Too little is too much

You wonder why I've taken a break? Where have I been and why did I go? I just needed to get some air. It's gotten so thin up here in the cheap seats. Watching the action from such a remove with the specks parading coolly down the runway as though they were game changing ideas has given me vertigo. What is the point and what is the message? The answers don't appear on the runway and they haven't appeared in the press, either. If anything the game of bait and switch has reached a level of complexity rarely seen in the last 45 years. For some of us, we can do that math, subtracting accurately without the help of a smart phone calculator, and come to the moments when order shifted to chaos. Granted it was a slow moving tsunami, but one that nevertheless mowed down and washed away so much that was beautiful, coherent and yes, even forward thinking. Modernity isn't something that happened post 9/11.

Beyonce was not the first superstar with processed hair (extensions). Reed Krakoff was not the first one note designer going for 3 notes. Anna Wintour was not the first visionary at Conde Nast, nor the first influence peddling adventuress. Oscar de la Renta was certainly not the first Latin lover to dress a society matron. Andre Leon Talley was not the first editor to become a caricature in search of a gig that would restore him to his glory days as a bonafide editor, once more. John Galliano is not the first genius to go down in flames at the height of his powers, though he may be the richest. Dior, (Y)SL, Balenciaga, Ungaro, Balmain, Blass, Rabanne, Anne Klein and Ferre were not the first powerhouse design establishments to suck wind. Anna dello Russo was not the first fashion victim who will live and die by the dress hanger. Some editors/fashion critics of the New York Times, The Washington Post, The International Herald Tribune are not the first oracles to be sniffing toxic fumes sending out mixed messages that mean nothing to even the most educated of ears. I can't tell you how many times I've spoken to people in the press (yes, I know some interesting people who write for real newspapers and magazines) who ask me if I get what's going on or if I'm as confused as they are. I've come to believe that confusion is merely a state of knowing but an unwillingness to believe. Sort of like realizing Santa is really your parents doing the best they can.

What once flew high is now skimming and skidding along the ground. Sitting in Gregory's on Seventh Ave. between 39th and 40th minding my own business, I watched the river that is New York's fashion industry meander by. It was busy and at the same time strangely empty. Tourists taking pictures of the tailor hard at work on his sewing machine were cheek to jowl with young fashion workers busily making a display of their presence and profession or just posing as fashionables like those who crowd the tents at collection time. This blond woman in a dress so short that she spent every second tugging at it to attempt to cover her almost completely exposed lower half. Her example was the perfect illustration of too little being way, way too much. The spectacle has replaced the spectacular. Chaos, the new order of the day. Still, I am fascinated by the ebb and flow of culture and the highs and lows of fashion. That said, I'm back in my seat way up near the roof and straining to see all that there is to see. Welcome back to my world.

Lars Nilsson .... from here to there to nowhere.

Here we go again. How does he do it.... or not do it?

" .....Even before he had presented his first women’s fashion collection for Gianfranco Ferre, its creative director Lars Nilsson has left the house. “Gianfranco Ferre would like to announce that it has ended its relationship with Signor Lars Nilsson,” read a statement released by the house on Friday evening. .... Somewhat ironically, the email containing Ferre’s statement read: “We are pleased to send you here attached the mentioned press release.” ...."

What had Glenda Bailey said when he got the job?

“It’s great to have Lars back! He has such a love of architecture. It’s very exciting for Ferré. Lars has such a core of simplicity and clean lines but he also matches it with femininity. He understands fabrication and technique.”

Come again? We are talking about the guy who has been thrown out of every job he's ever had. At Blass, that bastion of fashion avant-guard, he was more concerned with his pay check and throwing temper tantrums and threats of quitting on a weekly basis. It's a wonder anything got done. But then again, they do have an archive of every pattern ever drafted by the old man and his team.

Well, i guess your paycheck matters if you have to show up with Anna for lunch in bespoke suits. After all, she shoe-horned him into the job. Does a company have a choice? Either hire her coterie or never get covered. Why are they pushing talent with a resume that should say after every job

"reason for leaving: FIRED"

"....Tensions mounted in recent weeks at the Ferré studio in Milan, where Nilsson was said to be behind schedule in preparing the collection. "He got overwhelmed and realized it was too big a responsibility for him," said one industry insider. "The position made him very insecure." As of last week, he was said to have only completed a handful of pieces. "This is a company that takes fashion very seriously because it's a big business," said an industry executive. "At the end of the day, Lars was not a right fit and it was too big a fish for him to fry."...

Well, Fashion Week Daily quoted the right fashion insider for once.

And good old Suzy?

"We keep having those false starts," said the International Herald Tribune's Suzy Menkes. " I don't know how you can expect to have the perfect collection in one season. I feel sad for [the state of] fashion."

State of fashion? The larger question is how is it that such a "great talent" like super-hyped Lars can't even get a first collection out with all those fabled Ferre resources at his command, when countless "small" design houses do it season after season without a fraction of these resources. It begs the question: "what's up wi' dat?"

All this whining and moaning for the unfair treatment of said wunderkind "designer", Lars, is misguided and pathetic considering the opportunities he has systematically squandered. (how many millions went down the drain so far betting on this lame horse).

The irony is: each successive job has been both grander and more short lived than the previous. Perhaps the house of Ferre saw the sketching on the wall and realized "this emperor's closet is bare."

Ponder and discuss.