future

Jonathan Saunders SS12 :Image source style.com

There is a new mood infiltrating the fashion world, the now and the future.  For so many seasons it has been about what has passed, perhaps the beauty of a previous generations experience has robbed us of innovation?  Put the anchor on research and development in fabric technology, shape and what modern women really want and need. It was like we were lured into a honey pot of nostalgia, intoxicated beyond obsession, kidded into thinking we were living our own life, when in fact we were embracing another’s.  Fine, I like dressing up for nostalgic moments that happen at various festivals and events a few times a year, but it is time to embrace the needs of the modern female right now and for the future.  

Balenciaga SS12: Image source style.com

The tipping point has arrived, and change will take a while to manifest. What is the change I am referring too?  Clothes that reflect women's needs rather than wants? And perhaps modern women are not quite sure what they need yet? Perhaps it’s not more of, but better. What defines better? I believe it's clothes that push the boundaries with fabric technology, cut, print and silhouette and that are derived from sustainable ethical sources.  Not easy to digest by the mass market perhaps?

Stella McCartney Liberty London Window :Image source Style Industries

Peter Pilotto Liberty London Window: Image Source Style Industries

Certain designers have switched mood, some started out like that and continue pioneering work.  Others are defining new approaches.  Stella McCartney, Celine, Balenciaga, Dries Van Noten and Comme de Garcons all engage with fabric innovation, thinking, questioning what the modern women needs, working with new textures, being responsible and sustainable in some cases.  Print innovators such as Mary, Kantrantzou, Peter Pilotto and Jonathan Saunders, push boundaries which they did from their career outset, forging new avenues to lead us down, offering collections that arrest our senses and engage. Fashion is not a science, there is no true formula, the creative process mutates and can take on a life of it’s own, relish in the new, without truly knowing where the roots of an idea began. Sometimes it’s just a feeling. That feeling should be trusted, if more of us trusted that intuitive feeling and that is not isolated to fashion, perhaps we would have more of what’s better than more of.