[Insert Fashion Here] Vol.1, Issue 5 | LFW prep and NYFW in review: It always ends with Marc

Happy Friday, and welcome to fashion month round up number one! That's a wrap on New York with minutes to go before London takes over, so make that cuppa and ignore that "urgent" email, for there is much to discuss.

Marc Jacobs seating, Park Avenue Armoury | Instagram

The Shows

Well done, Mr. Ford! From this distance, NYFW looked cleaner & tighter than I thought a new format with so much change could be. No major complaints from anyone, as far as I could tell.

The format upgrade was not oversold: Batsheva's show was a theory lecture on modesty in a real classroom at New York Law School. Tomo Koizumi's pieces were all modeled by a single performance artist who changed looks with the help of 2 assistants after every movement (I think the collection was better in February). Guests at Ralph Lauren were treated to Dinner at Ralph's, featuring Janelle Monae. Tom Ford himself, King of Glamour, showed his collection on an abandoned subway platform. Anything goes, and anything went.

In other new things, resale now has runway representation thanks to a collaboration between Vfiles and depop, an app I wish would come to South Africa already - most influencers who do wardrobe sales and half the IG boutiques would move over, I'm sure of it.

Last September, Man Repeller reported that food was fashion week's biggest trend, and this season it proved even more popular, from a full breakfast spread at Tory Burch to Ralph Lauren's black tie dinner to a shake shack truck at Brandon Maxwell.

A good number of shows took place in iconic theatres, including Pyer Moss.

Pyer Moss | Twitter

Pyer Moss. My goodness. The history folded into the very (very!) NOW silhouettes. The art by Richard Phillips, a man who became an artist while in prison for a crime he didn't commit. The reclaiming of the decidedly black origins of rock 'n roll, beginning with Rosetta Tharpe. “The Pyer Moss Tabernacle Drip Choir Drenched in The Blood” (their real name, I kid you not). The honour of the past without looking back for a single second, eyes up and feet moving forward to the choral collective cry of Cardi's Money. Kerby Jean-Raymond's American, Also: Collection 3 was THE show of NYFW.
[I laugh if he peaces out on us again next February like he did this year; Kerby's about to become the Sade of fashion week. 'I'll show when I feel like it and you'll be grateful.' And he's right, we will. We have to stan.]

Finally, hats off and three cheers for Marc Jacobs, King of New York and traditional closer, whose show notes remembered victims of 9/11 and whose collection was a reminder that joyful irreverence should always be a big part of fashion.

Models backstage at Marc Jacobs | Twitter

The Clothes

It's funny, I've now seen/heard multiple editors talk about how wearable everything was, but interestingly, many brought it up with disappointment. When it isn't wearable, we perform protest to pander to the masses (presumably hoping they'll say, "fashion people, they're just like us!") but when it is wearable, and beautifully so, we're bored? Ah the fickleness of fashion. Anyway. I loved how wearable it was. I'm usually content with enjoying the view without figuratively stepping into it, but I could see myself and people I recognise in so much of it. Sure, it's heart breaking to think about how much would look great on me while I earn mostly in ZAR, but like an old pastor of mine loved to say, "Dreaming costs nothing - test drive that car." Or, you know, imagine yourself in Pyer Moss.

Tommy x Zendaya | InDigital | Vogue UK

Tiny reviews, with TAGWALK + Vogue links to collections:
Rag & Bone honestly looked like what would happen if Ralph Lauren went contemporary American instead of sticking with classic. I enjoyed it more than I have since David Neville left.

Kate Spade, which is always lovely but a little too uptown pretty for my taste, felt very real this season, like someone sprinkled in Tibi or Assoulin. Like a Stepford wife would think it wasn't enough and the rest of us would very much approve.

Self Portrait took on all the possibilities of summer shirting fabric (looks like poplin?) as a dress fabric with a new approach to the lace touches that made the brand popular. It's all pretty, but if it's not cheaper than previous collections I think people will be mad. I'd be.

Helmut Lang was a spit 'n polish showing of archive codes that didn't quite land for me, tbh. Pam Boy seems to think it's a way to hit reset before heading somewhere new (according to his stories) and I'm inclined to agree. Fingers crossed.

Dion Lee was barely talked about, which I think is a shame because it was clean, sexy, razor sharp and everything I expected from Helmut Lang. I will say, I didn't get the menswear and it may have benefitted from a tighter edit.

Tibi, the first show Leandra Medine ever snuck into, won me over years ago because of its founder's take on fashion. Amy Smilovic just wants to give you a shirt you can live and work in that looks as amazing as the beautiful ones you'd never buy because of their impracticality. It is the brand's sole focus and that laser sharp vision serves them well and feels fresh (and grown) every season.

Tommy x Zendaya was a show, but it was also a collection - simplified '70s looks with no age and no out of place look-at-me-I'm-a-designer-collab flashiness. Enjoyable, and filled with suits I want very much.

Carolina Herrera is going to flourish under Wes Gordon, me thinks. It was bright and interesting if still incredibly safe, but who wasn't this season.

Proenza Schouler levelled all the way up and is now somewhere between vintage Helmut Lang and Old Céline, and I am all in on this vision.

There were others, and there is a story somewhere in this season about a torch passing of the American brands (Ralph and Marc and De la Renta to Brandon Maxwell and The Row) but I'm already past 1400 words.

Marc Jacobs | Instagram

The Messages

Are they trends? Are they themes? Directions, stories? I haven't settled on a term yet, because nothing quite covers it. For example, the '80s were already on their way back, and seem to have reached fever pitch presence on SS20's runways. But the trend is split in expression -- Americana at Michael Kors (a comeback? Kors was good!) & Princess Diana at Tory Burch (which I loved, I hardly do!) -- and overall these takes on the decade feel like they are about more than the nostalgia of a good leg of mutton sleeve. Will save the take on what fashion is trying to tell us for the end of fashion month, but for now I will say this: Hope is back in New York.

The Reading List

• The real cost of a runway show - Vogue Business

• The Cut's Fashion In 2009 package, a brilliant restrospective of NYFW

• Special mention for Thebe Magugu's sit down with Clare Waight Keller!

London Fashion week | Twitter

Most of you will already know how I feel about London, my beloved, and its shows. If not, look through my highlights, because I STILL haven't posted the majority of the photos from my trip in February (may get to it some time in this century). Here's what to expect from LFW SS20:

• An extinction rebellion protest, for starters. The movement wants to bring public attention to fashion's environmental apathy by staging a 'funeral'. There are huge swathes of the climate change discussion that the industry is metaphorically waving away with lukewarm sustainability efforts, and dramatic as their approach is, disruption is necessary.

• With Brexit being the never-ending dumpster fire it somehow still is, some political expression is expected on the runway, too.

• It's looking like along with being the global capital of emerging talent, London will also continue to be the UN of fashion weeks, with international showcases representing Canada and Arabia as well as a collaboration with the Global Goals campaign at its launch party.

• A more traditional set of shows (not as many breakfasts/dinners/performances as New York), but with some presentation format differences, like the public ticketed show Alexa Chung will put on three times on Saturday, and the combined public show House of Holland and Self-Portrait will put on three times as well on Sunday.

LFW | Instagram

Speaking of combined shows, 2 things that have been standard for us here in SA for years are being considered for more regular use on the international circuit in the name of pragmatism: combined shows and ticket sales. Locally they've been a gap-closing solution for our trade volumes not matching the size of the fashion week platforms, and were not needed on the main circuit before now because their platform growth over the years has been more in line with a response to industry trade demand. With marketing getting more and more expensive and the ROI of a fashion show becoming more difficult to quantify, they are rightfully taking a look at editing the model.

In New York, combined shows saved some emerging brands money this season, but may also have been part of the time-saving strategy. [It likely saved Laura Kim and Fernando Garcia a tidy sum of money and stress to show Monse and De la Renta back to back in the same venue in 2017.] In London, public ticket sales are being considered as the industry accepts and embraces that shows are less and less about trade and more about marketing, as well as incredibly expensive to put on. Selling tickets is also very easy to market as a move for inclusivity, if you wilfully ignore how difficult it might make things for editors and buyers who are trying to, you know, work.

WOW, that was a mouthful. If you're still here, thanks for making it to the end, I really appreciate it. Let's chat soon, here or elsewhere, about all the above. See you on Instagram?

Modupe Oloruntoba is a fashion writer & content producer in Johannesburg, South Africa.