Proof, if it were needed, that it isn't called a depression because it makes you happy...the news that Jane Mayle's last collection for her label, Mayle, will be holiday-resort this year (with her NY store closing in February of '09)...after that, it's farewell to a label that (although it's been around for 10 years) I had only recently begun to fall in love with. Ironically, given the timing, according to WWD the end of the label is not due to financial concerns but is instead due to the fact that she feels that...
"The customer gets tired before the collections even hit stores... That mystery and remoteness and insouciance have disappeared from fashion in order to accelerate the product. I feel I have just become another cog in that machinery."
Disturbing...on multiple levels...initially because, though I was already drooling over several items from her Fall/Winter collection...inspired by "a piece written on Jeanne Moreau in which she offers a few choice quotes on the subject of pleasure versus happiness and throws her weight behind the former"...I had probably been going to waffle and prevaricate and now I feel driven to gather together as many scheckels as possible and BUY. But, also, because I can't help experiencing feelings of guilt...and wondering...are we, as bloggers, assisting in this acceleration...this loss of mystery? In some small way, are we...and the instantaneous quality inherent in the internet...to blame for this demise?
oh, and i, personally, do hate the speed of fashion. i don't like the approach to fashion in magazines, i don't like the brevity of every inspiration. the gears are forced to shift too often. i prefer runway collection publications to magazines like elle, lucky, vogue, etc. (in the interest of full disclosure, i have 2 subscriptions to foreign editions of vogue that were gifts), and i can buy a 2 or 4 year old runway book and be mesmerized and moved by the designs for years to come. i wish stores carried a collection for a year or 2 before replacing it. i would like the smörgåsbord to be replaced with a few delectable treats. i would like the luxury of taking my time to decide about an item. i would like to make a purchase when i'm ready, and not know that in 3 months or less, the item will be 50-70% off. i would like to go into a store and see less, less stuff piled up to the ceilings, less stuff crammed into the racks. i avoid stores like this, but i am aware of them. i don't like that it might be a cultural value in the US to expect and support these types of shopping environments.
i do not think the fault lies with the internet or the consumer's ability to familiarize her/himself with the collections ahead of time. i can look at and desire and enjoy things i already own, for years and years. i don't get tired of beauty.
the problem is that fashion has been turned into a fleeting commodity. and the value is definitely placed on the items i fear, not on the style that should be motivating the selection and purchase and assembly (on the individual) of the items. so the items have a culturally-supported (in the social and editorial culture) expiration date. such a pity. such a gross pity.
it's about consumption rather than construction. personally, i far far more value the construction of style, rather than the consumption of stuff. but that's not the general way.
a big fat hairy *SIGH*
hebden, i deleted it myself because you started my brain rolling (thank you for that) and i had written my comments so quickly, i wanted to sit with the thoughts for a bit - i think it might ultimately lead to another blog project for me - though i've tried that once before and collapsed it, so who knows.
perfectly okay with me that you reposted it since you did so out of ... what? approval could i say?
i feel for jane and her comments about fashion you know, how the business is effected by the customer's attitude. i cannot decide who is to blame for the speed of fashion. it's the old chicken and egg debate i think. is it coming from the customer's appetite, or is the customer being dragged down this stupid path? i don't know. a simple case of short attention span? OR, is the problem that the customers (the majority) do not have any personal style, and so they have no convictions about what they buy. they want to look good/right and equate "new" with that and so they are eager/desperate to buy new/good/right...
and the reign of the stylist certainly doesn't help any. sigh sigh sigh.
I'm sad to see this line shut down. I hope there's another plan in the works. Thanks for telling us about it.