Nå var det vel en women’s wear fashion week, var det ikke?

Jeg elsker å høre på podcasten til Imran Amed på nettstedet Business of Fashion, men hans og moteredaktør Tim Blanks’ oppsummering av moteukene i høst fikk meg til å sette kaffen i halsen.  Kanskje fordi den innledningsvis var så hjelpeløst dust. De to herrene som vanligvis både skriver og snakker så klokt om mote og er kjent for sin nærmest leksikale kjennskap til bransjen oppsummerte showene prikkfritt. Men så kom Tim Blanks i fare for å trekke pusten over kvinne fokuset og det faktum at den massive dekningen av Kavanaugh-saken i Washington blandet seg inn i dialogen omkring det som ble vist på catwalken. Og da ble det som egentlig var en spennende samtale komisk:

“It’s been a women’s wear season, but people have REALLY been talking about women and the issues that are confronting women.” sa Blanks og fikk godlynte medholds-grynt av Imran Amed.

Vel, det var altså women’s wear fashion week. Kanskje dialogen rundt det motehusene kaller women’s wear burde avstedkomme flere reaksjoner hele tiden? Mote føles jo mer forfriskende, spennende og relevant når det toucher innom aktuelle spørsmål, isteden for å leve isolert i en rosa boble. Det som blir presentert på den internasjonale catwalken er jo gjerne så outrert og merkelig at det nesten ikke kan tas på alvor som annet enn kles kunst for galleriet. Upraktiske, rare klær er gøy og fint å se på, men åletrange kjoler, gjennomsiktige topper og skyhøye hæler er ikke noe å gå på jobb eller hente unger i barnehagen med. Ikke engang noe du kan ha på julebordet – med mindre du ønsker å stå dønn stille i baren som en levende skulptur hele natten til du kollapser av kjedsomhet. Hvilken relevans har disse kolleksjonene for deg, med mindre du er superstjerne på den røde løperen? Så ja, Amed og Blanks – kanskje det burde bli en vane å snakke om folk, ikke bare klær når de nye kolleksjonene vises? Just sayin’.

På tampen av sendingen klinket de to til med en analyse av mangfoldet blant modellene på catwalken i høst også. Bemerkninger som: «Det var sesongen for svarte modeller» og «disse jentene har en helt annen energi, de har ikke diva-kvaliteter» er bare pinlig og viser at rasismen i moten står like sterkt som den alltid har gjort. Jeg mener – diva-kvaliteter, er det en svart greie? Ok at Naomi Campbell slo assistenten sin med hårbørsten noen ganger, men hvordan relaterer det til alle ikke-hvite modeller? Kan noen forklare?

To our English readers:

“It has been a very intense season. People have REALLY been talking about women”

Well it was the women’s wear shows, duh?

I love listening to Imran Amed’s fashion talk podcasts of Business of Fashion. But his chat recently with fashion critique Tim Blanks almost made me choke on my coffee, simply because it was as hilarious as it was helpless. The two guys known for their sharp observations and encyclopedic-like knowledge of fashion were summing up the season of the women’s wear fashion weeks in Paris, London, New York and Milan this fall and all the buzz regarding the public’s reception of the shows. I addition to analyzing the shows the fashion savvy gents weighed in on the extraordinaire coincidence of the state of current affairs and fashion’s affairs and debating escape versus engagement in fashion.

This year people were following the runway with one eye and watching the Kavanaugh hearings in Washington D.C. with the other so naturally the lines between fashion news and political did blurred more than normal. But what was so comical was the comment blurted out by Tim Blanks  at the beginning of the podcast:

“It’s been a women’s wear season, but people have REALLY been talking about women and the issues that are confronting women.”

Well it was women’s wear fashion shows. Perhaps they should be more about women and the issues women are facing in their everyday lives? Fashion is most interesting when it touches on issues outside its exclusive bubble. When designers produce collections that inspire talks about both the collections in themselves as well as the fashion systems at large and current affairs they feel relevant. I just wish it would happen way more often. What’s presented on the runway rarely feels of any use to the regular consumer. I mean how often are women presented with cool, empowering clothes? I don’t mean modesty garments, I mean functional, simple outfits you can wear to work or pick up kids from school in? Have a life in? Instead the runways overload us with images of stuff that is useless unless you are a red-carpet fashionista; corseted and hobble skirted gowns, tiny baby doll dresses or clothes that look like art experiments – all teamed with insanely high heeled shoes. It’s clothes for dolls, designed by people who have anything BUT the regular woman in mind.

To make matters worse Amed and Blanks talked about diversity on the runway regarding this year’s models, an interesting topic, until one of them remarked: “It was the season of the black model”  and “These girls have a different kind of energy, they don’t have that diva quality.”

Diva quality? Please! That is a black thing, I take it? Or did I misunderstand something here? Black girls out there, I’d love your thoughts on THAT one.