Designer Diary: Melt London
19-10-2007
I’m sitting wrapped in a long possessed, baggy cashmere jumper, wondering if it’s ok to think of it as vintage? Exactly how old is vintage? More than ten years, or less than ten years? Bought in a previous decade? Or just bought in Oxfam?
Which raises the question, why is fashion so in thrall to vintage anyway? Here at Melt we search through archives, books and markets for past detail and style, skimming across photos and ghosts of people and lifestyles long gone.
Even fashion styled on the future is likely to be borrowed from an old and faded television series, like Lost In Space, which was popular viewing back in the 70’s. Today’s young music bands style themselves as late sixties throw backs, men’s cardigans, like pensioned off rockers are staging a wanna-be youthful come back, and second hand stalls worldwide, are collectively waiting for Marc Jacobs to buy up their entire stock.
So, should we now be asking ourselves where and what is the absolutely new?
Technology moves on, but fashion crawls backwards, constantly looking to the past for inspiration in the future.
Do we carry a mobile phone from the eighties, thinking its brick sized shape and weight is now an ironic must-have?
Do we throw out our flat screens and join waiting lists for giant box sized computers because they are vintage?
No, we do not.
We want sleek and beautiful. We want sinuous perfection. We want to be delighted by the forward thinking, and be dazzled by the designers’ clever approach.
The textile industry understands this need for trend setting. They have leapt forward with an advanced technology that is constantly evolving. But, whilst it can be a new take on an old Hollywood starlet’s dress, to re-create it in a modern hi-tec fabric, it’s certainly not innovative, nor boundary pushing.
Decades ago British fashion was considered avant garde, and thrilling, which sadly didn’t often translate into financially viable.
It was the American designers, with their rather dull and safe sportswear collections, who raked in the dollars, DKNYed the world and added a dash of Gap on every high street. Partly as a result of this, we have gradually lost our edginess to homogenized, safe shopping, with every shop offering much the same product as the next.
Retailers with an eye on their budgets and sales figures, will again and again buy into the bigger name collections because they believe it brings in the customers. This means smaller labels struggle to survive, and sadly the possibility of a more diverse and exciting fashion choice disappears from our streets.
The time is right to fight back. In Melt’s design room we are now playing with shape and cut, because we believe it’s a good moment to move forward, look ahead and develop some new ideas.
It’s true that vintage did have some beautiful moments, but in my opinion, it’s also true that, the mid calf length wasn’t one of them, sailor front trousers have been done to death, and capes are only ok if your name is Batman!
By Susan Royston
Creative Director of Melt London
