Obsessions

Sometimes I feel redundant. Redundant isn't the right word. Repetitive maybe?

What I mean is I keep coming back to certain things as a designer and a passionate observer of all things stylishly aesthetic. In this instance, I am referring to my obsession with the trapeze line and the shift.

I keep trying to move past it, but every time I see it I become intoxicated allover again with it. There is such a purity of line that, to me , compasseth all understanding (as the Bible would say). Its so effortless, so serenely elegant. I feel like fashion today has lost that completely. Yes, there is a panoply of easy to wear clothes out there, but the say NOTHING! As Kay Thompson said in DV style in Funny Face, "It doesn't SPEAK! And if doesn't speak to me, it won't speak to anyone." They maybe simple, but its not emphatic. I LIVE for emphatic simplicity in design. Even if there is a degree of exuberance, there still must me a simplicity about it. Like a Pucci shift or a jewel encrusted swing dress.

The opposite of this, which is also very prevalent in the market, is fussiness. I remember Polly Mellen in Unzipped saying "Fussy. Finished." LOL! And its so true. All the ruching, wrapping and furbelows...its just too much sometimes. There is no cleanness to it. Now don't get me wrong. I love the extras and the excesses of fashion. Anyone who ever saw a picture of me dressed up, would know that. But there has to be a balance in the market and in the consumers' wardrobes. For every ruched sheath,with epaulets, blouson sleeves, and asymmetrical neckline, and for every cotton t-shirt dress, you need 2 or 3 utterly simple, but strong shifts. I guess I feel there's not enough of that out there for me.

So even though I find something interesting about most of what out there today, and get tingles when I see something new that resonates with the inner "vainglorious vanguardist" in me that is always on the hunt for something marvelous and new, when I see the ineffable glory of a Norrell or Mainbocher or Balenciaga or Simonetta, everything else falls away and disappears from view and I want only it. What I am learning is to, as a designer, be ok with that. To do what feels right, what resonates, what speaks to me on that deepest, truest level and not worry about being a sensation or giving them the latest. To just do what I know and what I do best. And if that means I can't dress everyone, ok. The few I will dress, will be stunning and will be fulfilled by what I bring to them.