Shiny and New

"I prefer being relevant to being cool"

Fantastic interview with Alber Elbaz of Lanvin in a series about the future of fashion from those prominent in the industry. Basically Elbaz has to reconcile the idea of being an artist (several others interviewed in the series were editors and reviewers) in an arena that is increasingly influenced by commercial sales and novice access to information/product. He is (maybe one of the few legitimate) distinctly modern designers who has a classical sensibility and professionalism while still decidedly moving forward and making style new.

One of the things that struck me in the interview was when he commented on how designers are now expected to do so many collections a year, and that to maintain a pace like that in any medium is unrealistic. Wouldn't creating two impeccably done, stylistically forward, artistically strong collections a year be vastly preferable to six throwaway collections in 12 months? Of course the unfortunate answer is no, people want to consume as much as possible so that they never have to actually consider what they are trying to be a part of or defining anything of their own.

I think this idea applies with equal validity to art/film/creativity in general. Because, for the most part, the issues affecting the modern fashion world are the same ones that affect anything creative. Status, and money rule everything. No one wants to make clothes people don't want to wear, and no one wants to make a movie no one will see. Because its all about the cult of followers and the money they bring. Now, fashion as a whole is about an aesthetic that is not going to happen if the clothes remain in a showroom, so designers (like Elvaz, who had been incredibly successful at this) have to merge their artistic sensibility with the human form and some sense of functionality. Movies, books, television and art thrive when they have an audience to whom their points are imparted. (Not to say an unpopular or unseen piece of art is invalid, I'm just talking about the underlying issues that have seemed to create the current entertainment atmosphere.) And people have no attention span. They have too much to absorb. Therefore, no attention to detail, no skills for analyzing and processing, no appreciation of theme, form and structure. In a better world the myriad of options would allow people to demand quality-they could choose the best and reject anything less than. Entertainment could compete based on artistry. This unfortunately, is not the case. The only winners are what is loudest, brightest, most amusingly absurd in a non committal way. Artistry is a liability. Too slow, too complex, too disturbingly unpleasant fails to ignite the serotonin levels and is passed on for something a bit less taxing. Either artificially sweetened or cliché emotional are the only endings we accept. What is truly disturbing is that we do not just accept it as our preferred viewing, we have allowed it to become art. Our standards are so low that anything with a marginal effort is lauded.

Art is supposed to be challenging, but for anything to be challenging we have to pay attention to it. We have to require more from it. Real life is difficult, its brilliant, terrifying, funny, sad, confusing, and mad. Art, and, yes, entertainment should reflect that or its just distracting us from making any of ours better.

Below, several looks from Lanvin's stellar Fall RTW 2010 collection-