Enlightened minimalism: Who has forgotten "comfortable fashion"
Last year, Vanessa Friedman, The main fashion critic and part-time fashion director of the New York Times newspaper, published an article in which the key trend of the tenth year called "modest" fashion: minimalism, naturalness, simple, comfortable and rather closed things. "Women," the headline reported, "fashion will cover you."
Trend analyst Isa Dason told CNN at all: a new era is beginning, women's empowerment in all areas is expanding, and fashion trends only reflect that. According to Dason, fashion for comfortable closed clothes puts a woman and her needs first — and now she no longer has to conform to the roles that Western society imposes on her. For example, always be smart and sexy (in the usual sense of the word, with a mini-skirt and other paraphernalia). In such a way, the last few years speak of a “modest” fashion: a Céline dress in combination with zero make-up and a careless, lengthened square is equated to a woman’s freedom to be herself. Another outfit - let's take, for example, the Dolce & Gabbana sheath dress - as well as red lipstick and curls become a symbol of patriarchal standards that have been imposed on women for all these years. And from which fashion decided to save it.
The problem is that the fashion industry is actually little concerned about the right and the desire of the consumer to be themselves. Fashion does not change itself: raising to the pedestal the brevity of the precepts of Phoebe Failo, she rejects everything that was previously - as aesthetics "obsolete", "archaic" and "irrelevant". While on the trend, a bow with shoes on a small heel (or sneakers), a loose white blouse, a long skirt and "natural" styling, curls, studs, ruffles, short skirts and fitted silhouettes are branded as "out-of-date" and "outdated." Accepting one is due to the humiliation of the other. What kind of respect for individuality there may be a speech - to be honest, it is not clear.
At the same time, the advocates of the “liberating” women of fashion want to ask - does it release all all women or with some exceptions? The “anti-chic” fashion — Céline, Haider Ackermann, Hillier Bartley, and the like — is not available to everyone. You can see the things of these brands mainly on tall, androgynous and very thin girls. It is not at all clear whether they will feel so “liberated” by everyone whose height falls short of a meter seventy, and their weight exceeds fifty kilograms. Last year, journalist Dori Shafrir published a tweet - a photo of a dimensionless brown dress of the New York brand Creatures of Comfort with the caption: "God bless someone who is thin enough, handsome and rich to wear it." With all the desire in Google not to find a photo, which in this dress would be a girl of un-fashioned parameters. Apparently, for her, clothing brand, in the title of which is the word "comfort", is simply not intended.
Was not the traditional "smart" fashion more merciless to women? Her unrealistic podium standards have not disappeared anywhere - and, most likely, they will exist for a long time, regardless of what aesthetics rules the ball. The changes are insignificant so far: now a couple of extra kilos are “allowed” and not allowed to cover the circles under the eyes with the concealer - of course, with the proper amount of time and money spent on the treatments. However, other apologists for "old-fashioned" fashion often proceeded from the fact that style and taste are more important than external data - for example, Betty Holbreich, the famous personal stylist of Bergdorf Goodman department store, in the book "Secrets of a Fashion Therapist" writes: "Buy clothes to decorate the body that you have now. "
New aesthetics are not so democratic. "Just" to dress in a canvas dress-bag will not work: for this to be socially approved, you will need tall stature, a slender young body and small breasts. At the same time, women who can not and do not want to meet these standards, little remains: the fashion for minimalism simply does not take them into account. What to do if loose black pants do not sit on the floor, and your favorite dress with ruffles is “out of date”?
Another difficult question is how this aesthetics of "simplicity and naturalness" looks at the age of women. Increasingly, older models appear on the catwalks, in advertising campaigns and magazine shootings. But at the same time, we see faces of only one type of aging - fine wrinkled. That is, one in which the oval is preserved, and the face itself is thin, with pronounced cheekbones. Women with a different type of aging - for example, deformation when the cheeks sag - are not removed for gloss. Reasoning about how to grow old beautifully, they forget: how beautifully you grow old depends primarily on genetics. So, women who did not win the genetic lottery are not interested in natural fashion fans - they have become “ugly” aged; they are also condemned for plastic surgeries - it is necessary to “grow old with dignity”. It turns out that women are guilty only that they were not born Tilda Swinton.
A few years ago, the author of this article was happy to read a blog on a tambler called "Girls dressing cute for work", where working women sent photos to show how they were dressed today. There were both strict trouser suits with a turtleneck, and leopard jackets, and pencil skirts. And men's shoes and stilettos. And neat curls, and horse tails, and afro. All this combined a common message: women of any age and physique dress to work in what they feel good at. Whatever it is.
The biggest fear in the fashion world is “to become outdated,” no matter what ideas cover up this fear. In recent years, the fashion industry has so aggressively been telling us "it's time to stop dressing up", which completely forgets about the right of people to be themselves. For many, bright dresses, Smokey Aiz and curls are a way of self-expression, a manifestation of your self and a sense of beauty. If a woman likes herself in this form, she would not be able to feel comfortable in a cashmere coat and with a haircut under Agnes Dane, no matter how "relevant" and "modern" it looked.
However, fortunately, there is some good news: a single standard of beauty in fashion is blurring, it is replaced by a conversation about diversity. So let's not try to just replace one idea of beauty with another, no less restricting women. The task of fashion is to give not only the "right" installation, but the opportunity to choose which image to try on today. Without the risk of being ridiculed.
Photo: COS, Creatures of Comfort, Melitta Baumeister
