beauty and the beast

It's been a few weeks since the last long-limbed Russian stomped down a runway and with that distance clarity can be gained when thinking about and looking at the Spring/Summer 2008 shows. With every show there was more potentiality and greater ideas. Some faltered and some fared better than others but it's the ones that really attempted and succeed at pushing fashion forward and saying something about the world in which clothes, or Fashion is a necessity. Alber Elbaz for Lanvin, Raf Simons for Jil Sander, and Marc Jacobs are not only the tastemakers of the textile and garment industry but true thinkers and provacateurs of notions about women, sex, fantasy, reality, and function. Their points of view are unabashedly singular and disparate from their nation's counterparts and that's what gives their clothes, narratives, and the thinking behind them an intelligence and brilliance. When you cut through the froth and frippery of fashion there are men such as these three that are truly engaged in the now and have purged their latest lamentations, fascinations, and compulsions in a way that feels alive and something we should embrace.

Marc Jacobs's presentations have become more conceptual the past few seasons and with his latest collection there was an exclamatory proposition that divided his fervent audience. Underwear as outwear? Puzzling lengths, slashes, and rips on the clothes? Bouffant hair and trippy footwear? Admittedly it was a sensory overload of emotion, philosophy, and a feeling of Jacobs testing his audience in terms of how far they are willing to follow him. The grungey coquettish vamp was there as she normally is in his collections but there something rare and different about the Spring collection. It reminded me of David Lynch's "Inland Empire" in which there is an obvious love for tradition in the respective art form and the industry that feeds it (those bags and shoes are going to sell like hotcakes and thus make his investors and partners very pleased), but there's a rebellious spirit in all of that. Not until recently has Jacobs become such a visible designer from his MySpace romance woes to his tanned and toned physical transformation as well as a stint in rehab, perhaps that lashing out in the face of it all should not come as much of a shock. When all eyes are on you wouldn't you give us something that maybe we don't want to look at? The idea of playing with, and in some regard exploiting, an audience's expectations is a thought-provoking idea that Jacobs made everyone wait almost two hours to reveal in his brash study on the unmentionables. Was he successful? The clothes challenged the notion of wearability, which is big for an American designer where the sportswear sensibility typically informs what Americans want out of fashion, and in that respect the show felt like an Parisian in America where as his Louis Vuitton show had an American in Paris vibe to it. Whatever it is, it seems Jacobs is in an unstoppable position right now. He has us with his inventive take on shape, form, and color. There's no turning back for Jacobs after such a fearless and exhilirating collection.

If Jacobs was the enfant terrible of fashion month, then Elbaz for Lanvin was the golden child. His cool, confident, and pleasing collection of smart and splendid cocktail and evening dresses paired with light as a feather daywear proved to be the best Paris had to offer. While some of his other Parisian cohorts were stuck on silly themes and big Concepts, Elbaz concentrated on fit, construction, and draping. His contemporary take on Madame Gres style draping gave the collection a stunning weightlessness that is dead on for Spring and surely what any woman would want to wear. Each look was easier and more alluring than the next. There was complaint from some that it was too similar to past collections, but what's wrong with being self-referential when you have the genius Elbaz so effortlessly conveys in his flattering and handsome design philosophy. Controlled volume, feathers, and jewel tones like you have never seem them before were stunning and will work well editorially but surely appeal to a confident and unashamedly stunning woman. Sometimes this simplicity is exactly what women should want because they will not look any sexier. And for that I have to say thank you Mr. Elbaz.

Color was essential at Lanvin but was taken to a new height in Simons's collection for Jil Sander. Hot shots of shocking pink and creamy oranges were intensely beautiful to look at but somehow not garish and timid in neutrality when broken up in blocks on the body. I've loved every collection Simons has done for Sander and with each season he keeps growing and moving in such fascinating directions. Until this season a futuristic Bowie figure seemed like the Simons for Jil Sander aesthetic but this collection was looser and expressed a fluidity that straddles the line between fantasy and reality. Simons was smart to use a layered tulle top paired with slim pants. It's a little untamed on top but appropriate and wearable on bottom. The hair was loose and the shapes just as deflated with a judicious sense of control and direction. Simons clearly understands movement with wide legged trousers and breezy caftan inspired dresses that moved with the body revealing something unexpected along the way with the use of sheer paneling and layering of transparent fabrics. The reduction of accoutrements and other frills is indicative of a Jil Sander collection, but Simons asked us to look inside in the area in between the body and the clothes. What a dynamic frame of reference and place for our thoughts to wander.

What can we learn from these shows? It's a classic case of art versus commerce. Fashion is a billion dollar industry that is now part of the global landscape for trade and business. As a designer, especially when you work for a major brand such as Elbaz and Simons, there must be a decision every season to ask more of their consumers or acknowledge exactly what they want and give it to them. Fashion in a sense is commercial art, therefore if it's intended for everybody should it consider or dictate the shapes, colors, and narratives for the season? All three of these designers have varied points of view that very loudly and very clearly speak for us. Jacobs dares us, Elbaz regales us, and Simons offers something recognizable but original. What will that mean for their financial returns? I guess time can only tell but with the globe becoming seasonless, trends becoming trendier, and the other distractions of modern life get in the way, luckily we have such forceful arbiters of beauty and reality. Fashion is essential, especially in the world we live in today. It's not a total escape but for twelve minutes or so the possibility of discourse and fancifulness is there for our keeping. And don't forget there's always next season.