two straw hats, two different ways

 

both images courtesy of The Nifty Fifties

Just to illustrate the point that there are straw hats... and then there are straw hats.  But whether fancy or casual, there's a straw hat for every lady.

About a week ago, I had a chance to catch up with a friend of mine that I'd met three years ago during the summer fashion program at Parsons.  Since then, she has started studying fashion full-time in her home country of Japan.  Naturally, we were both curious about differences in the teaching of our discipline at our respective schools, but we also got to talking about our fears and concerns as future designers.

One thing I've been thinking about for a while now was also on my friend's mind: the question of why fashion designers keep looking back.  I may have mentioned before the idea my fashion history teacher brought up last semester of the fact that we have yet to come up with a silhouette for the 21st Century.  So does that mean that we've really done everything we can with the shape of clothing?  I don't want to believe that that's the reason, but my fear is something worse, something another design teacher discussed with us last year: the idea of de-futuring that has permeated our world.

This other teacher claimed that after the end of World War II, the idea of "a future" became uncertain in everyone's mind, because it was demonstrated that the world could be destroyed at the push of a button.  Bringing the discussion to our present condition, this teacher claimed that a major problem designers face is how to design for an economically/ecologically/socially de-futured world.  A grim way of looking at things, no?  He ended the lecture with his best attempt at optimism, challenging us as designers to create things that will make the world a better place, and fight against the idea of de-futuring.

At this point, I couldn't help but be reminded of a wonderful Ted Talk by Philippe Starck from 2007:

I think Starck sums up my concerns quite nicely: the idea of my profession being somewhat obsolete at times like these, with war, natural disasters, world economies collapsing like dominoes.

I choose to remain hopeful about this - design is what I love to do, and it took me quite a few years of studying and doing things that I wasn't passionate about to truly appreciate it.  But I can't help but wonder if part of the answer to the question of why fashion designers keep looking to the past for inspiration is tied into this idea of de-futuring.