A funny thing happens in fashion, which is that you are bombarded with information about new-season fashion trends without ever being told what it is you should actually wear. I can get to the end of a feature about “the new directions” and feel, if I am honest, none the wiser. OK, I should aim for Contemporary Polish or Fresh Sparkle but, um, what should I wear tomorrow?
This is not about fashion being deliberately obtuse. It is not even about fashion being accidentally obtuse by dint of Zoolanderish overuse of impressive-sounding words. (OK, OK, maybe a little bit of the latter.) It springs from good intentions: a well-intentioned recognition that fashion, these days, is as much about cult styling tricks and below-the-radar trends as it is about the new Prada catwalk. But the desire to appeal to the widest possible audience ends up miring fashion in bland, catch-all manifesto-speak that doesn’t mean anything. The phrase “modern tailoring” is to fashion’s September issues what “hard-working families” is to party conference season.
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