The very popular vulgarity

Cathy Horyn has been banned by Armani and D&G to attend their shows. It seems that they were offended by her coments on what is their best value as brands: the flashy, the barroque that screams designer above all other sartorial qualities. The question is: why would they change what is the basis of their bussines: popular (vulgar) taste?! I think both Cathy Horyn and the Offended Italians are fighting over the given value to flashy fashion.; for some a good thing for others the worse that can happen to brand. There is in deed a space for that product:"Italy's top fashion houses are certainly in robust financial health - D&G's worldwide sales recently topped €1bn (£679m) and Salvatore Ferragamo expects to open 15 new American boutiques over the next four years."

In the other hand it is said by even American Vogue editor that is a matter of evolution...That the italian houses are not sponsoring new talent or directions...But why would they? Heritage is one of the basis of aesthetic expresion in that culture and the fundament of the "made in Italy" kind of marketing. I think there are many elements in this case that are totally missed. It is not a matter of good taste vs. bad taste but success vs obscurity. DriesVan Noten does not offer the solutions than D&G so can they be expected to be as "elevated"...Dries follows a "nordic" aproach, not an Italian approach to fashion. In summary I think the critics are demanding a level of artistry and cutting edge that is not the nature of the mass market fashion appeal of D&G, Cavalli or Armani... Skills are not the same for merchants as they are to fine artists; the conceptual in fashion is not the same than the perceptual in fashion.

"Italian fashion became world famous because of its raffinatezza - refinement: the cultured eye of designers produced by centuries of Italian artistic genius, yoked to the highest standards of craftsmanship in Europe.

Then, in the Sixties and Seventies, Italians discovered trash, glitter, bling and gold lamé - the whole cavalcade of explosive vulgarity. They won fans and markets all over the world and built commercial empires. Today Roberto Cavalli is designer of choice for the footballers' wives, D&G's look gets ever harsher and more exploitative.

Meanwhile the raffinatezza vanished - and somewhere along the line the fizz went out of the work, too. That's what the sharpest critical minds are detecting now: the same old flashy ideas trotted out season after season, and a dire absence of distinctive new talents coming up behind.

"They have to embrace the future," Anna Wintour, the editor of US Vogue, commented at Armani's show in Milan. "There are wonderful, talented people here, but it's always the same names. Where is the support? Where is the sponsorship? You have to embrace the future of fashion and look for the next generation."

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