It’s that time of year when the fashion houses, not content with showing two huge collections a year (Spring/Summer and Fall/Winter), decide to fly over happy editors, influencers, ‘it’ people, and customers. TTo shows off their cruise or resort collections, o great locations in far-flung and Instagrammable destinations.
This month, Louis Vuitton held a show in San Diego at the huge, brutalist Salk Institute. The clothing was extremely futuristic, a mix of modernist metallics and dystopian draperies, sort of a Dune sci-fi vibe, which, while charmingly hopeful and terribly artistic, isn’t really where the world is.
Yes, we have drones, self-driving cars, and all the knowledge of the world in our wearable devices. Still, when it comes to fashion, people haven’t yet made the leap into the futuristic outfits that all those sci-fi movies from Metropolis later promised us.
While we thought we might be dressing in crazy silver crinolines like Judy Jetson, we all look like Lost in Space, especially Dr. Smith in his skivvies and stretch pants.
The future is now, and it’s not made of all that complicated scrap asymmetry. It’s casual wear. It’s seemingly too hard to go on with lockdown comfy workout clothes, elasticated waists, and cozy hoodies. Australians, frankly, refuse to do that.
My French husband works at a chic eatery in Sydney and comes home stunned to find that the customers are all in sportswear at dinner.
He is constantly baffled by the Australian sense of dress. He once told our sons not to go to a nightclub during their trip to Paris because they dress so badly. They would be denied entry; to be fair, he was not wrong.
A bit too casual
We like casual here, that’s for sure.
The influencers might throw on a camel cashmere coat, a Bottega Veneta handbag, and some Botox, but trackies, leggings, and hoodies will define 2022.
I’m writing this piece in an airport lounge, I just got off a flight from Sydney to Singapore, and pretty much everyone was understandably wearing a tracksuit, including me.
Mine was a set from Jac + Jack, an oxblood T-shirt with matching elasticated waist pants that I loved at the store. However, I wear them with a long cardigan, sneakers, and a face mask, and I suspect I’m having a bit of a Golden Girls moment.
From the pointed end of the plane to my dubious economy seat in the exit row, every passenger was dressed in stretchy clothing. At one point, a guy in a matchy-matchy Adidas tracksuit decided to break into a full-on and very serious yoga routine in my mid-flight legroom.
Next to me were three small children in various stylish rompers, probably the most fashionable looks on the plane, in quilted green and multicolored velvet stripes.
I think we will all be opting for rompers instead of the weird Louis Vuitton hellscape clothes shortly. Maybe one in silver?
