Fashion should reflect real life. It needs to confront tricky issues, such as the return of the disgraced designer as creative director of Margiela, rather than looking away
Fashion matters because how we dress says so much about us. When the world is gripped by a collective longing for shoulder pads, or for wearing all-black, or by a nostalgic yearning for a bygone age, all of these represent cultural shifts. Contemporary art might express the zeitgeist in a more considered and refined way, but fashion is more democratic: a conversation in which anyone can have a voice.
After 14 years as fashion editor of this paper it has come to my attention that not everyone agrees with me on this topic. But plenty do: not only Coco Chanel (fashion has to do with ideas, the way we live) but Jean Cocteau (style is a simple way of saying complicated things) and even Polonius (the apparel oft proclaims the man).
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