"As the sun streamed down on us last week it all felt a little confusing, the elusive Indian summer that has always felt a little like a forecasters dupe to excuse the consistently disappointing UK summer was here. Did we enjoy it? I have to admit I heard more moaning about it than a keenness to lap up the rays – who would have thought? Maybe we had got our heads around the winter’s approach and looked forward to swapping the overly worn tees for the new autumn purchases, maybe it was simply a case of out with the old and in with the new.
With the fashion shows kicking off in Milan and Paris, there was a feeling of seen-it-all-before about almost all the collections – some in a good way and some in a bad. The most disappointing show had to be DSquared2. Dean and Dan normally put on a pretty good show but this was totally boring, sub-standard and snapped of déjà vu. Having recently kissed the summer goodbye and watched the endless stream of festivals go with it, I was mind-numbed by the predictability of what they believe we’ll want to wear next summer. Remember what festival goers like Alexa Chung and Fearne Cotton wore this summer at Glasto? Well, it was 34 outfits of that. Yawn.
Some shows however, made a better impression. Gucci showcased a cross between 1980’s glam and 1920’s flapper, Thimister (Ex Balenciaga) took us back to Roman – almost gladiator – times and Just Cavalli went all cavemen on us. Whether we decide to wear these clothes next summer or not, they played with fantasy by taking us back to a long forgotten era.
This struck me again whilst trawling through Ebay recently looking for a good bit of vintage - maybe a Moschino shirt or a Chanel bag - I continually came across pieces just two seasons old labelled ‘vintage’; please, two seasons old does not vintage make. Surely enough time needs to have passed before it’s dusted off and revived - otherwise it’s just plain and unstylishly out of date.
Having recently had a revisit from the ‘Yankee’, I have decided that this also goes for men - they should quite clearly remain in the era from which they hailed. In this case, clearly not enough time had passed; all it did was remind me how loud the all-too-recent screeching of the ‘stay away from this one’ siren was.
Take the X Factor contestants – cropping up again the very next year is only ever going to end up in failure. Give it a few years and who knows, maybe things would be different…
Nostalgia is one thing, but many things are best left to a good memory - at least until the rose tinted specs come on again."
