The Doneger Group's outspoken creative director told us recently that "fashion is out of fashion." Intrigued, we decided to pick his brain and find out why this industry veteran and all-around style-o-phile would make such a dire proclamation. Turns out, the man has a lot on his mind -- and he's not afraid to say so.
Tell us what you mean by the idea that "fashion is out of fashion."
Well, of course it isn't really, because fashion is a reflection of the society that wears it. But I think that we have experienced an artificial bubble of interest in fashion consumption, like the housing bubble. And I think that it has burst, and we are never going to be able to re-inflate it to the state it was before, when people were passionately interested in consuming fashion. When they were almost more interested in the consumption, the shopping, than the stuff they went home with, because the experience itself was so exciting.
What do you think was responsible for this fashion bubble?
Remember we had just come out of the '90s, and minimalism and grunge, and everything that had slowed fashion down to a standstill. And suddenly there was embellishment and sequins and ruffles, and all this excitement, sexuality and pizzazz and the red carpet. We had a great run for our money -- that fever pitch lasted a decade! And I think it's going to take a long time to die. That's what people might find confusing right now.
How so?
Fashion professionals know where fashion is going, which is towards a cleaned-up modernism, minimalism, a whole new kind of futurism. But to have that as an overnight change, like the New Look in 1947, would be impossible in today's society. So we've got the front-runners, the true lovers of fashion, who are ready to embrace this newness, but most people are just gradually weaning themselves away from sequins, and that's probably going to take five years.
How do you think this new mood is going to impact fast fashion?
If fast fashion is true to its own definition, right now, it should be heading toward precision-cut simplicity -- and it's not. So if the jazzy, embellished things are how you define fast fashion, then we can watch for it to flatten and eventually decline, unless it really moves and gets to the next big thing.
Right. And in some cases it may be doing that. Uniqlo, for example.
Yes, Uniqlo is. But I don't think most people think of Uniqlo as "fast" fashion, although it truly is. That's the new fast fashion.
Isn't this new sense of sobriety and minimalism just another trend?
Yes it is, but I don't think people will recognize it as such, because they are so addicted to the Sex and the City type of fashion -- and the new film just seemed so archaic to me when it came out.
What about the fact that people are consuming more fashion content than ever before, on blogs, TV, etc.? In a sense, doesn't that mean that fashion is very in?
I think there's a difference between fashion as a leisurely pastime, as a form of entertainment, and what you actually buy to wear on your back. And that's my big ten-year prediction -- that fashion as we have known it is going to shrink to a very passionate, elite group. Like opera vs. pop music, which is the way it always was -- although of course there is more money to be made in pop music than in opera. The last decade of the twentieth century and the first decade of the twenty-first were so interesting because it was so abnormal that fashion truly became democratic. It's like it kept going for a lower and lower common denominator. In order for it to grow, it had to go beyond the traditional fashion territory of affluent, educated, privileged, artistic people into... everybody. And once it's everybody, you end up with the Kardashians. And the Jersey Housewives! That's as low as we are going to go.
How do you think the industry can compete with technology, which is what people are really excited about now?
I think we have to embrace technology, and not just use it as a communication vehicle to provide people with information about old-fashioned fashion. I'm so impatient with the fact that the fashion industry is stuck in a thousand-year-old tradition of woven or knitted fabric, scissors and needle and thread! There's got to be something new and exciting.
Exactly -- wearable technology could be cool, but the fashion world has generally viewed it as kind of a dorky thing.
They haven't figured out how to do it. We need a new kind of designer. We need the Steve Jobs of fashion to appear, like a messiah.
Do you see anyone who fits that description at all?
No. The ones who play at it are not making it attractive or commercially viable. You have to have all the new tech gadgets, you just have to. But where's the must-have techno-fashion? It's not there yet. Shoes are a perfect example. They've gone as far as they can go, pushing the old vocabulary to the limit. The new vocabulary has to be... a can of some type of liquid or something, and you stick your foot in in the morning and a shoe forms around your foot and you wear it for the day and then throw it away! That would be exciting. But we don't have the excitement of technology in fashion, because the only way we have lately been creating something new is by putting together old things in new ways -- we mix colors, we mix textures, we mix silhouettes, we mix moods -- and that has gone as far as it can go. So now we are forgetting about that and we are going for the authentic and the traditional, which is really the death knell of that movement. It's got to move ahead.
Designers are now going back to their archives and re-releasing iconic pieces.
Right. I think that's absolutely right for right now. They don't posture it this way, but I think it's such a strong anti-fashion statement. These things are perceived as being timeless, but as we know nothing in fashion should ever be timeless.
So what do you think is next? Do you think when more jobs are created people will rush out and buy fashion again?
I think they'll buy more expensive technology, hybrid cars, whatever -- until we really create something new, all we're doing is feeding the habit of the fashionistas. And the general public no longer looks at fashionistas as role models. The fashionistas are fine, so if that's your customer, no problem. But if your customer is the one who has been looking at celebrities and TV for cues -- those people aren't interested anymore. They've been burned. There's been a shift in the consumer psychological landscape, and most of us are truly downsizing the stuff that we carry in our lives.
Are you downsizing at all?
I've made a big personal fashion statement -- my white shirt statement. I threw out all my clothes! I gave all my cool clothes to charity and I found the perfect white shirt from LL Bean, pinpoint white oxford cloth, no ironing. I bought six of them, and I wear them every day. I threw out all my funky tee-shirts and bought white tee-shirts, so I'm wearing those with jeans or khakis, and my white shirts. I want to see how long it takes me to get bored. I think maybe never.
So you're a living experiment?
Yes, and it's so exciting to me. I open my closet and I see six white shirts hanging in a row. The only thing I allow myself to change is my necktie, for individuality, but I think I'd be happier with six black neckties.
Like a uniform. What are you going to do when you get excited about fashion again? Are you going to mourn your old clothes?
I don't know. I don't know when that's going to happen.
When the messiah comes.
Yes!
When clothes can just be beamed onto your body somehow.
Or aerosol sprayed on. I've been waiting for that for a long time. Wouldn't that be wonderful?