And this is a case where there was no malicious intent. I don’t need to tell you how many creeps there are in this world.

Just look at this ad. Tech has begun to rely on fashion to glamourise and normalise dangerous technology. This is not so different from cigarettes and drugs which are always in the background of hedonistic partying images with models, heirs, and billionaires.

Tech Nerds have hired marketing teams who have figured out how they need to penetrate girl culture to really create adoption for their creep glasses. If usage remains confined to mostly pick-up artists and assaulters, they may never be able to make enough money. It is through the moms who want to record every moment of their kids, the recipe bloggers who want to easily film their cooking, or girls on a vacation to vlog without interruptions - that they plan to make their money. Is the convenience of not holding up a phone enough for the girls to normalise the glasses and open themselves up to the risk of being filmed in a compromising position by someone else? Or even for something silly like being caught in an unflattering position as a part of someone else’s vlog. An assured mutual destruction or can we have non-proliferation and deterrence?

Fashion Saves

People are working hard to create anti-surveillance fashion. Not only in spyverse, but it has become increasingly important to confuse AI-facial recognition in the age of deportations sponsored by Palantir. There is nothing fool-proof we have so far but there are certain clothes with prints that confuse facial recognition, but can’t yet make you invisible to cameras. An interesting piece of technology is a rather clunky looking bracelet that distorts audio to a point that the entire footage is unusable. Those street interviews that try to make you look stupid and the vlogger won’t take them off the internet? Yeah, noone can catch you on camera now and your stupidity can reign free. There are also some apps that can notify you if a Meta or Samsung device is within 10m radius so you can lie low if you need to. Unfortunately, it can’t yet detect and off-brand devices. The trick of playing Disney music to prevent use of unsolicited footage is kind of amateur at this point.

Remember when Paris Hilton gave us this iconic demonstration with her anti-paparazzi scarf by ISHU? It completely blinds the camera if you take flash photographs. Unfortunately, with prevalent video capturing devices it is not at all effective, but she still remains the face of anti-survelliance. In an age where Kylie, Anok, and Alex - some of the biggest fashion girls who define culture today are bending over backwards to pervert glasses (this is the work of a certain PR who holds too much power), Paris remains my last hope to rally the girls.

What are governments doing to prevent this? In the US, nothing, the lobbyists, PACs and SuperPACs pushed through to allow this. In EU, the facial recognition features are essentially banned. Additionally there are talks to ban the glasses all together as illegal spyware, there are some legal gymnastics involved. I do not believe these can proliferate in Germany where club culture strictly looks down upon cameras and where filming your form at the gym can lead to a verbal combat from anyone in your vicinity. Infact, there are predatory lawyers who’s entire job it is to attack anyone with legal notices whose website’s privacy policies are just a little bit out of date. In India, we have much bigger priorities right now but there is comfort in the sheer anonymity of crowds and the relative unaffordability of the creep glasses. These are places I know about, how is it like where you live?

I cannot believe what I just pulled off and how they let me. The day I decided I wanted to do it I was full of doubts and kept everything secretive almost until the very end. I messaged everyone I knew in Berlin and that’s not that many people. Some of them helped. Some of the strangers I came across were like angels. It all came together. Let me take you through the journey of how to get to FUCKING BERLIN FASHION WEEK.

In India, I couldn’t find the right fashion for me. The weather wouldn’t allow for layering and the fit was never right. Jewellery was my outlet for expression. Jaipur has some of the best jewellery manufacturing in the world and I would take a road trip from Delhi and buy 10 rings at the same time and wear new combinations everyday. However, finding unique jewellery is not that easy. I don’t want to see minimalist boring bands anymore. I love the discovery process and thought I could bring my curation to create an experience for people who also love jewellery but don’t have the time to spend on discovery.

When I moved to Berlin last year, I did not think this is what I would be doing but planning is for suckers. Joking - just plan 6 months in advance for anything you want to get done in Germany or else you gotta just be really really pushy to make it happen based on all the advice I got. However, it was the middle of May when I thought perhaps I should try this….and thankfully I had 3 weeks until the deadline to register my event. I just assumed it can’t happen but decided to shoot my shot by reaching out to Studio2Retail with my event proposal, not expecting a reply. To my surprise I met a very kind lady who was so enthusiastic about my idea that she promised it could be listed and even helped me look for venues.

Simultaneously I wrote to jewellery designers. So many of them I think I probably know every jewellery designer in Germany now. I talked to them and found out that the scene in Germany is really collaborative. My first designer, or let’s say believer, was Katharina from Kliem who was ready to join the event after 5 min into a phone call. I didn’t know what to do for a second because I had a whole pitch prepared - but it worked out great! And then Zan from Asterisk joined, bringing in Nami from Entroph. Everything started feeling more tangible.

After several months I was finally getting my residence permit card and went to collect it full of anxiety. But that same day I talked to Carolin from Carolin Dieler who also joined within a day. And next day Michael from Park 217 joined me - bringing the total to a solid 5. I could already proceed to book my location - the very gorgeous Rosebud. I was sold on how elegant it looked, but it was technically a corporate meeting room so I had to really get creative about how to turn it into an exhibition space within budget, and I think I succeeded in that quite well at the end.

The next 3 designers were hard especially because I was on a week-long vacation I had pre-booked for my birthday (I’m 31 now). Soon after returning - and I couldn’t believe this - I booked Malna - who is coming all the way from BUDAPEST to join the event. I absolutely love her gemstone work and she is making a new capsule collection for this event - UNDER A MONTH. Just incredible.

The next on my roster was Elisabeth from Bebys Bliss. She makes these super feminine and cute rings along with her partner who also makes jewellery. Both have them have the best friendly vibe.

And the final jewel of my roster (get it?) is Cynthia from Topsana Jewellery. She recently finished school and works as a goldsmith while also building her own brand. Her campaigns capture the energy of youth and defiance. Her jewellery is chunky and extremely tactile with moving pieces - it begs to be experienced in person.

To give you an idea of how tight it all was, it was already 18th June when I closed my lineup and the event was scheduled for 4th of July, so about 3 weeks total. It seems quick but I was incredibly cranky and anxious for the whole time. Now I had only 2 weeks to pull it all together. This meant designing signage, finding a photographer, creating a press release, event promotions and listing, creating guest lists…..so basically a one woman PR agency. No big deal.

The reason why this event is so special to me is because I keep talking about supporting independent designers but this goes beyond social media and sharing their posts. It’s very much tangible. Also if you know me I always throw open the gates to everyone (I once had 200+ people at my house for a college party). So naturally, this was an open event and we had over 400 people visit! 400 jewellery enthusiasts who came in and tried on unique pieces and got to be a part of fashion week. There was wine and music, with a lot of family and friends joining the event to make it more of a party.

I could not have pulled this off without the constant support of my partner, who sat through my moody weeks and then doubled as a stage hand on the day, turning into an electrician, a doorman, and a runner depending on what was needed. Also a big shoutout to my small friend circle in Berlin who went above and beyond in helping me promote the event and check-in guests, setup up and packup - just ensuring it all came together smoothly.

I wish I could bring all of you to experience the event together, especially those who support me long distance. If you love jewellery, follow BERLINATE8 on Instagram because this is not over, it is going to become a permanent home for independent jewellery designers.

Prada sometimes hides behind a veneer of intellectualism when producing really mediocre work. The defenders like to claim ‘you just don’t get it’ when they don’t get it either - but because it is Prada, obviously it is smart. Its all very emperors new clothes.

I feel Prada is getting lazy in fully forming their ideas and allowing people to assume, create discourse, and finish the thought for them. Some people enjoy this exercise of trying to create meaning as it makes them feel part of a conversation with the brand. They may not be getting Prada show invites or PR but the brand talks to them directly and allows them to feel like part of its universe and a secret club. This is absolutely a self call-out.

This rant is in reference to their recent angry birds campaign with Jordan Wolfson. The imagery is AI-generated but striking. Then comes Prada’s word salad

“Wolfson’s intervention in the spring 2026 campaign opens ceaseless possibilities, multiplicities of identity and being, of what Prada can be, how it can be perceived — and re-perceived — through constantly questioned conventions of an advertising campaign”

Is this image haunting my brains - YES. I DONT KNOW WHY. It is quite disgusting. I can only look at the bird and barely notice the celebrity or Prada clothes they are wearing. Using juxtaposition and tension to draw attention is an age old art trick but this creature feels like a very cheap method of executing it - but it still works. But we cannot assume that just because things work, we can infer their goodness. Prada had the brilliant opportunity to talk about identities by doing something unexpected like the birds being real creations and celebrities being AI, but they copped out.

The celebrities chant ‘I, I, I…am’ which can at first look seem narcissistic. It could be a question about losing their identities to their film characters or these days to the parasocial fans’ imaginations. Everyone has struggled with identity at some point in their lives so it is easy to project whatever meaning the user wants. How does this human relate to the bird? In my interpretation the bird represents the weight of social expectations. Recently I discovered that several corporates are judging employee productivity by the number of AI tokens they use for their work, not the output. This societal expectation that forces you to befriend AI and smile as it creepily stands behind your shoulder, scaring you - this AI-anxiety - that’s what Prada’s imagery means in my head - being forced to embrace your own downfall and smile through it.

I started of thinking how ridiculous this is to now getting involved in the the Prada world which pisses me off and I think I should post this completely unedited so you can see the gears in my brain work.

Now I MUST look into the artist Jordan Wolfson. He is apparently known for creating characters and narratives that provoke existential social discussions. According to an article in Gagosian, “….he contrasts the physical, virtual, and imaginary realms, examining the projection of internal impulses onto constructed selves and scenarios.” Now this is such an accurate description of the phenomenon you read above. He has been successful in doing this through the Prada campaign and I love when art makes me feel something.

Exploring his other work I came across con leche (2009), which features Coca Cola bottles filled with milk, walking cartoonishly around real footage of the streets of Detroit. The milk spills as the bottles walk in different formations. The contrast of expecting a black liquid but it being replaced by white, nurturing milk is hard to ignore. It makes me think of how this constant shift in creative directors at brands are like milk in a coke bottle, for example Sarah Burton or Sean McGirr at McQueen. The biggest heavy-lifting is done by the audio that accompanies this strange video which features a rant about recycling, Kate Moss’ coke scandal, identity etc with directions from Jordan to fix the tone. The voice sounds machine-generated but contains so much emotion as it yells ‘I’M GAY, I’M GAY’. The changes in tone give me goosebumps - this was made in 2009 and is reminiscent of how people talk to their Chat-GPTs when writing assignments, as if he could see into the future. I never thought this could be art but I watched all 20 min of the coke milk bottle walking.

Then there is a truly bizzare cartoon depiction of all the Jewish stereotypes in his work called Animation, masks (2011), complete with a big nose, big ears, and beard. The figure chants ‘ It is so nice to wake up in the morning all alone, and not have to tell somebody you love them when you don’t love them, anymore.’ , from Love Poem by Richard Brautigan; as he continues to read Vogue in front of different backgrounds of messy rooms. This alternates with sexual conversations that can only be between a hooker and a customer, where the female voice forcedly appreciates his lovemaking. The Jewish caricature plays both the parts in this dialogue, perhaps implying coercion. The most confusing part is how he keeps flipping through Vogue while doing all these unrelated activities and you cannot stop noticing the Chanel ads, Kate Moss, and other half-naked models. Perhaps the artist wants to comment on how sex sells but it is not the same as love, and there is a freedom in isolation where you don’t need to pretend to love anything.

It is clear that Jordan Wolfson loves fashion and thinks of it as a medium to comment on social identities. His collaboration with Prada thus seems like a natural phenomenon as Miuccia loves to play with perceptions and image and discuss what is considered ugly and why. The result works for social media and it will make people want to pay more for shirts and pants which carry the markup for this piece of art. Somehow the campaign is looking at the customer buying a $2000 pant, hoping it somehow changes their identity too, as they chant ‘I, I, I am’

Every single season, about halfway through the second day of NYFW, this question starts bubbling up inside of us. Is NYFW dead? As I noted last season, even though the brands secure strong profits, they are more considered in their spending on spectacle. While I should concede that there is nothing wrong with commerciality, being a business grad I cannot, it also makes it incredibly dull to talk about. It is not bad design but the interchangeability of brands - it would be hard to pinpoint who designed what - look at the picture above and try for yourself. These are all taken from top NYFW brands. For European brands, you can usually tell if it is YSL or Dior or Gucci with atleast 80% accuracy if you follow a bit of fashion.

American brands are built around lifestyle instead of identity or craft, and with the Americana revival they all design for the same person. Perhaps a different shade of brown, a tight or relaxed fit, the permutations become limited. Their moat is not design but a fleeting perception of ‘coolness’ which in fashion comes and goes quickly. Even The Row rode the wave of quiet luxury. After strong hype for a few years, The Row became overexposed, and especially after their sample sale which showed their lack of real exclusivity and their treatment of Neelam Ahooja, their VIC, it lost favour and is on the decline.

Coach and Ralph Lauren on the other hand are having a renaissance. I don’t know why Coach bothers with RTW when bags are a much better business for them. They started their RTW in 2015 in order to make their bags feel more high-end instead of average, discounted, outlet ‘mom’ bags. Is it this strategy or their new it-bag launches and partnerships that have triggered a turnaround - it is hard to attribute with any accuracy. As for Ralph Lauren, who originated the Americana style, unfortunately today comes back in fashion because of the yearning to go back to ‘traditional’ American values (I’m talking MAGA). His work, standalone, is still the best in the game, however, Coach, Calvin Klein (should never have left Raf Simons leave), Michael Kors, all doing Americana dilutes it.

The interesting aspects of NYFW come from more niche players like Marc Jacobs, Thom Browne, Tom Ford, Luar, Anna Sui, Siriano (comic relief), Area, Weiderhoeft, Prabal Gurung, Peter Do, LaQuan Smith, Willy Chavarria among others. They are however unreliable on the schedule, or sometimes show in European capitals instead, doing shows only when they can afford it. It is a very smart strategy from a business perspective but brings down the overall conversation generated during NYFW. Unfortunately, boring sells so boring gets to present and is forced to stay boring to keep the profits stable.

New York fashion scene feels concept-less. I read through the briefs at every NYFW show so far and not one talks about concepts, except Marc Jacobs. If there is no theme or idea to discuss, product becomes the focus, and product is only valuable in a context. If there is no identity, there must be a community. Product alone cannot create a community. Concepts can be consumed for free and hence European fashion weeks invite more deliberators into the brand universe, which creates a community around it of people who tune in season after season, who pay with their attention and creating a sustainable brand hype which builds long term commitment.

Ecosystems

America does not have a talent deficit. They are an incubator for new brands who are able to get their start in the NY ecosystem. They then move to more serious markets with their entire brand like Thom Browne or just to creative direct European brands like Schiaparelli (Daniel Roseberry) or Gucci (Tom Ford). As someone who is also deeply involved in the European startup ecosystem, this is interesting because its the opposite of what happens to tech talent and startups based out of Europe moving to Silicon Valley to incorporate. Ecosystems are important in how talent thrives.

While the designer musical chairs in European fashion houses makes them feel unstable, it also ensures that there is no lethargy. Making a splash is an absolute requirement because executives don’t hesitate in breaking ties after a show or two. It is not a perfect system but always exciting to talk about for keyboard commentators like myself. You always have some firsts, some revivals, some game changing designs every season and innovation is at the forefront of design more than sales. Infact, it is almost impossible to be a new brand in Milan or Paris because of the strength of the conglomerates. You will definitely be drowned out by the PR and Media engines of LVMH and Kering, not to mention the operational complexities and costs of working across countries in Europe.

So, is NYFW dead then? If you are a new designer, then definitely not. New York and London are the best places to incubate new talent. There is a fashion ecosystem to tap into to find all the resources to thrive and you are relatively shielded from the noise of conglomerates. It is an open playground to build your legitimacy. Present shows that generate noise with innovative designs but sell boring clothes. Europeans have mastered this and that is what provides them legitimacy. Your strength is in your merchandising and community building abilities.

Is NYFW dead if you are a fashion commentary account like me? Well yes, because noone cares to engage unless you talk about how dead it is.

Not a day goes by without seeing a blast from the past. An archive look, a reference, a homage, a reimagining, an interpretation, vintage revival, or whatever you try to call it to pass off something old as something fresh. While it is true that the quality of what is being made today is inferior at large to what we had a few decades ago, there are still gems to be found if we look around. Nostalgia has such a chokehold on us that we are satisfied simply looking at familiar designs, perhaps too tired to register something new….Lets look at what could be the reasons behind this

1. Designer musical chairs and new appointments put a lot of pressure on designers to ‘pull from the archives’. They need to interpret and reinterpret ‘house codes’ in their own style or they will be considered unfit at the helm of a brand. Even though they were hired for their individual vision, rumours of their exit will surface all over Twitter. Let’s not forget designers who are not designers and have no option but to simply curate the best of their own legacy and that of the brand’s. Creation becomes curation.

2. Borrowing authenticity from the past seems like a shortcut to developing your own taste. Sometimes it is easy to express yourself in ways that someone has already expressed themselves before by simply emulating their surface-level attributes. One does not need to be a punk if one simply dresses as one.

3. One of luxury’s main pillars is its heritage and with fashion brands masquerading as luxury, it was no surprise that they decided to bring back their 20 year old collections to the forefront to remind everyone of their legacy. This is how they can claim a higher price tag for the same item or worse. They are trying to level up in the luxury pyramid. They just need a glorified story to boost them up.

4. Sustainability is the only viable reason I would be okay with bringing back vintage but then that needs to be real vintage not replicas made of lesser quality materials! Celebrities wearing archives pieces promotes reuse but honestly red carpet appearances are art and not at all how a person dresses and does not in any way imply their sustainability. However, because of rising prices of vintage garments, brands want to get a share of the pie and just decide to relaunch similar products. Which brings me to….

5. It already worked – so it will work again. People had too much disposable income 2020-2023 that reissuing old hits helped brands make a quick buck. The most egregious of all was Louis Vuitton’s back-to-back reissuance of Yayoi Kusama and Haruki Murakami bags – not even enough time to breathe between those two collections it was just too much.

But behind all this commercial gibber gabber is a very real creative – Law Roach. Law Roach redefined the work of a stylist. He has made people believe that a stylist’s job is to get access to archival designer garments for their clients. The more obscure the better, but even if it is a low hanging recognizable fruit, its still good for social media clicks. ‘Knowledge of fashion history’ has become a social currency that this trend runs upon. It feels good to ‘clock’ and recognize when a moment is recreated but when everyone is pulling from the archives, then there is no new designer coming up.

What’s the problem with all of this?

We have nothing new! No new culture is being created. Fashion is at a standstill where we are just pulling out ghosts from the closet. Legacy brands which were once at the forefront of innovation have become lazy and are simply collecting cash in their coffers without investing it in breaking any boundaries. As for newer designers, they keep trying to be an accessible version of their legacy counterparts and anything new is rejected by the society because they are unable to ascribe any meaning to it. The lack of context or willingness to listen to these new talents has made a hopeless loop – where they cannot sustain their brands for more than a few years to legacy brands feeling no pressure to catch up to anything.

The loss of subculture is painful. We simply do not spend enough time reading and discussing and absorbing ideas to have any meaningful causes to stand behind. And this is particularly a time to do exactly that. We have suddenly become acquainted with the fact that continuous growth was an economic anomaly which was highlighted by Gucci’s firing of Michele and the fall in its growth ever since. Now that we cannot chase continuous growth we are saddled with the need to find meaning elsewhere but we are not left with any tools with which to do that because of shortening attention spans and the general indifference of a Dostoyevsky protagonist who has been beaten down by systemic injustice.

We are also limiting history to a few heroes who have been glorified to a level of untouchability. This reverence comes without commentary or critique, and if you try you are only met with ‘but you don’t get it’. In the creation of art, the process is critical and often more meaningful than the actual result. By this logic, we should be able to appreciate Margiela’s deconstruction philosophy (it’s the definition), but also be open to accept that his tabis were a symbol of cultural appropriation, and then also accept that their current hyped place in fashion completely goes against its antifashion roots and thus wearing them is not a symbol of anything anymore. However it is also possible that one gets caught up in this loop and ends up buying a tabi in either of those stages of reasoning and ends up in a community which has nothing in common now.

A product of this culture is Sabrina Carpenter, our premier popstar. She sang in obscurity for years before Espresso and then with a single hit, ensured her place in culture by clinging on to fashion not as a means of expression, but as a tool for reputation and image building. Someone with access to an archive and recreating the looks of old pop icons brings instant legitimacy. The manufactured saccharine sexed up persona feels like a marketing gimmick quite similar to Collina Strada shows which always feature cheap stunts. Because a robot that sort of sprays paint like Alexander McQueen did makes people delighted to recognize that reference! While Amy Winehouse and McQueen may hate each other, their personalities were raw and authentic, which I cannot find anymore searching far and wide.

We are in a world without stories. A place without any anchors or beloved characters to cling on to. Its not that there are no stories its probably just a lot of noise that makes it hard to hear them. In moments like this we must seek them out intentionally instead of waiting for them to be presented to us. Or perhaps, create our own. OR, hand out microphones to those who try.

In everyone’s posts about him leaving Balmain, similar themes are discussed. How he was young, black, created Balmain army, H&M collab etc but this is so boring like lets talk about his impact and his work across his career. Since I am so drawn to him as a person I decided to do it myself. In this piece, I explore the different eras of Olivier Rousteing and share some of his best work.

2011-2013 Gilded Oppalance Era

Olivier joined Balmain in 2009 and worked under Christophe Decarnin for two years, before taking the helm as creative director at the age 25. Under Christophe, Balmain had a punk-chic image (Military jackets, skinny jeans, nightlife) which is hard to imagine now, but Olivier did take a lot of inspiration from these codes in his 14 years there. His first collection was SS2012 and it consisted of baroque mini skirts, structured jackets, black/white/light blue/ and GOLD. So much gold. It opened to mixed reviews but he was recognised for his couture-level details early on, however critics wanted him to come out of Decarnin’s shadow. Then came his standout FW2012 Faberge collection which silenced the critics and won the hearts of every celebrity. This was most famously worn by Kim Kardashian for her Bachelorette Party. There was also her pearly white look, Miley’s Billboard Choice Award checkered look, and Rosie Huntington Whitney’s Balmain MET Gala dress that cemented his position as a red carpet designer and lead to the formation of the Balmain Army.

2013-18 Balmain Army Era

This was the peak Balmain Army era where every celebrity was wearing bold, colourful looks. It was not just one of the funny stan names but also represented Balmain’s visual identity at this point of time which was heavily inspired by the military. Strong shoulders and architectural looks with heavy embellishments, colour blocking, military green, skinny jeans defined the style. Here he first started creating a balance between everyday fashion and stage outfits. This was also a moment when he began his audition for Chanel (this is a joke, I often comment how some of his looks incorporate Chanel house codes like skirt suits, chains, quilting etc. Another memorable moment of this era was Kim and Kylie’s outfits for the Manus x Machina MET Gala. At this point people were not going all out over the theme so this was literally one of the best on-theme looks. This man was preparing for couture.

2018-2020 - Beychella and Couture

Beyonce stood by Olivier throughout his career and when she became the first black woman to headline Coachella, she decided to get Olivier to make all of her custom looks. The looks were empowering and forced everyone to pay attention. Their relationship was so special that Olivier launched a couture collection where each look was inspired by a Renaissance song.

In 2019, Olivier presented his first couture collection, which was a first for Balmain since 2002. He proved is mettle once again when we pushed the boundaries of couture techniques. However, reviews were mixed and the cost of putting up a couture show that did not generate revenue was too high, so unfortunately, this was also the last one. Critics felt that the collection had the right idea but was ‘too much’ and that he needed more time to hone his craft. I do have to reluctantly agree, while there was imaginativeness and some looks were certainly striking, I found the overall storytelling missing leading to a lack of depth.

2020 and Beyond - The Reckoning

For FW 2020, Olivier showed one of his strongest and most critically acclaimed collections ever. He explored his African roots and gave us beautiful draped looks and latex suits. One of the looks inspired Zendaya’s Dune look for the Venice Film Festival. And ofcourse - Kim Kardashian wore the latex suits, by choice, repeatedly. These looked super chic but they just make me feel the air being squeezed out of my lungs even by just looking. I love her dedication to fashion.

On 23 October 2020, Olivier met with a burn accident from a gas fireplace exploding, leading to severe full body burns. This happened during a small celebration party at his house, thankfully his friends avoided this fate. It took him 2 months in the hospital to recover from these burns, which he chose to do without morphine. He then decided to keep the news from everybody as he did not want pity. The coronavirus lockdowns provided an opportunity to hide and that’s what he did, behind hoodies, sunglasses, turtlenecks, gloves, face masks, and turned off zoom cameras. He covered his fingers with rings to hide the newly generated white skin, lacking melanin.

In his SS22 collection, he finally told this story through his new collection, which was also his 10 year retrospective at Balmain. The new collection was inspired by bandages and gauzes, items he was surrounded by through his long recovery process. It ended with his muses wearing re-editions of his best looks, out of which Carla Bruni wearing the white and gold Faberge collection dress was the most memorable.

FW 26 Final Collection

His final collection was so solemn and beautiful and restrained. It felt like a departure from his flamboyant style. It is probably one of the best collections he has put out and I feel it was the perfect time for him to try couture again but alas, he is gone now.

Let us look at his career trajectory. He began leading design for Balmain at 25 and immediately connected with the youth. He had celebrities eating out of his palms because of his penchant for creating stage and red carpet dressing. The critics were after his ass for overdesigning and not being refined enough, which was partly fair, but I feel he was not given enough grace. I believe he must have felt like an underdog himself and had a fire to keep proving and reinventing himself, leading to such a varied design language throughout his career. You could never guess what he would come up with. But once he finally understood restraint, he became free, free of Balmain. I am afraid for his next move now because his identity got so wrapped up in Balmain that, I am not kidding, several people told me they believed his name is Balmain. I hope he is able to detach himself and pursue a path which allows him to experiment as much as Balmain did.

While I am sad this partnership ended, it was a good one. He was trusted and given a free hand, of which he made good use. I still feel Balmain let him go because they wanted to go in the direction of ~minimalism~ instead of his strong looks. Its gonna backfire just like when Kering let go of Alessandro Michele and has since been on a downward spiral. Why they did it? Mayhoola was bleeding money and I feel they are soon gonna exit fashion altogether, they may not have the backbone to withstand a global recession. In any case, I don’t care about Balmain anymore and the new designer seems too minimalistic and subdued for my liking.

I cannot wait to see what Olivier does next.

Fashion has finally come out of its quiet luxury nightmare. While we cannot afford anything anymore and the class divide widens, this summer inspo may just serve as a time capsule to a maddening year instead of something to copy. Even if you want to copy these looks they may be highly unattainable not just in terms of price but also what it takes to pull them off.

Jenna Ortega’s World

Jenna Ortega has been a fashion girlie in training so far but this summer she emerged as a fully formed fashion icon in her own right. She combined vintage, couture, and emerging designer pieces to create one of the most memorable press campaigns ever, for Wednesday Season 2. If you have followed me you would know how much I hate obvious references and overly literal method dressing during premieres - so this tour has me extremely pleased. While there is use of romantic goth designers like Dilara Findikoglu and Ann Demeulemeester, a lot is being conveyed through styling, hair, and bleached brows. The Fendi, Valentino, DKNY, and Simone Rocha pieces have been transformed by the styling to suit her TV character.

Dua Lipa’s Birthday Holiday

Dua Lipa is always on holiday as she should be. All these and more outfits are a results of parties spread across several days and a celebratory magazine cover. The Oseree Bikini she wore became viral, along with her insane ability to perform yoga on a surf board. Her outfits are the definition of unattainable. Her designer friends Simon Porte Jacquemus and Giuliano Calza of GCDS personally designed her glamourous day and night birthday looks and were present at the party in Ibiza. Anyone who turned 30 this year (me) cannot be blamed into going into an existential crisis after looking at these pictures and we should start a support group. She is talented, beautiful, fit, unproblematic, and a fashion icon and I hope great things keep happening for her.

Palestinian Princess Perfume

Bella Hadid’s model off duty looks have been on every moodboard but these looks that she throws on casually are NOT infact off-duty. These are promotional pictures for her launch campaign for Orebella, her fragrance line. Instead of glamourous perfection or running through fields of flowers or through the streets of Paris, Bella chose to launch with casual picnic pictures instead. The one picture which scares me the most is the red capri ‘tomato girl’ look. Do not try this at home. Her being able to pull this off unironically is just further proof of how unfair the world is. Also does anyone have any idea where anything is from? I just know the rightmost look is from a Palestinian designer Reemami.

Final Round Up

It seems to be a month of birthdays and press tours so lets take a moment to appreciate Bruna Marquezine, Brazilian actress and model, who gave us multiple outfit changes on her birthday, like a Bollywood movie or a telenovella. Each of these are distinct evening looks and its like she just couldn’t decide which one is the hottest? And why should she it is her 30th birthday she can have as many outfits as she likes. Honestly, it is an impossible choice but just for unique-ness sake I would pick the pink princessy mini skirt with a train worn with a formal brown belt and a disco sheer shiny top - because I would never have put these together.

We also had Jessica Alba and Zoe Kravitz in feminine power suits that speak two different languages. Jessica’s Willy Chavarria monochrome structured silhouette is modest but edgy because of its sharp tailoring and the choice of…I wanna say latex? fabric and sky blue colour. It is a summer colour but the outfit would be terrible to wear if it were the slightest bit humid. I praise her for sacrificing comfort for fashion, a true hero. And then Zoe Kravitz took a rock and roll approach to suiting with her waist coat instead of shirt and bare midriff under a perfectly tailored custom Saint Laurent suit. I am obsessed with the headscarf which is probably the only piece of clothing you can incorporate from here. It’s usually associated with boho-chic so the grunge-vibe here is unexpected and exciting.

We cannot round off Summer of 2025 without mentioning Lisa of Blackpink who turned herself into a real life Labubu for the London leg of the Blackpink tour. She made the toy blow up when pictures of her surfaced with labubu charms and even giant dolls in her house in April 2024. The trend quickly caught up in Asia and became global in the summer of 2025. What an insane trend! It was an obscure, almost creepy toy, that had been in the market since 2019. It says a lot about society when people are yearning for belonging so bad they would spend any amount of money to feel part of a group. Some don’t even know why it got popular in the first place and were simply influenced by influencers who showed them the next thing on the hamster wheel of consumption. There is a labubu at Karl Marx’s grave now and this knowledge makes me giggle in the middle of the night. I am not throwing any shade at Lisa here, she was simply being herself, but these days I am thinking more and more about how we have started labelling Shein and Temu as evil to avoid personal responsibility while engaging in incessant overconsumption.

What are your favourite looks of the season?

If the campaign simply said Sydney Sweeney has great jeans, it would be a non-issue. But the ad goes on to awkwardly detail how genes are passed from generation to generation, from parent to offspring, and there is nothing subtle about the implication of how blue eyes are a result of great genes because ofcourse the imbeciles wont get the message.

The American Eugenics Obsession

The history of The United States is deeply embroiled in state sponsored eugenics since the late 19th century. Sir Francis Galton coined the term eugenics in 1883 which extrapolated Darwinism to biological racism. He believed that a person’s abilities were defined by their genetics and in order to improve the quality of human race, selective breeding could be applied in order to allow human to control their own evolution.

The victims of this systems were obvious - criminals, disabled people, ‘feeble minded’ imbeciles, and ofcourse, the oppressed African Americans. America also banned the immigration of Asians and South and Eastern Europeans, putting them through an IQ test to ensure no stupid people got in and diluted the superior Anglo Saxon American gene pool. The immigration restriction league was set up in 1921 by three Harvard graduates, ironic today as Harvard protests Trump’s plan of banning foreign students (they did pass IQ tests).

There were laws against interracial marriage up until 1967 in Virginia. There were forced sterilisations of African American, Asian, and Native American women. Any patient in state mental institutions, which one must remember held many queer people, were compulsorily sterilised. This forced sterilisation law was active in Virginia until 1974. These amounted to 64000 by 1963 and are estimated to be about 80000 between 1960 and 1980.

Brooke, Blue Jeans, and Blue Eyes

Coming to 1980, when the original Brooke Shields Calvin Klein genes/jeans campaign was shot, was an era where conservatism was at its peak. It was marked by a recession and a celebration of white Christian ideals under actor-turned-President Ronald Reagan. While the World War had discredited ‘eugenics’ as a practice, it flourished under the guise of ‘population control’, ‘welfare dependence’ and ‘burden on the system’ euphemisms to describe who’s lives have value, who should reproduce, and who should be controlled.

This rhetoric echoes in the present day under another actor-turned-President. This is a real Donald Trump quote:

"Now a murderer, I believe this, it's in their genes. And we got a lot of bad genes in our country right now." *1

- Donald Trump about immigrants, October 2024

In 2020, a nurse at the Irwin County Detention Centre in Georgia (the state) exposed instances of hysterectomies performed on detained immigrant women, mainly Spanish-speaking, without informed consent or under misleading circumstances. In 2017, a Tennessee judge authorised a 30 days off sentence for inmates who agreed to receiving long term contraception.

What-if Warriors

Before I put the ad in context of this information, I was inclined to believe that it was simply promoting hot genes and being provocative in a sexy way, albeit unoriginal. However, once I sunk down the rabbit hole of American history of eugenics and HOW RECENT it is, I am deeply appalled at the deliberate decision of American Eagle and Sydney to undertake a campaign that normalises eugenics in pop culture.

In 2025, eugenics has taken an even more scientific turn which makes it hard for liberals to fight. Several Silicon Valley millionaires are now undertaking the practice of designing their offspring’s by selectively modifying their embryos to have ‘desirable’ traits. What is desirable is socially defined and it has been proven again and again that genetic diversity is beneficial for individuals and populations through reducing the risks of genetic disorders and improving biological resilience.

The theory and practice of eugenics is rooted in racism and we cannot pretend otherwise. People argue that if ‘Zendaya’ or ‘Lizzo’ were in the campaign no one would bat an eye. Firstly, have you been on the internet? Have you seen people react to a black Snape or Hermione? Secondly, WERE THEY IN THE AD? They would never be used in that ad. The face of eugenics is an Aryan looking woman, otherwise the ad won’t work. Unfortunately this ad has invited the scorn of the anti-woke junta because it is just ironic enough to pass off as humour.

Perhaps if some diversity was injected into the creative rooms of this ad campaign we would have a superior ad. Dare I say, even ORIGINAL. There seems to be a scarcity of originality these days and I wonder why.

But I guess whatever sells works. American Eagle stocks were at 10% high after years of decline. Sydney Sweeney’s bathwater soaps broke the internet and made the founders of Dr Squatch very rich through its acquisition by Unilever. She is a smart woman who knows what cards to play, what roles to play, what vocal-fry character to play in order to keep people talking about her. Should she be responsible for normalising Eugenics? I dont think so, its not her burden, but it is just a moment for a collective reckoning for the need of media literacy.

JW Anderson’s Dior Debut started with the invitation in the form of an egg plate, inspired by Lucien Freud’s painting for the Duchess of Devonshire which was just a plate with four eggs. The invite was a sculptural plate, very french, containing 3 eggs, which was perhaps a reference to his third stint as a creative director. It represents a new beginning, with the pristine white of the plate acting as a clean slate. Which it was, considering how Kim Jone’s Dior Men was an identity-less mess wavering from streetwear to feminine couture based on whatever the trends dictated.

This was followed by teasers of Maria Grazia’s reimagined book tote that made me stop in my tracks, full of doubt at too literal of an interpretation and seemingly AI generated designs. Having been a long-time enthusiastic stan I was hesitant and wondered how this would be different from Loewe or his namesake label.

Is Jonathan Anderson’s Dior Men meaningfully different from JW Anderson or Loewe?

JW Anderson: If you look at the menswear collections from the past few years, it is giving degenerate overly sexual grungy artistic designs. They are experimental to point of ridiculousness, always absurd and crafty. There are elements of gender bending and cerebral sexiness in every collection.

Loewe: Loewe shares the playfulness of JWA with elevated craftsmanship. The resources provide him an avenue to play with expensive materials and be less grungy, more spanish refined, but a bit shy of premium formality. Massive volumes and sculptural shapes create both seriousness in the craftsmanship yet a cartoonish silhouette that is respectable. Surrealism is displayed in its 21st century avatar, very different from what Daniel is doing at Schiaparelli, and is perhaps one of the only convincing steps forward in the art form through the medium of fashion.

Dior: While not initially excited about breaking the magical connection of JW Anderson with Loewe, I am very pleased to see this collection, no notes. I was never a Kim Jones fan and found is art references contrived. I was afraid JWA would be flying too close to that territory with the book tote drops BUT I am glad to report he showed restraint. Dior is majorly a womenswear brand so bringing this to menswear helps him bring to the forefront his androgynous design preferences when he uses the Delft dress to inform the voluminous design of his cargos which were a key highlight of the show.

In conclusion, yes, all the brands represent a slightly different version of Jonathan but it is more of an evolution. What ties it all together is constant experimentation, playfulness, art, and unbridled creativity.

Why does he still need JW Anderson to exist?

Without this space for him to go crazy and put out all his wild ideas I think the chaos would slip through to more structured vision at Dior/Loewe. Jonathan needs an outlet which JW Anderson provides, where imagination is his only constraint. He can experiment there he has enough resources. At Dior it allows him to not lose it when his entire creative vision cannot be realised and needs to be reigned in by the atelier or the merchandisers. It is easier to give up control on one side when the other allows you complete freedom. How does he not get tired of producing that many collections every year? It has just been one so far and in 2-3 years we will know the toll it exacts on him. Karl was the only one who did it and it came from his extensive reading and connections with people who were defining culture and unlimited resources. Jonathan has these too - would it result in the same stamina?

In his own words, you have to start somewhere.

Prada’s Luxury Aspirations

Prada has long harboured hopes of becoming the big Ialian luxury holding company. This was a real possibility in the 90s, when LVMH and Kering had not yet gained dominance, young labels could survive and gain big followings, retail still had a strong place in making or breaking brands. In its 90s shopping spree, some of its notable acquisitions included Jil Sander, Helmut Lang, and a part of Fendi. These acquisitions did not fare so well.

Donatella remains the face of Versace, so much so that people have forgotten Gianni and think of her as the persona behind it. She embodies Versace, she has turned from the muse to the artist. Is it working? In the peak 90s revival era, Versace was everywhere. Donatella had emerged from under the shadows of her brother and come into her own, deliverying exciting collections that were an homage to the past, yet added more to the lore. There is no other brand quite like Versace, that occupies a space for dressing young, party-going, sexy women, coveted by supermodels. With her strong presence over the brand, it would not come without a baggage of conflicts over ‘creative differences’ that has been Prada’s undoing in its past acquisitions.

Versace has no problem with merchandising its collections unlike Helmut Lang, the brand has a strong retail presense and a following. Its current decline could be attributed to a change in tastes - which would require a strong relaunch and re-imagining. Prada has an abysmal history of managing creativity, so much so that CEO Bertelli openly admits to these ‘mistakes’. In this scenario, there is hardly any clear value Prada can add at the back end-integration. The only silver lining of this potential deal is that Versace may be acquired at a significant discount (but it will require a significant investment to rebuild), and the tastes may change in its favour again.

Donatella VERSACE 💜

The question remains, can Versace even survive without Donatella’s image? Prada already has to worry about its succession with Prada - can Raf Simon’s be the answer to Miuccia’s retirement (He’s 57)? It would be too risky to have two brands in a portfolio with looming succession issues. On the other hand, if Donatella retires, Prada may able to manage the merchandise team with great efficiency, and even enhance the accessories department with its unrivaled expertise in the ‘Made in Italy’ leather goods supply chain. Both brands satisfy the polar ends of the audience spectrum, leading to no cannibalisation.

Prada also has a bad reputation with being a red carpet flop - a major marketing tool for luxury designers. Versace shines on that stage, creating several MET Gala looks that have gone down in history. It really is the designer of divas and represents an ostentatious lifestyle. Miu Miu does well on red carpets too, but Versace’s couture capabilities may enhance this sister brand.

Versace’s Future

Why is Capri so bent on selling Versace? Can it not hold the company through the rough patch? It’s resources are drying out and Versace probably doesn’t fit with its strengths anyway - Michael Kors needs all the attention. After the Tapestry-Capri merger fell through due to fear of a handbag monopoly, Capri’s financial woes have worsened, making it crucial for them to sell a part to save the whole.

The future of Versace is uncertain, but I am not worried about the brand disappearing. It is rare to have a strong and memorable identity - ostentatious, bold, sexy, and Italian - something not closely crowded by any other designer, unlike several of its minimalist counterparts. Whoever comes swooping in to save Versace will benefit from good returns. A potential contender in my view is the often overlooked Mayhoola group from the Middle East who have been slowly making their way into fashion.

As soon as I stepped foot in the center of Copenhagen I was taken aback by how beautiful everyone was and how they dressed and immediately the outsiderness struck me. Being a smaller city, Fashion Week completely overtakes the city and noone can miss it, unlike in Paris and Milan where it can pass by largely unnoticed. Another peculiarity of Copenhagen is that everyone dresses well for sure, but everyone dresses the same. As an observer this can be boring but as a thrifter, this is absolutely great news.

The first show I attended was Stamm, held at a basketball court a little outside the city center. It began with Elisabet Stamm’s sons releasing 3 crates of pigeons in the air - the flying rats I am deathly scared of, sending everyone in a panic that we’re gonna be shat upon any moment. Thankfully without any incidents the show began and the one thing that struck me was the diversity of the cast in terms of body types - which remains noticibly absent across other shows. With this collection, Stamm expanded on her library of denim looks. While this was not my favourite of all her collections, the audience dressed in Stamm looked ridiculously good. Infact if I was bold enough I would have requested people to let me take pictures of their outfits because they were so well styled to fit their own personality - and not full brand looks.

Next, right after, was Remain by Birger Christensen - this is their daywear brand. Every single look that came out was a look that I wanted, I needed. As a future corporate girlie I mentally already chose my wardrobe. I am glad the models walked past excruitiatingly slowly so I had enough time to look at the seams and stitches and how perfectly the clothes were molded on the model’s bodies from one foot away. This show did not scream and shout, it was held in a studio in a remote corner of the city in an event space with a minimal setting yet it was perfect - a buyer’s dream show.

Next was Baum und Pferdgarten which I was the most excited about as this was one of the first Scandinavian designers that I started following closely. Held on a racetrack with the theme ‘Office Olympics’ it brought a lot of things to mind about sports and class. Now I am gonna say something that could be ridiculous but remember I am a fly on the wall. Surrounded by business grads as I do my MBA, I have noticed how sports are a center of social life here - and not all sports, there are some white collar sports like skiing, squash, tennis, football, rugby, golf, cycling, track - and the like, which help you access certain echelons of society you otherwise would not learn about. These are the people who would wear the carelessly thrown together styles at Baum in settings like this. The look du jour was a sheer sequined skirt with a striped blue shirt and they made it really obvious as I could count atleast 12-15 influencers who wore this FULL BRAND LOOK (I wanted to start a drinking game).

My last show was CPFW’s last show as well - Remain by Birger Christensen - their evening/party wear label. As a first time visitor to Copenhagen I was glad I could combine sightseeing with attending a fashion show at the Royal Library Gardens. Outside the show it was so chaotic which was quite amusing because I have never seen a more organised city than Copenhagen - the confused cyclists who were just trying to go about their day were interrupted by streetstyle photographers and influencers trying to get their perfect shots. It was honestly like your Instagram explore page come to life over here (btw I later discovered that Pamela Anderson was in the audience too!)

This collection was what I would define as halfway between demure and brat - something that perfectly captures the aura of SS25. There were bustles on tiny skirts, flower prints on cheeky shorts, silky dresses with fringe and laceskirts - like an elegant woman who wants to rebel and party - but not too much. My favourite look construction wise was the black and white ensemble pictured here but the one look I would want for myself would be the all black lingerie-esque lace dress because it is such a demure but effective update to the simple 90s lingerie-in-the-day look.

I am grateful to everyone who allowed me to get a glimpse into the fashion world from a corner far away from the Vanessa Friedman’s metaphorical influencer pit. I hope one day I would feel comfortable in these surroundings, but until then I will be a silent observer with one foot in and one foot out.

Fashion month started with Peter Do’s Helmut Lang debut and PETA protestors crashing the Coach show, leading to a whole array of thinkpieces. London was a bit subdued this season. The colour palette was very monochromatic until we reached Milan. Here we were hit with reds and blues. Diesel was a stand-out show in Milan while Sabato’s Gucci debut was completely forgettable. Paris really left me gobsmacked with hardhitters like Balmain, Schiaparelli, Rick Owens, McQueen, Balenciaga, and Mugler who presented gimmick-free strong visions.

Let us look at some of the trends that emerged from these fashion weeks.

Except for wearing panties out and about, I believe all of these have potential to trickle down to the streets. Infact I am in love with every single trend over here. While the fashion month vibe was overall ‘quiet luxury’, we somehow ended up with several glamourous elements. Many of these were also represented in my FW23 Trend Report.

Which trends are you excited to wear this season?

Barbie has had many critiques over the years regarding creating unrealistic body standards in young girls and its lack of diversity. Its somewhat overlooked impact is how it has entrenched overconsumption into little girl’s minds as they bought new dresses for their Barbies as one of the main ways to play with them. Barbie did give flight to our imaginations. We could be anything we wanted to be as long as we were willing to purchase an identity. You can see this reflected in the sinister core-isms of Tiktok today.

Another thing Barbie has in common with fast fashion is how Mattel treats its female factory workers. Even though Barbie tries to sell us on feminism, the factory workers in China are forced to work illegal overtime hours to earn a living wage and are exposed to sexual harassment every day. When this report came out in 2019, Mattel stayed silent on the matter, a critique that was conspicuously absent from the very self-aware Barbie movie.

But this brand of marketing just seems very dangerous and effective. If fast fashion starts opting into the language used to criticise it, we will be left with very little to counter it. Influencers have already opted into ‘there is no ethical consumption under capitalism’ to justify their fast fashion hauls, completely ignoring the original intent of that statement. The guilt we feel when overconsuming is necessary to temper our desires which Mattel tries hard to disarm. Keep your eyes open, the pink is blinding!!! Greta Gerwig has released a kryptonite more dangerous than perhaps anything Oppenheimer built (exaggeration).

Building in critique into your messaging is not new, drag queens have been using it to shut bitches down since forever and I have not shied away from using it earlier. It’s just dangerous in the hands of corporations who have till now relied on plausible deniability.

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Barbenheimer took over an entire month, which is years in internet time and now we are all fatigued with the endless thinkpieces. Even more fatigued with the endless Barbie collaborations and pink timelines – with fast fashion collections by Zara, Aldo, Gap, Puma, etc. and several ‘unoffical’ ones. Wearing pink to Barbie was a global phenomenon and people bought several new items for this occasion. You could not escape the ‘Hi Barbie’ trending sound with atleast 6 different looks each. Let’s just say the vapid consumerism of plastic Shein outfits were an amusing contrast to Margot’s exquisite vintage Chanel looks.

I will go on to say something that will make some of you really mad, but the onus is not on Mattel and you cannot escape responsibility for treating things as disposable. I love how Barbenheimer was a cultural phenomenon that brought us all together in a shared moment. I am so proud to be part of the high fashion twitter community that shared different ways to be wholly involved in the Barbie world without also being wasteful.

My friend @angelmillk organized the most adorable pre-Barbie soirée with themed drinks and cupcakes. Events like this are an excellent way to engage with friends and family that will look just as cool on Instagram as an outfits haul (which infact make you look like a loser with no friends).

Another fun activity which sort of scratches the itch to buy a disposable outfit is this game that my friend Linda (@itgirlenergy) created with her giant pink wishlist of items. It gives the same fun and frivolous dopamine rush to create your outfits with your names and zodiacs. And when this ridiculous method still ends up leading to a better looking outfit than anything you can find on Shein, atleast for me, it kills any urge to spend money on anything less spectacular.

Some of my favourite ways of engaging with Barbie were by my friend @sinntsn who created digital memorabilia in the form of special tickers to the Barbie movie and just sent it to everyone who wanted a keepsake. He also created a Ken-doll version of himself which is FREE and must have kept him busy for atleast an hour. I also created this set of nails in lieu of an outfit that took an hour for each hand.

If you want to dive even deeper and come out as a better, more informed person, just engage your curiosity. Some of my friends were so taken by Oppenheimer that they actually got the book to fill in the blanks that the movie took leaps across. I watched several videos to understand the science (not math) behind the nuclear bomb and another set to understand the politics. Can you imagine how amazing it would be to whip this information out at a dinner party? Win every debate? Silence someone annoying with facts? Here is a list of books that inspired Barbie and Oppenheimer which I found to be quite comprehensive.

These ways of engaging might seem a bit juvenile to an outsider and lead them to gasp ‘WHO HAS TIME FOR THIS!’. Well my friends did you forget the time it took for you to earn that $30 for an ugly outfit you will wear only once? Do you think people can’t see how paper-y it feels through social media filters? We can’t see when the straps won’t stay in place or how the fabric rolls up at the ends? If you’re doing it for the gram atleast do something cunty!

The 80s were all about glamour and being big big big. Kurt would have none of it. He could not afford any of it. Before the release of his debut studio album Bleach, he was supported by his then girlfriend Tracy. There is no way to sugarcoat it, at that point of time he was a total bum. His apartment overran with pet fur and feces, unwashed utensils piled up, never brushing his teeth, eating junk food, and getting high whenever he was not playing music. With the release of Nevermind, Nirvana shot to popularity at a time Kurt was sleeping in his car. Even with the millions that followed, he never thought to spend on fashion.

With Nirvana and Pearl Jam topping the charts, punk was becoming mainstream in 1992, which was the very anti-thesis of this subculture. Punk brought with it several freedoms especially in terms of feminism, LGBTQ rights, and HIV awareness which were important issues then. With Kurt’s tragic death, the band and the movement became even more popular as everyone wanted to dress and embody the values of their favourite singer, the one who captured their teenage angst as he wrote songs to process his own life full of depression and drugs. Drugs were an important part of this culture at a time War on Drugs was in full swing.

At the time when Kurt and Courtney were on the cover of Sassy Magazine and a fixture on MTV, a young Marc Jacobs working at Perry Ellis decided to do a grunge collection inspired by them. Kurt was embarrassed by his thin stature caused by a stomach condition and liked to wear bulky and baggy clothes. Courtney was the embodiment of the female counterpart of grunge who made lingerie as outerwear popular in what is known as the kinderwhore look.

Few weeks before the collection was released, Sonic Youth, a band represented by Nirvana’s label Sub Pop and who opened for them several times, called Marc to ask if they could shoot their music video for Sugar Kane at Perry’s showroom. They wanted a ‘real’ girl and not a model to star in it and they ended up choosing an intern named Chloe Sevigny. When the collection came out, Suzy Menkes declared that ‘grunge is ghastly’ and almost ended Marc’s career. She actually held an anti-grunge rally during Milan Fashion Week and distributed badges saying that. (Get a life, Suzy)

Sorry for the detour. Marc was fired from Perry Ellis and no one would touch him. The collection was a commercial flop as distinguished clients refused to be associated with grunge, and the subculture did not want to associate itself with high fashion, and probably couldn’t afford it. Marc Jacobs sent samples of the collection to Kurt and Courtney. In a 2010 interview, Courtney reportedly said, “Do you know what we did with it? We burned it. We were punkers – we didn’t like that kind of thing.” This shakeup forever changed the way people think about what is considered beautiful. To pick up where Marc left off, we had Alexander McQueen in 1992 with Jack The Ripper Stalks His Victims.

London was the birthplace of punk and also where Nirvana was first popular, following in the footsteps of the Sex Pistols and Vivienne Westwood. McQueen was another tortured character who bore an uncanny resemblance to Kurt’s life and attitude. Both of them had a fixation with piss, feces, deviant porn, rape, death, and other things people considered dirty. With shows like Highland Rape and The Golden Shower that would distress any normal person came a message that was intended to be highly feminist.

The air of outright defiance is central to grunge. During a live session with MTV, Kurt was explicitly asked not to play his controversial song ‘Rape Me’ but the prankster played 15 seconds of the song but before MTV could cut to commercials, he switched to the agreed upon ‘Lithium’. Alexander McQueen was no less defiant of authority, he reportedly wrote ‘I am a cunt’ in the lining of a suit for Princes Charles when he was working at the Saville Row. There was a lot of plaid, depression, drugs, and suicide they had in common.

There have been many attempts by corporates to hijack grunge, but not on Courtney’s watch. In 2019, Demna sent a t-shirt that said ‘Corporate Magazines Still Suck A LOT’ down the runway at Vetements, which was a reference to a Tshirt that Kurt wore on the cover of Rolling Stone. (Damn Rolling Stone cannot catch a break!). Courtney HATED it and left a comment on their Instagram, ‘You guys WHAT the FUCK? I hate being put in this position. You should know better !” She had also hated the original Marc designs but then Marc got Frances Bean Cobain, their daughter, to star in a campaign, which she later defaced herself. Nirvana also sued Marc for using their smiley face in their grunge redux collection in 2018. Punk Rockers are very adamant about not being reduced to an aesthetic. This kind of discipline and resolve to not go get that bag is hard to find in this hustle generation.

If we look at fashion these days, there is no popular counterculture or grunge in the public consciousness which probably means we are due for one. The dissatisfaction is brewing and soon we will have a decade defining movement. Can corporates simply opt-in to grunge? No, the streets will simply create something new, destroy something sacred, and move society forward.

Now that we have laid out all the ‘references’, let’s think a moment about why hypebeasts think it matters? ‘This was because of this……was because of this….’ is a line of reasoning I can’t get behind unless the final product was worth it. Are we so deep into the lore of a celebrity that their canon events matter to us so much? Everyone who has called me names so far has not once mentioned the actual clothes. Probably because it was never about the clothes, it’s always been about everything surrounding them. Louis Vuitton makes no secret of it, they call themselves a cultural brand beyond fashion. So the evaluation of this show can be done from a cultural lens, which I won’t attempt to do, and the other from a fashion lens which you are about to read below.

Let’s talk about the theatre for a moment because LV went above and beyond for this show. The entire center of Paris was blocked from 3pm to midnight which took place on the Pont Neuf bridge on the Seine. The bridge was decked out in the LV Damier in beige and yellow. The front row was star studded with Beyonce, Jay Z, Rihanna, Kim Kardashian, Zendaya, among other LV ambassadors and celebrities. Taking a page from the book of Kerby Jean-Raymond, there was a live gospel choir that moved the audience with their rendition of ‘Joy’ and left everyone much more open to whatever looks were to follow.

The first few looks were heavy on the pixelated camo which brought to mind the recent Loewe pixel collection. Even though Louis Vuitton did pixel Damier bags in just 2018, the recency of another pixel collection this very year could not be ignored, especially because it was so good, captured the zeitgeist, hurt our eyes but filled our hearts with errr, joy. The word ‘minecraft’ was used which ruffled some feathers. Camo is always going to be controversial because it’s a universally hated print which people try to ironically wear as a signal to some kind of covert coolness. With both these phenomenon intertwined, we are at an impasse.

Skirts-suits and shorts-suits have been a trend since the past few seasons for menswear so even though these looks were good, they were nothing we have not seen before. The denim pixel looks reinforced the Loewe nod. Jonathan himself posted a photo with the caption ‘bravo’ with so many hearts that the comments are filled with people laughing at the implied shade. Was it really? I don’t know, but I did conduct a poll.

The moneymaker from this collection were the accessories and we got some really cool bags if you are into the LV monogram and check. Replacing canvas with real leather for the Speedy, he changed the silhouette of the bag as it became more soft and squishy. The buggies carrying LV trunks driven by very serious models were a highlight for me, camo just goes well with trunks. With budgets as high as LV which dominates the high fashion and luxury market, is it too much to expect innovation and a move forward? In his show notes, Pharrell says, “This moment is dedicated to the giant before me. To our brother in spirit.”, implying that he wants to respect Virgil’s legacy at the brand. In a narcissistic show that brought back his own moments from all his previous collections, I find this sentiment insincere but do applaud the intention.

While alive, Virgil was a polarising character in fashion but his name was on everyone’s lips and imaginations and he got this platform because he was a part of Louis Vuitton. He took that stage and brought about a cultural revolution. This is why I feel that when Martine Rose, Bianca Saunders, and Grace Wales Bonner were rumoured to be up for the role, they should have bagged it to be afforded the same chance. And that is the agenda I’m pushing.

We keep coming back to the same themes again and again - what is the role of a creative director? Is it a brand ambassador? Is design knowledge important or cultural capital is enough? Does reference trump design? We might never move forward in these discussions, probably always in circles much like a hamster wheel. Clothes are such a silly non-issue sometimes outside of this insular world of high fashion.

Verdict: Presentation 8/10, Clothes 5/10.

We simply must start with Fan Bingbing who turned out 15 looks in 11 days. I am in awe of her determination to make a statement. I have reached a phase where trying hard and making an effort have started to look better than anything ‘effortless’. If someone has put a lot of thought into their look I appreciate it so much more than if it looks like they just threw it on, even if they actually spent hours on it. Effort just looks like you really love fashion.

Probably effortless fashion appeals to a large segment of people because it applies to their life but the problem is they can never copy that style because effortless isn’t actually so. It stays as an ideal because no one knows how to achieve that, or perhaps even in this age that there are several gullible people among us. While not every look wowed me, she made me eagerly await her looks more than anyone else’s and the sheer variety of looks show her range. It was oppalance, she owned the red carpet.

Elle Fanning pulled the most memorable looks of the season with the custom Alexander McQueen and Paco Rabanne. I am so glad she opted for the custom look because the runway look had had its moment so the only way to blow us away again was to add something to it.

Another much celebrated moment at Cannes was when Natalie Portman walked in wearing a recreation of the Junon Dress by Christian Dior. This is probably the most famous dress in the world which every fashion lover has seen plastered across Tumblr, Twitter, Instagram and now Tiktok, at least once a week. A dress that always generates likes for the posters and inevitably starts to annoy you after 6 months of seeing it everywhere. Now when this dress was paraded around in a less-extravagant avatar, it just did not land on me. You see, I am in the bad habit of zooming into every picture. In the original dress, each petal is individually embroidered and is completely embellished with sequins and pearls, making it glitter with each move. Natalie’s dress does not carry the same amount of sparkle. If you notice, the petals fold over each other which ruins the look. The recreation does not have the volume of original skirt, which was also shorter in the front which increased the illusion of volume even more. The bodice is awkwardly stout instead of angular and curving against the wearer’s body. It is also not the first time this dress has been recreated and dare I say, MGC and Galliano both made much better versions of this when they did not try to make it an exact replica. Some dresses belong in the museum and seeing them walk among the living feels wrong.

The Idol was one of the most anticipated premiers at Cannes with rumours and drama that took the top spot over the Don’t Worry Darling drama from Venice last year. Recall what I said about making an effort? This is what was completely missing from Lily Rose Depp’s appearances. I was curious to watch the show after its many controversies but this reluctance to commit really put me off of it. Jennie however really carries the appearances with her magical ability to make Chanel look good. No seriously, did you see this outfit on the runway? A simple styling hack transformed it. Her Shu Shu Tong look was elegant as well.

Now coming to miscellaneous best dressed – there were so many of them! These were some of my favourites. This entire festival just kept on giving me life. MET Gala who?

And finally coming to the Hall of Shame – some of the very questionable looks. I am pretty sure Aishwarya Rai just did it for the memes because I refuse to believe this is her actual taste. It comes as no surprise that Chanel dominated the bottom tier looks with 3 appearances. Another surprising look to land here is Jean Paul Gaultier by Glenn Martens red dress on Araya Hargate. The styling absolutely ruined the look with a visible corset and jewellery. It makes me wonder whether the original look was just saved by styling and photography? This look does not hold up in movement. Prada has never been a red carpet staple but Maya Hawke in a green dress with dishwasher gloves, rain boots, and an unfortunate haircut was moment I want to erase from their track record.

Overall, it was a very satisfying fashion season! Which ones were your favourite looks? Which movies are you excited to watch?

Karl was a permanent fixture in the fashion world, the kind that is hard to imagine today when designer-brand relationships are written for an average of 3 years before they are up for renewal. He was a chameleon designer who revived four dying fashion houses and created a legacy that we will be celebrating come Monday. It is hard to fathom the quantity of work he produced over 50 years without many pictures from before the 90s so I am excited to see someone bring to the forefront his work at Patou, Balmain, and Chloe as the references are not easily available.

Controversial for his awful fat-shaming remarks, there were several people annoyed that he was being honoured this way. While I do not agree with those remarks, he had severe body-image issues of his own and was on a heavily restricted diet at this point, where one of his indulgences was eating plain bread. His criticism came from a place of insecurity and grief. If this does not move you, just know that hosting a retrospective in his name was against his wishes. He believed that ‘clothes don’t belong in a museum but on women’s bodies’. So in a way, his philosophy is being dishonored and if his comments hurt you, you might find some comfort in this blatant disregard for his wishes.

I respect Karl a lot because of his immense generosity and contributions to art. His knowledge was endless, his library overflowing, his inspiration was deep, his patronage to art movements, especially his short lived Memphis period, is the main reason that whole school existed. He had the ability to shape culture through his influence, knowledge, and resources, and that is something I find aspirational.

Predictions

Karl’s career started with him winning the 1954 Woolmark prize and beginning his journey with Balmain. Olivier Rousteing already created an outfit in his honour for the vogue spread, and he also just dropped a collection with Beyonce, so I am certainly expecting her to wear something from this collection. OGs know that I also believe Olivier should be at Chanel so this combination makes total sense in my head.

Karl’s time at Patou completely alludes me so skipping right over to Chloe. He made RTW for them so we cannot expect anything grand but I do hope to see an interpretation of the shower dress. Another remarkable thing Karl did at Chloe was launching a perfume in an iconic bottle. This is more of a hope than an expectation that someone reinterprets the perfume as a dress.

Karl’s work at Fendi revived the entire fur industry but I hope and dream that Kim Jones leaves Karl alone, although he is very likely to bring in an Antonio Lopez look. Antonio was a key character in Karl’s life and Kim recently presented a Fendi collection inspired by him. Moving right over to Chanel and the exciting parts! Weird – I have not said that in a while…

Chanel has had several muses over the decades, some of whom like Penelope Cruz is also a chair for this event, along with Dua Lipa for some reason. I expect Anna Wintour, who is also the chair, to wear something black and respectful as if in mourning. She rarely wears black so this is quite out-there but it is what would feel appropriate.

Other Chanel muses that are expected to join are Margot Robbie, Jennie Kim, Kristen Stewart, Lily-Rose Depp, and Whitney Peak. With the Barbie movie press tour in full swing, I expect Margot to represent 90s Chanel in a full Barbie-pink skirt suit. I am praying for Jennie to wear the 2006 Spring Couture bridal look that Mischa Barton (another Chanel muse) wore for her prom in The OC – it would be perfect on her! As for Kristen, I expect her to have amazing hair and makeup but an unremarkable outfit. It would be an obvious pick for Lily-Rose Depp to wear her now iconic pink Chanel bridal dress from Spring 2017 Couture – and sometimes obvious is good. As for Whitney Peak, she appeared in the Chanel perfume ad which always has a back necklace with a No5 charm – I expect her look to capture that. It is not confirmed yet but a cherry on top would be Lindsay Lohan walking in with an ankle-monitor bag.

Kim confirmed that she will be attending the MET Gala despite some speculations that no Kardashians will be present this time (whoever started that rumour is naïve AF.) Kim posted a photo with Choupette, Karl’s cat, so her look might be inspired by the cat? It is also possible that she wears an homage to Karl by Balenciaga look – Karl used a lot of denim and architectural silhouettes which are right up Balenciaga’s alley. I also feel Kendall will attend and I am rooting for her to pick out the Chanel Bikini bride look for this event – she is perfect for it!

Other MET Gala attendees I have high hopes from are Blake Lively, Gigi Hadid, Bella Hadid, and Priyanka Chopra. Blake and Gigi are most likely to continue their relationship with Versace, althought Jeremy Scott is also a candidate to dress Gigi. In 1998, Karl said Jeremy was his clear successor. His recent stepping-down from Moschino is also an eyebrow-raising affair…..could it be? During his time at Moschino, he subverted Chanel’s staple tweed and logo garments on several occasions so doing that on a grand scale would be genius. As for Bella, I am truly lost and ready to be surprised. Priyanka says her outfit has ‘an element of surprise’ which I am excited for.

There is definitely going to be several outfits by Thom Browne, he practically ruled last year’s gala and won the Vogue spread. Tweed manipulation is his area of expertise and I hope he interprets the iconic Chanel robot look. Will Devon Aoki be game for this? I hope so. Pierpaolo was already sneaky this year and presented a Valentino collection with black and white looks with ties – somewhat in Karl’s image. I hope they dress Florence Pugh, their newest ambassador, in a proportional look this time. John Galliano really disappointed me in the Vogue spread and I am praying for a redemption with a showstopping look on Naomi Campbell.

Although I don’t expect to see too many archive looks except from people’s private collections, some collections I hope to see represented are the Spring 2005 collections - the 2005 MET Gala was a retrospective of Coco Chanel and Karl did some great work here. The Fall 2005 collection titled ‘Hidden Luxury’ is also very relavant - named thusly probably because noone knows anyone who dresses this way. Above is a random picture association of Chanel’s collections and designers who are in the same wheelhouse. I expect most of the gala to be ruled by homages to Karl’s work by designers who were his friends or inspired by him.

Someone of these predictions are completely farfetched but that’s part of this fun pre-MET game I like to play and then see if anything comes true after. I got 3 spot-on predictions last year! It is an amazing opportunity to research and I went through every single collection I could find. If you are interested, I highly recommend reading The Beautiful Fall and Chiffon Trenches to learn more about Karl’s life.

Offense 1: Showing their Pre-fall 2023 collection instead of a special capsule collection. When Dior presented their original collection back in December 2022, I gave it a positive review because of their incorporation of Indian craftsmanship, silhouettes, and colours, without appropriation. When they announced in January that they would be showing in India, I expected it to be a continuation of their relationship with the Chanakya School where they explore new ideas and present a limited edition collection in Mumbai. The show was labelled Fall 2023 on their Instagram which lead me to believe it will be a brand new collection, but in all their media mentions and even on vogue runway, it is shown under the Pre-fall collection, with a mix of old and new photos. It was genuinely messy and felt like an after-thought. It is as if they heard of the NMACC Gala and decided to piggy-back on the hype and international attention it would receive. Alas, the NMACC completely overshadowed this event but more on that in another newsletter.

Offense 2: Acting like acknowledging their use of Indian craftsmanship is a favour to us all. This is not just Dior’s fault but also a sentiment echoed by the press. In a New York Times article from 2020, it was revealed that all top luxury brands including Valentino, Versace, Gucci, Hermès, and even Chanel who own their own embroidery atelier Maison Lesage, produce in India. Here, they are able to get away with wages as low as $225 per month, and sometimes do not even meet this minimum. India’s expertise in textiles and embroideries is well known to anyone who buys luxury regularly. Not just this, several designers have openly shown their appreciation for Indian craft including Schiaparelli, Yves Saint Laurent, Balmain, Alexander McQueen, among others. Even the idea that we need this acknowledgement from the West has its roots in orientalism.

Offense 3: The level of disrespect and lack of effort. From the very moment they decided to show at the Gateway of India, a monument of British colonialism, the show was cursed. With a Toran, a doorway decorated with embroidery to welcome guests, as the backdrop and marigold infested panels along the runway, the set showed minimal effort. I have seen better sets at Indian weddings. The guest list was a standard Bollywood affair and every brown person from the diaspora they could think of.

LVMH’s motives are very clear - from picking Deepika Padukone as their brand ambassador, to forcing us to live through this insulting experience, they have realised that the Indian market has money. As the world struggles with a recession and the effects of the pandemic, Indian economy is set to grow despite it all because of its sheer size. The Indian diaspora based in the Western markets represents an elite with deep pockets that the luxury market has not targeted till now. We saw this phenomenon play out with the ‘Chinese customer’ in the last decade when the West made several wrong moves in their attempts to pander to them. These are mistakes you can expect when you see a group of people as a mindless mass of a customer rather than someone real.

The question now isn’t whether other brands will rush to acknowledge their ties to India. They will go wherever money is. The problem is that it is hard for European brands to crack the Indian market because the customer is very unfamiliar to them. Here, most of the luxury spending goes to traditional wedding wear. Unfortunately, as we see in Dior’s attempt, they cannot target this customer with their watered down creations because you can get something infinitely better from a local designer. They are also far behind Gucci, Prada, and Armani in their branding. These brand names rhyme easily with Punjabi songs and Dior doesn’t exactly roll off the tongue. Jokes apart, they need intense cultural training before they decide to step foot here or they will be laughed off.

The government is not too friendly to foreign luxury spending either with taxes as high as 28% on imported goods. This leads to most of India’s foreign luxury spending taking place in Dubai or Europe during travel. This creates further complexity because Dior needs to brand itself in India while the transaction takes places somewhere else. All you can buy at the two Dior stores in India right now are their basic bags, shoes, scarves, some accessories, and makeup. I am very interested to see how they will navigate these challenges but since LVMH is behind this effort I have no doubt that money will open the Gateway of India.

The trends we see on the fashion weeks end up trickling down to high street fashion, some catch on and some don’t. This time I feel bows, animal prints, lace, and colour trends will be the ones that catch on - simply because they are easier to achieve. I don’t expect anything structured or tailored to become huge but it does indicate a preference for a good fit.

Another trend that was discussed by some people is that of ‘camelocracy’ or ‘stealth wealth’. It is true that these sentiments are an underlayer to everything we saw this month. Bottega Veneta making leather into knits, denim, and flannel is a prime example of this, not to mention a brilliant technical achievement. To not wonder about the political and social implications of this trend is a luxury I wish I had. For now, I will enjoy it guiltily and take solace in the fact that the bourgeoise will continue wearing Chanel and Dior.

Some of the top fashion newsletters are all about shopping but I am a long way from being able to spend on luxury items so it would be silly of me to venture into that area. Infact, I don’t even bother to check prices of items but these Chanel bag price hikes have been so amusing to see because you could buy a whole car for that money. Based on Youtube reviews, the leather might stain and scratch very easily. How come people bought the idea that Chanel bags are an ‘investment piece’? Especially when fine jewellery and gold are right there…

Anyway, at almost 10000 dollarinos, these are some bags you can buy instead. Yes, ALL OF THEM for about the same price. I am no Aryabhatta but the math works out.

Law Roach’s Retirement Plans

In a very dramatic Instagram post, Law Roach announced his retirement because, in his words, “The politics , the lies and false narratives finally got me!” It sent the entire fashion community in a frenzy because how is the most successful stylist retiring at the peak of his career? People were begging him to stay and there was a major outpouring of support. Another side of the internet (TIKTOK) started creating conspiracy theories which I am going to list here because commentary accounts are getting out of hand and we need to shame them for being ridiculous

1. Zendaya asked him to sit in the second row at the Louis Vuitton show which apparently hurt him so much that he broke ties with her

2. He retired in order to get ahead of some upcoming drama which would have cancelled him

3. Zendaya would not have a career or any good roles without him being her image architect

4. LVMH is pulling a Dior ‘power move’ and asking them to cut ties. The French don’t like stylists acting like the main character

5. Zendaya has no personal style and she would still be dressing like a ‘bay area blasian’ if not for him

As we can see here, for no reason and without any evidence, Zendaya was blamed and attacked for a piece of news that isn’t even definite, we don’t even know what it means. All in a span of some 36 hours!

And in that time, Valentino posted, then deleted, and then posted again, an announcement of a collaboration with Law Roach for their New York window display. And, he just walked the BOSS show?! From the very beginning I suspected it is all a marketing ploy to launch something new like a TV show or a Fashion line, some people suggested maybe an NFT or an image architecture firm which made me chuckle. None of us could have predicted that he would be launching his modelling and window dressing career.

One thing we know for sure is that he is not retiring from fashion. Based on his interview with Luke Leitch earlier today, “What I’m (Law) retiring from is the celebrity styling part of it: the being in service and at service of other people.” I guess Addison Rae needs a new stylist and Priyanka Chopra is safe (for now). Another thing I would advise to everyone is to just get a diary you know, instead of making stirring drama over nothing on social media. Because if he comes back and styles Zendaya again I would be giving major side eye.