Monday, September 24, 2012

SS13 SHOWS: DO "THE SHRUG"

Posted by Bethan Holt, Fashion Junior at Large

Now that so many shows are streamed live online, available to watch the world over there are some who say the fashion week is a dying breed. They say it is only a matter of time before editors, bloggers and buyers are just sitting at home, laptop on knee in their PJs instead of spending weeks working out schedules, jumping on planes and rushing between appointments. It certainly sounds like far less effort but would it be anywhere near as productive, exciting, debate inducing or effective? Of course not because without being able to talk face-to-face with designers and feel the clothes, anyone who is already on the outside looking in would get nowhere near as brilliant an experience. I've been on both sides. When you're at home/ desk watching shows streamed online, you top up what you're seeing by following the tweets of everyone who is there in person, you reply and interact. Then, a few hours later you might go to Style.com or Vogue.com and see what the designer said to those most highly respected reviewers and whether that skirt really was satin, or is it something weird and new? When you're there, you may not always get quite so good a top-to-toe view as those watching online but you get to see who else is there, talk to other showgoers and, if you're lucky, go backstage after and see the clothes and accessories close-up as well as perhaps talk to the designer then tell the world about it. That's the point. It would all become deathly boring if the point of view we had was that universally gleaned from a computer screen. And let's not even begin to talk about how buyers would get their job done.

It's not just that the catwalks would get bland. There's an almost equal interest in what attendees- celebs, editors, stylists, bloggers- are wearing as there is in the contents of the shows they're watching. That's because they're the translators; taking catwalk pieces and making them almost user friendly. Yes, there are your Anna dello Russos who are highly entertaining and fabulous not terribly useful when it comes to help with looking incredibly chic, right for now but not so ridiculous that you might be mistaken for attending a fancy dress party. It's a fine line. As I was attending shows in London and now have been trawling through the many street style albums which are collating from New York, London and Milan, there's one very simple styling trick which seems to have reached epic levels of use this season. It's nothing exactly new- I've seen it before but it is a look which will make you so very now without having to spend a single penny. It's called, well I have called it, "The Shrug" and it can be summed up as "draping your jacket over your shoulders rather than putting your arms through the sleeves". It's free, versatile and works best with jackets with some defined shape or structured like a blazer or varsity. The easiest to emulate trend ever?