Over the top is so last season

For all you fashion fans out there, the pre-collections are upon us. Hip, hip, kursnoooooze. Wunderkinds Lazaro Hernandez and Jack McCollough, the masterminds behind Proenza Schouler, just dropped their Spring 10’ pre-collection at Pitti W to rows of delighted European fashion hounds, c-celebs and so-called socialites. The applause pretty much stopped there, for me anyway.

The multimedia extravaganza – not fashion show mind you – featured an installation by sculptor Haim Steinbach, a performance by Kembra Pfahler and a video by the performance artist Kalup Linzy featuring indie darling Chloë Sevigny. Just when we thought the ‘back to basics’ message was sinking in…apparently Lazaro and Jack didn’t get the memo: over the top is over boys, get over it.

Personally I find fashion to be the most interesting and accessible form of self-expression. Theatrics have forever been a part and true, being progressive does demand that we embrace certain aspects of contemporary culture and yea, social media surrounds, but enough already.

There comes a time when less really is more. That time is now.

Industry hero Dieter Rams summed it up beautifully with “omit the unimportant,” yet for some reason it’s very hard for us to do, en masse. Sure there are a few white knights, but on the whole, it’s pretty tricky. I think it’s fair to say that to be a great designer, any type of designer for that matter, one must first be a great editor.

Proenza Schouler’s collection was real nice by the way, though I can’t remember much of it; images of Linzy in drag comprise the majority of that memory – odd choice, there’s no way he’s sample size.

Check out the video here: http://www.style.com/video/?bcpid=4765160001&bctid=26412679001