Editor’s note: This article was initially published in 2024 but has been updated with new musings, reflecting the current climate in luxury fashion.
Bags In The Wild officially kicked off yesterday, September 11th. Still, the city’s influx of celebrities, editors, and influencers began earlier this week as the who’s who touched down for parties and kick-off events.
Along with them comes the unmistakable air of September in the City, an indescribable feeling to those along for the fashion month ride, seasoned vets and rookies alike. Still, it’s those seasoned vets who marvel at how much things have changed since the days of The Tents at Bryant Park and later Lincoln Center, which NYFW departed from ten years ago this season.
Truthfully, it’s not just New York that’s seen major change. As a whole, fashion month just ain’t what it used to be.
In the Modern Digital Age, Labels Override Personal Style
While I don’t attend as many events as I once did, I do like to support industry friends and labels with whom I’ve developed strong relationships. While this season is fresh, I’m already hitting a bit of what I’d like to call label fatigue, missing the golden days of fashion—the pre-influencer era, if you will.
this is a very good article personal style was still personal. When fashion people and onlookers alike would uniquely style their clothes, mixing vintage with contemporary and luxury with low. Those in the know and those who wanted to be in the know cared more about creating a LEWK, not the label they wore.
These days, fashion week events are chock full of VIPs and influencers dressed head-to-toe in designer, and while fashion month is still young, it only seems to be getting worse. Yet even as a seasoned fashion editor and former fashion closet intern who used to send those very VIP sample days at the dawn of the influencer era, I still marvel at the number of guests dressed head to toe in a brand’s wares at any given event.
Sure, I may have the right bag in hand if I’m lucky enough to own one by the designer hosting. Still, my outfit is always put together on my own accord from a closet full of clothes I very much own—a closet that does not include a wide array of designer labels.
An Ode to a Bygone Era
Before influencers, tastemakers, and stars who were famous simply for being famous, fashion shows in all the major cities were full of celebrities, industry insiders, buyers, editors, and select It-girls. It was customary for attendees to wear a piece from the designer’s show.
Still, typically, this meant traipsing through one’s closet to craft an outfit around that particular piece. Yes, loans were a thing, but they were very different from what they are like today. Back then, both the up-and-comers and those who were already there were more concerned with standing out thanks to their personal spin on a designer piece or two rather than desperately accepting whatever a brand would send them to wear.
Where Has All the Creativity Gone?
It’s not just one label that is guilty of this, either. Nearly every luxury label’s VIP arrivals look like carbon copies of the previous season’s runway.
While I appreciate seeing runway looks worn in real life, I miss the days when street style was filled with a wide variety of looks…
The seasons when seeing one designer logo didn’t automatically mean the entirety of a person’s look was by that designer too. The days when one designer piece could be spotted many times in a given season on people at parties, or outside of the shoes worn in a million different ways.
It’s not just Fashion Week that produces carbon copies, either. Last year, Vogue writer Hannah Jackson begged designers to stop forcing celebrities to wear full runway looks on the red carpet, and she’s got a point. Where is the creativity? Where is the fun? Where is the personal spin?
While a brand’s vision is highly curated and developed by its in-house creative teams and thus greatly protected, fashion is meant to be fun, individual, and deeply personal. In an era writer Hannah Jackson is so revved up that truly anything goes, why are designers so obsessed with everyone looking the same?
I miss creativity too. Why are the “it” people in the clothes head to toe? Gucci and Chloe seem to be the worst. Everyone looks the same, same bags, same shoes. It does the opposite to me. I will not be wearing any of it.
Someone from my sorority went on to a career with Women’s Wear Daily (WWD). It’s been years since we spoke, but I remember her fashion advice about attending designer shows or sponsored events — it was considered gauche to come head to toe in that designer’s products. IOW, if you wore a dress by that designer, your bag, shoes, jewelry etc should be from someone else. If your bag and accessories were by the designer, your outfit should not be from that same label. It was considered trying too hard and an amateur’s faux pas.
where the trend cycle.
I agree with Kaitlin. Great Article! Personal Style to me is way more interesting when mixed in with Trends makes it Fashion!
I sometimes wonder those that are dressed Head to Toe off the runway or get “styled” even know how to dress themselves.
When did it all change to one head to toe designer? I’m thinking the last 5 years but can’t quite pinpoint it. Just curious!!
Hmmm, yes and no. I do see the people wearing head to toe designer, I also see the attendees that almost look like they are going for the most bizarre item they can find and making it look as crazy as possible. It seems it is either cookie cutter or bizarre.
Can There Ever Be Another Birkin.
A thought suddenly appears. The very fact these influencers’ rise seems unstoppable shouts to the world (the old guards, and those of us who do not quite appreciate or relate to this, me, for one) that this is the world we live in now. The world of commerce, particularly fashion, belongs to the young. This is a fact. We can choose to spend our energy elsewhere, keep buying what we like disregarding what’s on display with the influencers. They are here, they are thriving, because they can sell. Until something else can replace this power that is. I am quite content simply to sit back and relax. Fashion content is not quite for me anymore, and that’s ok. I’ve got other ways to spend my time.
Yes, Fashion week has become too predictable. Not hard to see who is dressed up by the brands. I miss the lack of creativity we used to see and be inspired by.
I honestly feel like there’s been such a shift in luxury fashion, where the brands are so laser focused on profits that they want literal, human billboards to help push sales. Unfortunately, they don’t realize that seeing someone incorporate just one item from their brand into a look mixed with pieces from other brands and price points, is actually more inspiring (and realistic) to most consumers.
Fashion is walking into Gucci and buying everything and walking out wearing it. Style is walking into a department and picking and choosing what best suits you and walking out and looking better than the girl that walked out of Gucci.
I agree – personal style is important and I despise influencers- in order to see movie stars or athletes or rich folk attend shows than tacky influencers because I’ve never looked at an influencer and said oh I want what she is wearing!
In the old days ( before IG et al) you had fashion info mostly from the magazines where the brand head to toe looks were featured in the advertising and the true originality in trends with mixing it up was showcased in the editorials. Now I’m pretty sure young fashionistas aren’t as glued to the pages of Vogue or Elle as we had to be. They have so many options. So if you’re a brand where do you get the most eyeballs on everything you’re trying to sell? Today lots of attention is paid to the influencers and street stylists so…that’s where they’re forced to go.
But I do see the need for us followers to get original editorial inspiration. I rarely follow young influencers ( I’m 71) so I don’t much care what they do. Maybe if the influencers had more followers after wearing a mix of high low and assorted pieces the brands would then encourage them to come to their shows in original style. It’s just eyeballs.
I totally agree. I miss the days of mixing looks from different designers,say a skirt from one designer and a jacket from another,it makes it chic and personal. What happened to imagine and fun in fashion. I miss that mix and match.
I wholeheartedly agree with this article. There is no creativity in the looks. It’s all so boring. I once loved scrolling through the images of “street style” outside the shows–often more interesting than the shows themselves! Now, I don’t even bother… It is all the same this and same that. Yawn.