Le Dernier Cri

High fashion, to me, is an art form. There is so much that goes into it that it is hard for me to think of it any other way. But what happens when high fashion is exploited? The result is what we are now seeing at lower-end stores such as Target and Kohl’s: legitimate, established designers doing collections for mass-market retailers.\nWe have all seen the collections of more upscale designs at Target, the store that has been most successful at this bargain-price high fashion game. The self-proclaimed discount department store has given many established but fairly unknown designers, including London’s Luella Bartley, New York’s Proenza Schouler and Paris’s Paul & Joe, exposure to the masses, boosting not only the corporation’s profits, but the designers’ profiles as well. \nThis trend is not only seen at Target, but also at Kohl’s, which partnered with Vera Wang, at H&M, which now calls Madonna a designer, and at Macy’s, whose O Oscar line by Oscar de la Renta has seen success.\nWhile the revolution of high fashion for low prices is something that my wallet is very happy about, it makes me wonder what will happen to high fashion. If a customer could get a garment designed by a high-profile designer for a very low price, why would he or she buy the same thing that costs exponentially more, just because it was shown in the designer’s runway show? Will the art form that is the fashion show soon be obsolete?\nFashion shows are an interactive, sensory-stimulating form of artistic expression. Every garment sent down a designer’s runway, whether it is wearable or not, is the result of a creative process that is months and months in the making. The designer not only has to think about his or her garments, but also what sequence will be sent down the runway and what hair and makeup looks will work for all models. Designers select the runway layout, the seating chart, the music sequence and organize all of the minuscule details, while fitting the models and making sure a cohesive, beautiful collection is sent down the runway. It is art at its best.\nBut what is a designer to do when an exact copy of his or her creative brainchild is seen on a Wal-Mart clearance rack? It is simple logic that a consumer would buy the garment that looks exactly like a designer piece or is designed by a high-profile designer, but has a bargain price tag. A high-fashion garment is not special if it does not have some kind of fairy-tale attribute attached to it, so why spend the extra cash? The answer is that: most people won’t.\nWhile this sell-out is a necessity for most designers, it is still worrying. When a designer must spread him or herself so thinly over the fashion market just to finance a flagship business, there is no where to go but down. This mass trickle down of high fashion makes me wonder if there is anything fabulous and truly original left at the top.