Coincidence or random?

The NY Times report on NY fashion week said that designers were going back to vintage fashions. It was as interesting to read this statement as it was for me to note that for the fall NY fashion shows the same was said about designers looking to the 80's for fashion inspiration.

A recent lecture at the Corcoran shed some light on this mystery. How do fashion designers who are secretive about their collections able to come by the same inspirations as equally covert designers? Well according to one of the speakers at the Corcoran Museum there is a huge question mark over the ultimate designs seen on the run way. For instance, the Fall shows presented a lot of gray fabric. Well one would wonder about half the designers having gray in their collections. Humans are not that well intuned with each other. If that were the case then we would continuously dress similarly to our friends, co-workers and family members. The fabric that is purchased by the design houses is strongly influenced by the fabric designers who have a strong interest in selling their wares and latest creations.

So that part of the creative process is one step removed from the designers.

Next, the designers design the clothes the seamstress cuts it and the fitters come to make sure the clothes looks good on the models. Well at the last minute, if the fitters feel the clothes would look better with a higher collar etc. sometimes the designer might oblige the advice.

Another step away...

So, whose creation is the final product - the dress on the runway? So annoying when they all start to look like the designers held a convention and all decided to go with the same template...