When it comes to menswear, there are designers such as Giorgio Armani, Kenneth Cole and John Varvatos who use the runway to showcase their most wearable offerings presented on handsome models, styled modestly to suggest that you too might actually be able to look that good. But for some of the industry's more flamboyant designers, the spectacular visions they send down the catwalk can result in some seriously perplexed head-scratching. Are there really people out there who wear this stuff?!
Well, yes and no. Though there may be a few brave (and misguided)souls out there who will happily replicate the outlandish looks seen on the runway from designers like Jean Paul Gaultier, John Galliano and Alexander McQueen, for the most part, the designers don't really expect anyone to walk down the street looking like their models.
For these designers, the runway show is an opportunity to present a wildly exaggerated statement of vision. It is meant to be over the top, theatrical and revolutionary. It's not meant to be taken literally. This is the crazy, splashy fantasy world they have dreamt up to get press coverage and the maximum buzz. It is a design "concept." But when it comes to sales, it is the individual garments that will be on sale, not the mad stylings and overblown combinations of pieces.
Galliano's Spring 2009 collection is an excellent case in point. Can you see yourself in any of these ensembles? Not likely. But see if you can identify a single item that you might actually purchase and wear out the door. Go on. You can find something. You just need to look beyond the fantastic to find the practical. Just imagine the attention you'll get!
