R.I.P. Alexander McQueen

I just learned that Alexander McQueen passed away, probably by his own hand. I read this in the Houston Chronicle, where every bozo with an opinion can post it for the world to see. And they do, most wondering who he was and why anyone should care about fashion anyway.

I admit that I lost interest in fashion after my freshman year in college. I designed a lot of my own clothes in high school and loved the creativity of being able to wear my own artwork.

Then I had kids and had no time for that. For many years, my standard attire was a crisp white t-shirt and jeans. I was busy and that was easy and looked fine. Then I moved to dresses and business suits, but still didn't concern myself with fashion. It's only recently that I've begun thinking about it again, because I'm again doing some designing myself.

In answer to those folks who think fashion is frivolous, I would offer this explanation. Fashion both reflects and creates the mood of the times. You cannot see paintings of Marie Antoinette, for instance, without understanding that the aristocrats were living lives of extreme luxury that seemed to ignore the suffering of their subjects. Understandably, this provoked outrage. The enormous, elaborate antebellum dresses in the US gave way to simpler gowns during and after the Civil War. The war created hardships that lasted for decades; people were mourning both loved ones and the country they had known, and fashion reflected that in simpler clothing. It was also a time for exploration, and fashion was secondary.

Fashion again went into overdrive during the Victorian era. That burst of exploration had resulted in new wealth. You see women exaggerating the narrowness of their waists and the size of their bosoms, in other words, accentuating the difference between male and female.

This is also what fashion does - it serves as a mating signal, not just in so-called "native" societies, but in Western culture as well. During that same Revolutionary era when French fashions led the way, men were dressing like peacocks in bold-colored silk and powdered wigs. At the turn of the 19th Century, men's fashion became more subdued. By the Victorian Era, when women returned to excess in fashion, men had moved into the strict black-and-white mode where they've pretty much remained ever since, for formal wear, at least.

For a time, fashions simplified, and then came the Roaring Twenties, a time of gross excess that ushered in the Flapper era. It's said that skirt lengths rise during times of prosperity, and it's hard now to fathom why shorter skirts were so shocking then, but they were.

The austerity of the Great Depression affected fashion that lasted well into WW2, when shortages created a demand for synthetic fabrics. This revolution in available fabrics in turn changed fashion. And no one can underestimate the sharp contrast between 50s fashion and 60s fashion. Form follows function, as Mies van derRohe said (I think it was him).

And that's another point. Fashion is ascribed to clothing, but architecture corresponds quite closely to clothing fashions, with elaborate embellishment in clothing and architecture happening during the same time frames, and severe, clean lines appearing in clothing and architecture during corresponding eras. Symmetry and/or asymmetry are reflected in both, and perhaps describe an underlying truth about society.

Nowadays, you have throwaway buildings AND throwaway clothing being created. Fashion affects the ads we see, the way our products are packaged and presented, nearly every aspect of life is affected by prevailing fashions. We see shapes differently and decide whether they are attractive or unattractive based upon how we respond to it on the human body. An artist can create any wild, idiotic thing, but if the public sees it and yawns, then it's nothing. But if it strikes a nerve - good or bad - then it's art, and whether you like it or not, those silhouettes will be replicated throughout the culture. This is also true of colors. Remember when teal and mauve were EVERYWHERE? When a lot of people latch onto these cultural handles and use them in their own lives, I think it gives us a sense of cohesiveness.

That is why, sometimes, an artist is ahead of his or her time. It is only later that people respond to their work.

Right now, I see fashion as being as confused as our times. I'm looking at Neiman Marcus online and it seems that short dresses are all the rage, much to my chagrin. They're cute, but I don't know how well they'll be accepted in middle America. Short skirts have always seemed to indicate good times. Designers and stores may be showing shorter skirts, yet we all know times are hard. Is fashion trying to distract us and make us think things are better than they are - a false optimism? Or is fashion, as the voice of our collective unconscious, trying to lead us back to good times?

The long expanse of leg and the big, chunky shoes for sale now are simply modified visions from McQueen's last show. People responded to it. All this is a way of saying that yes, we should be sorry to lose such a creative and talented person as McQueen. May he rest in peace.