The Fashion Industry

1920's. A bold statement from women's fashion

In hundreds of years, fashion has been the important part of this life. Not to mention legends that tried to change the face of the world through fashion like Coco Chanel and Lee McQueen. Today some people still think that fashion is all about look, only. Meanwhile out there, without our consciousness, fashion deals with a lot of aspects in our life.
Fashion industry is all about look. But not only that, it has a big part in our lives. In fashion we have the designers and councils that decide trends for the next season; they always move one step forward. In another aspect, there are magazines, journalists, and fashion bloggers that also take a big part in spreading the style and the trends. People in the fashion business need to reconsider about every move; otherwise they will collapse. Like in Italy, maybe some of you already realize that the last Men’s Fashion Week (AW14) in Milan has a basic collection. Versace tried to recall their silk shirt collection, and Dolce & Gabbana had a pretty standard formalwear. The keyword for all of the brands in Milan is ‘formalwear’ which means they have a big target, the employee, to buy their products. They need to boost the sales. That’s why the collection was quite different with the collection from London Fashion Week, like Alexander McQueen and Burberry AW14.

Vogue, one of the biggest fashion magazines, became the bible of fashion for some people.

Fashion industry never dies of collapses, it‘s because everybody needs to buy clothes. Social life sometimes pushes people to have a good look to define their wealth, luxury, or even to describe their characters. Councils like CFDA is working very hard not only to discover new talented designers (which doubled from the number 250 members to 450 members) but also to target some designers, based on regions, to be successful. For example, in 2014 CFDA rumored targets NY designers to be as successful as Paris or Milan designers.
The (fashion) industry is so big, and without people realize, it becomes one part of our lives that can’t be separated. Every aspect includes fashion; the taste, the look, the trends, and the business.

Versace Menswear AW14, The Statement of 'The Real' Freedom

Versace – a brand that was found by Gianni Versace in 1978 is a famous for its luxury and (elegant) freedom. On their latest menswear show, AW14, Versace spoke up about what’s happening around the world: civil rights and love. Donatella herself said that the show and the collection were about liberating men and “an expression of freedom. I think it’s really important today with what’s going on in the world with civil rights and love.”

Some of the strong statements are about gay rights, where Donatella put some accessories to address about it. Some accessories are like handkerchiefs, silk shirts (which is one of the most iconic Versace wardrobe), and leather pants where you can see through the underwear.

Compared to another shows like London Collections: Men that was held earlier, Milan Fashion Week has bolder statement. Dolce & Gabbana had a real (overrated?) concept about royals, and now Versace has their own statement to say ‘f*** off’ to countries that don’t support gays.
To be really honest about this Versace’s AW14 collection, this reminds me about why I love Versace. The luxury, the statement during the show, the details of the fabrics, and the iconic silk shirts and leathers, those are all why I love them. So different from McQueen’s AW14 that took concept about patterns on their coats, trousers, and soft sweaters, Versace chose to take a quite risky move by giving a strong statement to the whole world about the real freedom that the world needs to have. Not artistic freedom, but freedom to love and freedom to have rights.

London Collections: Men A/W 2014

LCM is done. Now I need to announce that Alexander McQueen set the bar high with bold patterns in their collection. Actually I was excited about Burberry because their AW12 collection was one of my faves, it was iconic. But I don't quite get their AW14 collection, using leather for the coat and they painted it? (I heard you can customize with your name on it) But seriously, there is nothing iconic with their AW14. Another brand that got my attention is Katie Eary with their 'different' show; it's quite far from the elegance but actually some of their clothes can do well as long as you can combine it right. To be honest, I expected something more shocking from J.W. Anderson because since they did a collab with Versus Versace (which is one of my faves of all time), I thought they could do better than their J.W. Anderson X Versus Versace collection with their gender-bending stuff; I'm only impressed by their coat. Overall, LCM AW14 already told their statement, that patterns and art are the key points of this season. McQueen men's AW14 show gave us hints about the best patterns that we could wear for sweaters and coats, Burberry showed us about the art. Now Milan Fashion Week is around the corner. Big brands like Versace and Dolce&Gabbana are going to show their AW 2014-2015 collection and we'll see if patterns and art are really the trends.

Alexander McQueen AW14

Burberry AW14

Katie Eary AW14

J. W. Anderson AW14