The Fashion Blame Game

Our insatiable appetite for newness was responsible, at least in part, for John Galliano´s downfall and Alexander mcQueen´s death - and there will be "a good deal more crash and burn among designers in the future", says Suzy Menkes.

Up to ten collections a year - if they're doing ready-to-wear, couture, menswear, pre and a couple of promotional shows - mean even designers as successful as Alber Elbaz no longer have time to "go on exploratory trips and hang out in downtown galleries" by way of research - a situation, laments Menkes, for which the blame can be widespread: online retail has whipped up the need for speed; stores demanding limited editions have ignited voracious shopping frenzy; and shoppers themselves are so desperate to be first with a purchase they are willing to click and buy direct from a catwalk live stream without experiencing fabric or fit.

Who Is To Blame?

Admitting that she herself knows little of the mid-season pre collections that are considered essential to a fashion label's bottom line, Menkes tells the New York Times that the international catwalk shows now seem to have taken up the position formerly held by the couture shows - a (vastly expensive) tool to play out the designers' big ideas ahead of selling less newsworthy, more wearable pre collections with a wider distribution.

"The clothes most worn by people are the clothes least commented on by the press," she says, adding that fashion is now a "whirligig that seems to be spinning out of control".