For me, fashion should be fun. Especially shows. This is the one chance we have to create an experience to uplift, escape and create a magic special memory. Not only are there now double or triple the amount of "fashion weeks" per season but also the slots are are so swift that to keep up with the daily schedule is like the manic hysteria of a game of musical chairs. Run in, plump your rump on a packed pew, get subjected to a blast of moronic music and jump up quick enough to run to the next before it finishes.
In the past Ossie Clark set the precedent for a happening with dancing models in the 60's / 70's, and BodyMap brought it thru the 80's with Michael Clark and network of cosmic muses. Thank fuck there is a glimmer of that flame still flickering, burning bright against the suffocation of the straight up and down sixty second runway.
Today Charles Jeffrey gave me faith in the future of that legacy with a presentation using his own club-night as the formula. Models were cast from his Central St. Martins contemporaries, the soundtrack was the DJ spinning live at the centre of the dancefloor catwalk. The "Loverboy" collection took its name from the night which is held at Lyall Hakaria's "Vogue Fabrics" venue and the production was actually funded from the business's takings. Under his art direction the interior recreated that underground world, with the trails of bog roll that get stuck to your shoe when you leave the loo. I hope to God that actually happened when a fashion editor visited today. If there weren't a few terrified reporters I don't think Lyall would have considered that he'd done his job properly. And this is why we are London and why the Menswear week is literally called "London Collections". Props to Fashion East for using The ICA to host this kind of event with its own history of the avant-garde and risk-taking.
It seems to me that we are celebrating McQueen at the V&A with recreations of his theatrical stagings and simultaneously stamping out any platform to honour his subversive success. If only the industry could step off its whirling carousel of cramming in these superflurous seasons we might all have a chance to catch up. Take a breath. Appreciate clothes that have taken time to be made and want to invest in them as key pieces for a timeless wardrobe...................... agree? Lets shake on it and have a dance.
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