A Fashion Editorial: One Man’s Treasure…

While we were online last night, looking at the latest fashion shows and collections, something caught our eye, and this time is wasn’t the clothes or the accessories.

While we were on Lacoste’s official Facebook page, we could not help to read the comments of the people who has seen the pictures of their fall-winter 2013-2014 collection. We usually think it’s highly important to read what people have to say, because we love conversation and believe that this is the way to see what works and what doesn’t, and therefore improve everything.

Usually fashion shows of the big fashion designers and houses from around the world receive very positive feedback from the audience, but this Lacoste collection didn’t do so well. The album on their page was a mix between men’s and women’s clothes, but the reactions were similar. Someone said: ” Another person commented on a creation: “what the hell”, as the same creation was appreciated by another Facebook user as “this is disgusting”. Other comments on the collection were “what a shame”; “yuck”.

But not everyone agreed, some people appreciated the collection and thought it to be really good! One piece was commented by two users: one said: “garbage bag” while another commented: “awsm concept”. So, which one is it?

It’s interesting to see how high fashion, so to speak, does not get appreciation as much as used to. We are wondering; is it really bad or is it just misunderstood? We also agreed that some of the outfits would have never seen the runway if they were not backed up by Lacoste, while others very extremely sophisticated and would have had the same value in any environment.

Photographer Ansel Adams said: No man has the right to dictate what other men should perceive, create or produce, but all should be encouraged to reveal themselves (…)” and this is the spirit we love to encourage as well!

This said, we notice that a lot of people don’t actually define what they like and what they don’t in a conceptual way. One of our purposes is to let people discover a sense of fashion and to let a new culture of clothes rise. Looking at art history, we can notice that the things that were controversial at their time were the ones that pushed to boundaries of culture and made society take a step further. It is premature to say whether the Lacoste collection did that, but it’s not premature to notice that the reaction of the common Facebook user says something about our culture. We notice all around the art world a high rupture between the creators of works that posses cognitive properties and the way they are received. Lacoste incorporates all their knowledge into this collection and tried to make some state of the art clothes, using fine lines and a well-thought fabric-color balance, but it was not perceived as such by many people.

Fashion today, like most arts or means of expression, is torn between the old vision of the art and the practical craft from which the art piece has evolved. Should fashion be something that is worn and only then a complete artistic act, or is it an expression of a creator’s vision which needs to be admired?

So, what did you think of the collection? What do you think, is one man’s garbage another man’s treasure? How do you establish your standard of a well-done thing? Continue the conversation in the comments space below, on our Facebook or Twitter!