Recession

Is it just me or have the fashion designers as a whole responded to the poor economy with boring clothes? I often check Style.com to see beautiful fabrics and accessories and drool over the things I can't afford. But this time, when I started looking at fall 2009, I saw very little color, stick thin and not very attractive models, hair that looks slept in, make up that is over the top or nonexistent. I saw rivets, chains, zippers, safety pins, and lots of other embellishments which I consider ugly. I saw some few well cut dresses but mostly really tight pants and really short skirts. I saw shoes which a normal woman might wear for special occasions but if worn, weeks of practice would be needed.

I realize that the fashion designers are not designing for me. I am definitely not stick thin, definitely not rich, and I definitely don't go anywhere to wear the designs from the runway. There have been times when I would have given anything to touch the glorious fabrics used in the couture houses. There have been times when looking at a designer's work would have been eye candy. The work I saw on the runways this season reminded me of dirty sandpaper in strips hanging from a nail on the wall. Except for Diane Von Furstenburg, who dresses women, not coathangers, I consider the couture season for fall a washout.

Why does this matter to me? For one thing, I have lost my eye candy. I can't count on getting inspiration for art from black, brown, and dark gray when my soul longs for color. Soaring color. Dazzling color. And for another thing, there seems to be a trickle down effect from the fashion designers to mid America and finally to the South where I live. This shows up usually within 1 to 1 1/2 years after the designers send out their shows. So I am looking forward to dark dreary fabrics next year. How depressing. I can't help but think that some designers have taken the wrong message from the world financial problem. Instead of trying to make the world better by using their skills with art, they are trying to hide the insanely overpriced garments they produce by making them in a color that virtually blends in with asphalt. I am actually bemoaning the next year if that is all there is.

Thank God for artists who can still see color in the world. They continue to produce new visions of color and design which more than make up for the fashion faux pas of late. Those artists who make wonderful jewelry and accessories from clay and other media, and those artists who create wall art, paper art, and other useful things are my go to people at this point. I don't have a job any more and am really glad about it but the current financial situation is a depressing one. But I am able to get onto the computer and see ideas for journaling, miniature hats and Harry P figures, jewelry that I wish I could make, and the uplifting words of those artists. Thank God for Artists!