WHAT ARE THEY THINKING? Fashion Rant of the Day

 

 

OH, THE HORROR.

This room says it all.

Violently vivid fast-food yellow walls, cheap plastic piñata-befitting fringe, a Target-reminiscent wall hanging and a mattress on the floor — all scream bad taste, hot mess.

Surprise. It’s actually was a 2019 Sterling Ruby installation at the once minimalistic Calvin Klein boutique on Manhattan’s Madison Avenue, Upper West Side. Klein was known for sleek silhouettes, often in shades of stone, pebble,  charcoal and ebony– the aesthetic of his homes.

Not so surprising is that after this garish reincarnation, the store shuttered in March. It died a victim of a vicious disease that’s felling high-end fashion: retail roulette.

Designers are being shoved out the door at a dizzying rate — every few years.

Sometimes they earn it. How else can one explain Raf Simons, a Belgian formerly at Dior and Jil Sander, evoking the worst of ’70s kitch at Calvin? Thankfully, he was kicked to the concrete-colored curb.

(Update: As of 2025, he was assisting Miuccia Prada, known for what the French call jolie laide — not conventionally pretty garb. So far, so good? And a frail Calvin Klein attended the relaunch of his collection, under the seemingly sure hand of Veronica Leoni. Alas, the tepid interest on my Instagram suggests it may be too little, too late.)

As in 2019, shoppers are spinning: They no longer can rely on Céline and Calvin for sleek chic, Balenciaga and Lanvin for evening elegance, Valentino for sensual black lace and fuchsia, and Saint Laurent for Hollywood hip.

Bottom-line fixated corporations and investors are likely to blame. They ignore labels’ longtime identities and their loyal customers.

So you get a series of design disasters. A storm brewed shortly thereafter at Céline, a brief pit stop for L.A.-loving rocker Hedi Slimane, who’d been kicked out at Saint Laurent.

Fasten your seat belt: You can expect 2019 to be a bumpy retail ride. And, in an update, it’s clear in mid-February that 2025 has been an earthquake, contracts shattered but the thirst for profit unquenched.