On Everything #144: No One to Root For

Announcement: My book Torn: Fashion and Postmodernism is available for preorder here. I am lining up book events in NYC, Dublin, London, Antwerp, Milan, and Paris in September. Watch our Instagram.

I have been having a recurring conversation with completely different people on the same topic during the past year. It roughly boils down to this; fashion used to have auteurs whose world you wanted to live in. Designers like Rei Kawakubo, Yohji Yamamoto, Helmut Lang, Ann Demeulemeester, Jun Takahashi, Takahiro Miyashita, Raf Simons, and Rick Owens had built clearly defined aesthetic universes around certain cultural values and ideas of taste that connected like-minded individuals through clothing, creating their tribes.

Since the beginning of the 20th Century, the number of auteurs has markedly decreased but they were still there; Hedi Slimane, Phoebe Philo, and on a smaller scale, Carol Christian Poell and Paul Harnden. Like them or not, Alessandro Michele and Demna were probably the last auteurs who had a tribe of acolytes. The question for today, which was raised again by an old acquaintance while we were waiting for the Auralee show to start, is, who has a tribe today? Which designer offers a point of view so strong, an aesthetic so distinct, that makes a fashion enthusiast say, “I want to live in this world.”

To be sure, there are some seasoned auteurs left. Rei Kawakubo and Yohji Yamamoto still have tribes, though much diminished. So does Jun Takahashi. Takahiro Miyashita’s WIP relaunch of Number (N)ine holds some promise. Rick Owens is probably the strongest and most relevant auteur left. One look at his show attendees is enough to reassure that his tribe is alive and well.

Elsewhere, things look pretty grim.