Just in time for Jacko, 80’s fashion is back

It’s almost as if someone wrote a grandiose fairytale last year.  Today Michael Jackson, The King of Pop, officially announced that he will be doing his “final curtain call” with a minimum of a 10-show Las Vegas-style “residency” in London.  His timing couldn’t be orchestrated any better, for the 80’s, according to the fashion world, are back.  Fall 2009 fashions are full of 1980’s fashion including “Dynasty”-esque dresses, exaggerated shoulders, and torn-up jeans.

Like Return of the Jedi, the exaggerated shoulders come back fighting in full force. A myriad of designers, like Marc Jacobs, Dolce & Gabbana, Alexander Wang and Diane von Furstenberg featured the added baggage during their Fall 2009 runway shows.

The look originally came from what was known as the “Power Suit”.  The phrase, first coined in the 1980s, refers to the exaggerated shoulder pads and skirt suits worn by American businesswomen to make them more “visible” in the workplace.  But such “wardrobe engineering” is centuries old and has been recycled yet again.

Not withstanding the boisterous applause from fashion critics and celebrities, proof that the throwback looks are bankable does not exist.  However, the trend does makes us nostalgic about  a similar recessionary period that began in 1981.

Undoubtedly, the styles that surfaced this past month are strickingly comparable to those sewn during a time where several key industries were also suffering—including housing, steel manufacturing and automobile production. The icing on the cake is the release date of Michael Jackson’s  “Thriller”.  The album was scooped up by millions of fans starting on November 30, 1982, right as the recession was ending.

Could the King of Pop returning to the spotlight be a sign the current recession might end? We won’t know until the completion of his tour, but as it stands his stars are aligned for 2009.   Just like a prayer, let us hope Madonna makes an appearance at his show in London, exaggerated shoulder jacket in tow and all.

The Changing Tide of Anna Wintour

A recent article in WSJ (Just Asking: Anna Wintour) profiles a fashion guru’s opinion on the developments of the fashion world today. As she sees it, designers have to mix the high priced items with the low. One of her ludicrous quotes states fashion was “excessive, and there’s a very correct correction going on.”  Let’s talk about excess. According to Jerry Oppenheimer’s book Front Row: The Cool Life and Hot Times of Vogue’s Editor In Chief, Anna Wintour perks as recent as 2005 included:

• Salary equating $2 million a year
• A chauffeured Mercedes S-Class (both in New York and abroad)
• A $50,000 shopping allowance
• The Coco Chanel Suite at the Hotel Ritz Paris while attending European fashion shows
• Condé Nast president Si Newhouse also had the company make her an interest-free $1.6 million loan to purchase her townhouse in Greenwich Village

Not only were her perks excessive, but also her magazine was excessive. The September 2004 issue boasted a record 832 pages, the largest issue of a monthly magazine ever published at that time.

Media certainly shapes how consumers shop.  Before the downturn hit, Wintour’s publications fueled the excessive price points and designs, thus feeding the need for consumption and gluttonous shopping sprees.  Is the downturn directly correlated to her role as an editor? Of course not. Did she direct a trend towards opulence, luxury, excess, greed, a wanting for high fashion through spreads, editors, photographs, and cover articles? Yes.

The WSJ article is like collagen filler – completely futile and temporary. Ultimately, Wintour herself is a trend-follower.  Her ebb and flow fashion logic is indicative of her intelligence as a fashion maven.  Once on the economic upside, make sure to tune in to the Anna Wintour chronicles. She may just engender another contraction and shift of the rank in file opinion.