16/06/2012

Fetish vs Flirty

















It has been known to say that there is ultimately nothing new under the sun. This statement couldn’t be truer within the realms of the fashion industry, however it doesn’t stop designers from applying themselves season after season to produce spectacular shows and traffic stopping looks.
Lace will always be lace and cotton will always be cotton, but the zeitgeist is always captured beautifully in the creative minds that put design to paper.
The evolution of trends, styles and fashions once moved in a forty year time cycle, but now more than ever we are able to see fashion literally everywhere we go through the use of technology. Technologies ability to share style across the world has influenced trends on a momentous scale. Street style is what consumers are wearing, and designers have tapped into this by producing collections to suit.

The shift pattern of trends has since changed according to the seasons in the last five years or so, it has been influenced by fashion houses heeding to current affairs, taking note as to what is happening in the world of their consumers.

Fetish vs. Flirty is a prime example of seasonal trend up-cycling or transitioning. Last years autumn/winter saw designers like Giles Deacon, Alexander McQueen and Thierry Mugler dream up ‘la douleur exquise’.Sheer panels encouraging a game of peek-a-boo, leather skirts for practical dressing and spiked heels for the office were all part of the look.Day or night fetish fashion was ago.

Now in this current spring/summer season our uber feminine dress-up candy queens have been unleashed through the likes of Antonio Marras, Chanel and Erdem. Twin-sets in baby pink, blouses in lilac and 1950s housewife are all part of the style specification.  

With a slight nod to feminism, the fashion duo Meadham Kirchhoff took flirty to a another level. One of the most talked about shows in September it set the tongues of the editors wagging with bittersweet anticipation. Their collection took people on a journey through the mind with thoughts provoking the idea of a woman and what she should be and look like. Full of frou frou, ruffles, sugar, extremely bright pastels and marabou feathers their pieces reflected the somewhat extreme raw side of flirty like Louis Vuitton did with Fetish.
His women slowly crept out of a vintage Parisian gold leaf elevator- with a night porter to hold their bags. The show really set the scene and the clothes enticed you unexpectedly, as if it was wrong to want to look this good whilst possibly being bad.
Polished and revered in both looks Badgley Mischka and Giles Deacon presented their flirty and fetish ideas in a modest way but still ticking all the boxes.

 Through all the growth of blogs, social networking and online activity, the integrity of the visions of designers has not been lost, i.e. even though Alexander McQueen is no-longer with us, his vision of his brand has been continued and still celebrates the McQueen woman.
The most important thing about both these trends, is that designers have really left it open for us to decide who we want to be, and how we perceive ourselves in society. Both looks have an element of fun, power, style and grace, but all that’s needed is an injection of YOU into the look.

Written and complied by Melissa Samasuwo.  
Images: style.com

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