What's Wrong with Fashion Today

 
If a picture is worth 1,000 words, I've written my piece. Above is one half of a real two-page Gucci ad in the October Harper's Bazaar. This is frightening and depressing. 

Fashion does not have to be practical. It doesn't have to be pretty. It can be provocative, thought-provoking, curious, understated, over-stated, minimal, maximal, or even boring. It should engage both the viewer and the wearer. While it's easy to be caught up in the trend of the moment, time and a wise eye let you know what's right for you.

All this is rather cerebral. Our first fashion reaction is usually either "I like it" or "Not for me". Forget about whether we would really spend $1350 for a rainbow-striped puffer vest, cute as it may be.

Burberry, $1350

 
What fashion shouldn't elicit from you is "Oh my God! What is this?" or a plaintive "Whhhhhhy?" I can't justify the deliberately ugly. The whole idea of making oneself look laughable or grotesque on purpose escapes me. It's just a bad sign of how far off the track we've gone and a terrible reflection of everything that's wrong in the world—you name it.

If Alessandro Michele at Gucci doesn't really expect us to don a sock money ski mask, Faster Pussycat Kill Kill sweatshirt or hang a bus conductor's coin purse around our necks (all three together mind you), why show it, and on a 15-year-old on a bare mattress in the attic? If he's trying to make a statement about the state of the world I got that already. Please, not Fashion too.