Fashion can be a pretty difficult thing to learn about. Especially when you have no clue where to start. It seems you're either jumping between articles with highly technical, inside-baseball coverage of the making of a pair of shorts or you're ten minutes deep into some YouTube vlogger's 'Charlotte Russe Haul' video. It can be frustrating and even turn you off from the crazy, cool and artistic world of fashion. Well, look no further! Here's a short list of five of some of the coolest fashion designers out there, as well as some of my favorite collections by them.
1. Alexander McQueen
Alexander McQueen was appointed head designer at Givenchy in 1996. He left in 2001 after his contract which was “constraining his creativity” ended. McQueen is known for his extravagant and theatrical shows which tested the boundaries of fashion and femininity. He was the subject of the 2010 Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Costume Institute exhibition, “Alexander McQueen: Savage Beauty”.
Best Collections:
Spring/Summer 2001: “VOSS”- one of the craziest fashion shows ever. It began with a giant glass box in the center of the room bathed in light so that the audience saw only their own reflections in the glass. After an hour, the inside of the box was lit to reveal hundreds of moths and model Michelle Olley who lay naked on a chaise lounge with her face covered by a gas mask. The glass walls then dropped and shattered on the ground.
Spring/Summer 1999: A show which featured only one model, Shalom Harlow, who walked to the end of the runway wearing a strapless white dress where she was slowly rotated and sprayed with paint by two robotic guns.
2. Rei Kawakubo
In 1973, Japanese avant-gardist Rei Kawakubo began Comme des Garçons (“Like Boys” in English) which is known for its anti-fashion approach to design. Kawakubo has notably blurred the lines between art and fashion with each of her collections serving more of an aesthetic and personal goal than commercial gain.
Best Collections:
Spring/Summer 1997: “Lumps and Bumps” – A collection which featured gowns stuffed with odd figure-distorting padding. A show which lived for itself- creating looks that are so unwearable and unnerving that they exist as art pieces and not simply ‘just dresses’.
Fall/Winter 2006: “Persona”- This show focused on the transformative nature of fashion and its ability to mold the identities of the wearer
3. Martin Margiela
Martin Margiela is a Belgian fashion designer whose namesake label embraced the concept of deconstruction. He featured garments with exposed hems, seams and linings and proportions wildly out of scale such as long arms or pant legs. Maison Margiela shows notably feature models whose faces are covered by fabric or long hair to draw focus to the clothes.
Best Collections:
Spring/Summer 1997- “Semi-Couture”- This collection epitomized Margiela’s obsession with deconstruction. The garments are printed with the words ‘semi-couture’ at the bottom. An homage to the dress forms on which they were constructed.
Spring/Summer 1998- This runway consisted of men in white lab coats who presented the collection hanging on hangers while a video of models wearing the clothes played in the background.
4. Issey Miyake
Japanese fashion designer and fragrance connoisseur Issey Miyake is most known for his technology driven designs. He is also the man who created all of Steve Jobs’ iconic black turtlenecks. Miyake oversaw his eponymous label until his retirement in 1997.
Best Collections:
Spring/Summer 1994- Included the amazing ‘Flying Saucer’ Dress. The whole collection had heat-set polyester scrunches which lay completely flat when the dress is laid down.
Fall/Winter 1985- Featured the ‘Seashell’ coat. Uses the same kind of pleating in the 1994 collection but in a vastly different way. It’s crazy cool wearable art that revolutionized the 80's.
5. Yves Saint Laurent
In 1962, the French fashion designer founded his namesake label after his famous stint as head designer of Dior at only 21. Saint Laurent is most known for introducing the women’s tuxedo, the shirt dress and being one of the first notable designers to use non-white models in his runway shows. He headed the brand up until his retirement in 2002.
Best Collections:
Fall/Winter 1965-66-“The Mondrian Collection”- one of my all-time favorites. All the dresses in this collection mimicked the famous ‘Composition with Yellow, Blue and Red’ by Piet Mondrian.
Spring/Summer 1988- "Cubismo" A Collection based on cubist art. Featured a lot of bodices that had large stiff recreations of paintings by famous cubist artists like Picasso and Braque.
