What Does This Fashion Even Mean?

Fashion Week is a time when the industry’s most influential designers showcase their latest work at star-studded events during which famous and/or influential people sit silently—often in sunglasses—while watching tall, silent, pretty people walk up and down runways wearing what may or may not be the trends, or inspirations for trends, of the future. The clothes draping their bodies don’t always look like things you’ve seen before, which is at least partly the point, and they’re styled in ways meant to complement the designer’s concept, point of view, artistic vision, or whatever you want to call it.

It’s a very important week for the industry, and—as I’ve been told in movies like The Devil Wears Prada and shows like Project Runway—can make or break entire careers. But, as someone whose livelihood doesn’t revolve around the art of style (I’d be unemployed if it did!), it’s merely a time to look at funny pictures.

Today’s best Fashion Week photos are from Hood By Air. Jezebel’s resident fashion expert Julianne Escobedo Shepherd told me the collection, designed by Shayne Oliver, was meant to “spoof contouring” and provide commentary on trends like “waist trainers.” Interesting perspective, Julianne. Well-informed, thoughtful, and probably an interpretation Oliver would appreciate!

I, however, have a different take.

This, to me, is a prophetic meditation on how people will begin dressing once all of humanity is wearing Oculus Rifts 24/7.

And this ensemble is reference to America’s fascination with self-diagnosis. We may think access to medical information on WebMD makes us as smart as doctors, but we’re really a bunch of idiots walking around in lab coats without pants on!

Here we have a mediation on thigh gap. Society tells us it’s crucial for achieving maximum sexiness, but really it’s just—much like the gap in this model’s faux(?) leather pants—a random and meaningless void.

Here’s a look that bravely tackles the mystery of shoulders. We all have them, sure, but what do we do with them? By using two non-identical models as a way of representing an imperfectly mirrored image, we’re asked not to just look at our shoulders, but to take the time to consider them. Shoulders, man. Wild stuff.

This look makes one of the collection’s most powerful statements by reconstructing a classic men’s shirt in a way that playfully toys with traditional fashion-based gender identifiers. The model bares their nipples as freely as a man, but the length and cut of their garment suggests a connection to traditionally female apparel. It’s quite clearly a commentary of True Detective’s second season.

And this final one, my personal favorite of the collection, is all about finding a way to deal with one’s recurring nightmare in which we get stuck in one of those industrial clothes dryers during a full TUMBLE DRY—HOT cycle and emerge—nearly dead, our skin bloodied and cracking—and turning it into something beautiful.