MORE ABOUT NEW FASHIONS

Amazingly crumpled fabrics...the ones that look like crumpled paper in a wastebasket...are back. I guess some people envy what they see in their trash. Maybe they get off on the idea of disposability. Maybe they're attracted to the diamond-like crumple facets. Maybe it's the thought of the adventure awaiting the brave little piece of paper as it travels through chutes and trucks to either grand immolation or a timeless existence in a landfill.

I'm not a crumple man myself, but I like seersucker and I feel that that gives me an insight into the crumple mentality. This guy (above) is no doubt proud of the light, airy, thin paper bag look of his suit. People have pleasant associations with little paper bags. They're fun to pop next to the ear of a friend.

Girls have been wearing the crumpled look for years. I think they like the idea that the crumpled dress has a life and shape of its own, and by slipping into it they somehow participate in that life. 

This look on a girl is also sexy, maybe because it always looks like at any moment a wind could come up and blow the dress down the street.

Nowadays people who wear short pants like to crumple their socks around the ankle. I looked for a picture to illustrate that and I stumbled on this photo (above) by a sock designer who's trying to do away with the shoe. The idea is to dispense with shoes and wear socks (above) with Kevlar bottoms. This gives the wearer the benefit of close hippie contact with Mother Earth, coupled with protection against nails and broken glass.

The Frankenstein look (above) is still with us. This was most popular in the 80s when it was seen as a sort of Post Modern joke. It was a way to wear formal clothes while showing that you had disdain for formality.

This (above) is an example of the wrinkled look, which is not at all the same as the crumple. Wrinkle enthusiasts delight in calling attention to wrinkles that seem to be in the wrong place, like the magnificent pectoral wrinkle above. I treasure my own wrinkle jacket.

When cartoonists take over the world they'll no doubt favor the kind of fashion that compels the wearer to walk in a stylized, cartoony way. In the example above the mysterious wearer (a guy or a girl, I can't tell) walks in a rigid, upright fashion that favors the line of the cape.

A frock coat combined with thick, flat-bottomed shoes (above) would favor a smooth, hipster slide walk. You slidewalk down the sidewalk.  I wonder if tiny rollers under the shoe would help?

Finally, how about a skirt fabric that deliberately flies up when it encounters the slightest wind? The girl would wear cheerleader underpants that are more pants than underwear, and don't really show anything.