Why Does Y2K Fashion Make Me Happy?

Yesterday, on the way to the Airport, I was randomly scrolling through Instagram when I happened upon a post by @Xeniaadonts. It immediately made me smile and gave me a warm, fuzzy feeling. The post was so Y2K, with Xenia wearing Miu Miu, low-slung jeans, a crop denim handkerchief top, and a lovely matelasse Miu Miu bag—all achingly cool with her so chic, messy crop bob. Why did this make me so happy?  

In this blog, we discuss fashion, the joy of dressing up, the impact of clothing on our mood, the joy of self-expression through fashion, and, importantly, conscious consumerism.  Why did this post make me so happy?  The Y2K fashion was not the most comfortable or easy to wear.  Some parts of your body were always on show and up for scrutiny (others, but mostly your own)—your back, shoulders, midriff on display and everything so tight.  There was no space for comfort. 

My husband always told me I wore clothes a size too small.  Yet it was such a joyful and exciting time.  Fashion seemed exciting and new.  Tom Ford was at Gucci, bringing a new sense of glamour and sexiness.  Prada was the “it” brand, and the aforementioned Miu Miu gave us everything from Baby Doll Dresses to cool combat looks.  There were other cool brands - Tracey Reece, Tibi and Lisa Ho- serving up gorgeous bias-cut dresses and prints, as well as the exquisite minimalism of Helmut Lang and Jim Sander.  There was so much fun and excitement.  We trotted around in our kitten heels with our Prada Bowling bags, making plans and having fun.   

Yet, there was less fashion than we have now.  This era was before the massive growth of both Luxury Goods and Fast Fashion.  There were many independent brands and a lot of discovery, newness, and excitement everywhere.  It was also very happy and exciting for me personally; I was about to get married or had recently married.  Life was full of glamorous places to go, amazing friends, new adventures, a new business and a new life ahead.  So many opportunities waiting to happen.  These were the precious memories being ignited by that IG post.  It was a time when life seemed less serious, before the deaths of parents, professional failures and experiences that hurt.

So what is the learning here?  Clothes can be and are a powerful source of our own joy and happiness.  If you’re reading this, you are not dressing for function only; you have a love and appreciation for clothing as a self-expression.  Do you have an era in fashion that makes you happy?  Is there an era which was really ‘you’?  What is that feeling you had then?  Was it flirtiness, glamour, power, confidence, sexiness?  Whatever that feeling was is so relevant and a key tool for creating a wardrobe you love and resonates.  Chasing the current trend is all good, but it can be seen as looking/searching, which is far from personal certainty, confidence and ease.

The joy and excitement I experienced in that era may have been in the past, but it is alive right now and can be recreated.  Hence, I have so many Y2K elements in my personal style, and I still wear my Tom Ford Gucci and Miu Miu.  Fashion as a form of self-expression can be pure joy - art in life.  Having a sense of personal style is key to this.  Having your own style provides a sense of confidence and certainty in a currently challenging world.  So let’s enjoy this opportunity. 

Time for some fashion homework:

•⁠  ⁠Do you have a time you loved in fashion?

•⁠  ⁠What was it?

•⁠  ⁠How did it make you feel?  

•⁠  ⁠Define that feeling - cool, chic, powerful, beautiful, confident 

•⁠  ⁠Now, build your style based on those elements.  

•⁠  ⁠Have fun while building your own style, confidence and certainty.

As always, have fun, love life, and enjoy fashion.

Kind regards

Kate xx

What Is The Fashionable Futures Community All About?

Next week, we will be launching our Fashionable Futures Community on SKOOL. Use the link below to join this fabulous community.

So, this is a great subject to address today.  If you have been reading this blog for some time, you know that I am very passionate about fashion, sustainability, and especially the future of fashion.  My commitment is for people to enjoy life and enjoy fashion while engaging in a conscious sense of consumerism.  So they can shop, dress and love fashion in a way that excites them and makes them look glamorous and at peace with their conscience.  That is what the community is all about.

The Stelar team working their magic!

This community is an opportunity for like-minded people to come together and achieve so much more. I have always been a sharer, a passionate person who loves to tell people about my favourite designers, brands, restaurants, movies, and places to visit. So, this is where I can share on another level.  It’s a place where we can gather together as like-minded people to explore what we can achieve together.

This creation of something greater as a community is so exciting, collaborative, and hugely beneficial. I’m committed to creating this community. I know and communicate with so many people who are designers, manufacturers, innovators, brand owners, students, fashion lovers, and people committed to sustainable fashion, and I love the idea of bringing together like-minded people in a way that is powerful, connected, and extraordinary.

The fashion industry isn’t really known for its tremendously warm connectivity.  Historically, it has been a rather exclusive place, and we had to prove something to be included or enter.  This is not a criticism, just an observation.  However, I’m committed to shifting all of that.  I’m bringing together a relatively diverse group of people connected through fashion as an industry, as a passion, and also a group committed to the future of fashion.  A future where the entry point is levelled for people who are engaged in a force for good for the world.  One that does not benefit from the exploitation or invalidation of others, where people can find partners, collaborator suppliers, customers, mentors, friends, business partners, and even lovers.

This is a hugely exciting engagement for me. It’s something I’ve been planning for many years, and I’m very excited about it. The future of fashion, for me, is one where we can all have an opportunity for self-expression and creativity and to make an impact for the greater good. My greater commitment is that everybody who is engaged in this community will be elevated, inspired, and positively impacted by it.

I’m bringing together some experts you can learn from. The community will offer many training courses on fashion, elevating your brand or business, addressing personal effectiveness, and creating your vision, and (believe it or not) it’s all completely FREE!

As I’ve spoken and written about before, I’ve had a long, successful and very desirable career. I’ve had endless opportunities to work with extraordinary people, travel to amazing places, and create beautiful things, and this has always been my commitment. This is my opportunity to contribute and give back to an industry and our future.  Something I would want for future generations of designers and creators, brand builders and manufacturers who are creating a whole New World of fashion.  One which is extraordinary and beautiful. 
So come along and join us on this amazing journey.  I’m so looking forward to having you there.  Let’s make this magic happen together.

Watch this space; there’s so much more to come, and we look forward to seeing you soon inside the Fashionable Futures community.

As always, have fun, love life, and enjoy fashion.

Kind regards

Kate xx

Kate Padget-Koh

FASHIONABLE FUTURES

Is Something New Emerging in Fashion?

There seems to be a new mood and direction emerging in the fashion space, which coincides with my own mood and somewhat change of direction or view of the industry.

In this blog, we’ve talked a lot about the huge growth of the luxury goods industry.  How owning a very expensive bag, whether that be Hermes, Louis Vuitton or Celine, has become an everyday thing for many people.  YouTube has numerous, let’s say endless, luxury bag collectors talking about their high-price acquisitions.  We have also talked about the tremendous growth of fast fashion over the past couple of decades.  As you know,  I have been rather exasperated that this behaviour of over-consumption in the industry has become so normalised.  We’ve also seen the emergence of super fakes as a way to have these desirable items without actually having to pay for them (if you know what I mean).  I’m sure I’ve written a couple of times, asking what is really going on here and why everything got so strange and somewhat unfathomable.  Too much and too often.  Is more ever better?

Image curtesy of Style Magazine

 At its best, fashion is like art; it is created by somebody with a vision of the world or a vision of how they want the world to be, and that’s why we love it. It is the expression of somebody who has a commitment to making life more beautiful, more magical, freer, more expressed, and more efficient—overall, an improved experience of living life.

Image Credit - Apple TV

I recently watched the Apple TV series “The New Look”, which traces the early years of Dior and how Christian Dior had to fathom his own depths of devastation during  WW2 and put behind him the darkness to create a new era of French fashion or modern clothing for the world—going beyond his sadness and beyond the gloom, persecution and atrocities that gone before.  What I was left with (and reminded of through a dear friend) was how much the beauty of clothing takes us to a new place and a new sense of hope, desire and possibility.  Through our clothes, we can create something so magical, new and inspiring.  If you haven’t seen “The New Look”, I do recommend it.  The similarities to what’s happening right now in the world are a bit too close for comfort, but the characters are so well-developed, especially Christian Dior and his magnificent sister Catherine.  It really encapsulates his vision for the future when he could so easily have just given up, thinking it was too hard for him to follow his dreams at that time.

The finale had me thinking or wondering what that era in Paris must’ve been like.  These designers were all so close, supporting each other; even though they were fighting at times, they were connected, or so it seems (hard to say what is real when it’s a TV  Docu-drama).  It seemed that they were all committed to making something important for France and the future of fashion, and that’s where we find ourselves now.

Dior is a huge brand and business.  Since being acquired by LVMH, it has grown from strength to strength, currently being one of the top 100 companies in the world, with a market cap of 147.8Bn.  The brand does create a unique, authentic female spirit due to the magnificent Maria Grazie Chiuri. They have created something that is quite beautiful and iconic and, unfortunately, over-produced and easily copied.  

 Sadly, much of branded fashion is like that.  Too much of it is available, much of the craftsmanship is made in factories, and there are many stories of quality issues.  What seemed so desirable has lost its pull. 

Image credit: Phoebe Philo

Now, then, how about the emergence of designers forging their own ways?  This is really the inspiring movement that I’m touching on here.  Phoebe Philo launched her own collection in such a quiet and magnificent way.  Through digital drops, no social media, no advertising, no big hype, just dropping and selling out.  She doesn’t really care if you think it’s too expensive; she’s going to sell it anyway.   She’s not spending a fortune putting it on the carpet; it’s going to sell anyway.  Likewise, The Row banned social media from their shows.  The whole over-information trend,  over-exposure, has gone in the opposite direction, and it’s very refreshing.  We don’t need to be told why something is important to buy.  We don’t need to see it everywhere to be convinced; this is the exciting new emergence in fashion. It seems we are going back to the 1950s when fashion became all about a new era and new time in the world.  People are committed to creating beauty, inspiration, and a new direction for the Future of Fashion.  

Graphic by guest designer Tori Wilkins (http://toriwilkins.com).

Isn’t it exciting?

As always, have fun, love life, and enjoy fashion.

Love, Kate xx

What is Next for Valentino?

In the previous blog, we talked about maximalism and minimalism, with rather substantial references to Alessandro Michele’s tenure at Gucci, and the extraordinary fantasies he created at the Brand.  It was certainly an iconic era for Gucci, and since then, they’ve somehow lost their way despite the fact that I absolutely love the current collection and its minimalist expression. 

We’ve all been wondering what is going to happen to Michele and where he will find a home that befits his creative vision and magnificent expression.  We also heard that Valentino’s Creative Director, Pierpaolo Piccioli, is leaving the brand after a considerable tenure (2008-2024, with 2016-2024 as sole creative director) without clarity regarding where he was going.  Last week, there was considerable online speculation surmising that Michele would likely be going to Valentino.  This was eventually confirmed at the end of the week to much excitement and buzz in the industry and press.

Pierpaolo Piccioli - Valentino

 We’re unclear what will happen with Pierpaolo, Valentino’s former creative director. I would like to think he may go to Dior and do something there, or could he even go to Gucci?  That seems rather unlikely.  He has been an extraordinary asset to the brand, creating such extraordinary beauty on and off the catwalk.  However, last week, we saw the news that the couture and menswear collections would no longer take place, so there seems to be a pattern change in the brand.  The poetry and beauty colourist Pierpoaolo has brought to the brand was hard to translate into what people actually bought.

Let’s review what we think Alessandro Michele will bring to Valentino.  Perhaps Mayhoola, the owner of Valentino, sees the potential for the brand.  Remember, when Gucci under  Michele became a thing, there were so many new opportunities to shop for Gucci.  So many things to buy that we didn’t even know we wanted and we didn’t really know could exist.  Yet they did; it became a fun and thrilling era for the brand, and many of us bought items that now, although they are no longer relevant to the brand, have become kind of timeless.  They are crazy classics to us.  I still use and wear bags and T-shirts, sneakers less so, but certainly they will make a comeback.  Perhaps Valentino saw that opportunity to create a brand of that era.  

Valentino has always been a very stately and almost regal Roman brand.  In Hong Kong, where I live, it was notorious for how those “ladies who lunch” wore rich women’s clothes.  Mr. Valentino himself stepped down, and his successors Maria Grazia Chiuri and Pierpaolo PicciloIi replaced him.  They made beautiful items, some of the most iconic and jaw-dropping fashion, but somehow, with the exception of the “Rock Stud” phenomenon, it never became widely purchased like Gucci, Chanel or Dior.  Maybe it’s something we feel we just can’t quite reach, not only from the price but from its application to our lives.  I believe I’ve only ever owned three Valentino items: a pair of flip-flops, some rock studs that I bought secondhand and some wedges.  I have always loved Valentino. I frequently go into the store and look at it, as it is beautiful.  Somehow, between the price level, the accessibility and relevancy to my life, there is a gap.  Is that gap something the owners are trying to bridge by creating a brand that can relate to a younger consumer, creating another Chanel or even Celine?

 Certainly, many of us can see the opportunities available for Valentino and Alessandro Michele - the bags and shoes will be truly thrilling, vibrant and collectable.  Ready-to-wear is always a challenge for any brand, but there are certainly opportunities for extraordinary textiles, which Valentino is very good at.  It is time to create something that we would definitely be calling maximalist in its appeal, and with everything that’s going on in the world right now, isn’t it time for some dreaming and beauty - absolutely!!

What do you think? 

As always, have fun, love life, and enjoy fashion.

Kate xx

What are you, a Minimalist or a Maximalist?

It’s quite an interesting subject, especially when looking at fashion. Here are the definitions of minimalism and maximalism:

“THE PHILOSOPHY OF MINIMALISM

Contrary to common misconceptions, minimalism isn't about deprivation or sacrifice.  Instead, it focuses on embracing quality over quantity.  Minimalists are thoughtful in selecting items, ensuring everything owned serves a purpose and enhances their experience.  Marie Kondo, the Japanese organising consultant, exemplifies this by promoting decluttering and assigning significance to personal belongings.

Minimalism is also about intentionality, eliminating distractions, and making mindful choices. It promotes the value of experiences over material possessions, placing higher importance on meaningful items rather than those that merely occupy space.  A minimalist lifestyle involves an internal focus, seeking personal harmony before external approval.  It's a mindset, not a strict rulebook.”   Larson & Eriksen - THE HISTORY AND CONCEPT OF MINIMALISM

“THE ESSENCE OF MAXIMALISM: MORE IS MORE

Maximalists seek liberation by conforming to the minimalist, sleek, monochromatic vision of perfection.  This revolution opened the floodgates for an artistic explosion celebrating individuality and self-expression.  At its core, maximalism embraces the philosophy of “more is more”.  It defies the principles that advocate for simplicity, clean lines, and negative space. Instead, maximalism thrives with an eclectic mix of styles, objects, and influences.  From ornate Victorian furniture to quirky contemporary art, maximalist interiors incorporate various elements to create a feast for the eyes and the soul.  The Victorians used maximalism to awe-inspiring effect.”  Embracing Maximalism: A Maximalist’s Argument for Maximalism in One’s Life - Philip Boyd.

While these definitions are quite simple, they also leave quite a lot of grey areas, so let’s take a look at them from the perspective of Gucci designers.  Gucci‘s greatest era was clearly the Tom Ford era: was it maximalist, or was it minimalist?  This era probably leaned a little more towards maximalism, but the primary focus of Tom Ford Gucci was its sex appeal.  After Tom Ford’s departure, the subsequent decade was rather flat and uneventful with Frida Giannini.  I clearly remember the change of guard in 2015 when Alessandro Michele was brought to the helm, redesigned the menswear collection in a week, and put it on the catwalk. “New Gucci: nonconformist, romantic, intellectual”.  This designer and his handwriting expressed something so different it was almost hard to fathom.  There was so much newness, uniqueness, and playfulness craziness that we almost didn’t know where to look and what to say about it.   

One thing that was very clear was that it was something very different for Gucci.  We hadn’t quite seen before the next few years; we all were crazy for the “Gucci Love” sneakers and the “Dionysus” handbag or whatever else we could get our hands on.  It seemed like the years of maximalism had really come to the Gucci Brand.   The growth of Gucci under Michele was undoubted, from EU3.9B in 2015 to EU9.7B in 2021 - until it wasn’t!  In 2022, there were a lot of conversations about how it really didn’t work.  More sales were not growing the way they had been, and it was time for a new mood at the brand.

What happened next was the appointment of Sabato de Sarno.  The first collection of Sabato was a complete shift - very clean lines, mini skirts, shorts with elegant jackets, all quite purist and definitely minimal.  I wrote a blog about it this time in September 2023.  Personally, I love minimalism, and this was a breath of fresh air; any of the initial criticism was forgotten when he showed his next season, and all the influencers loved those looks.   

So what is better, maximalism or minimalism?

I have a few points to address here, which are clearly from a fashion perspective:

1.  Personal preferences/moods in time: We all have preferences, and often, those preferences are not just stylistic but one of era.  I love minimalism because it reminds me of a very happy time in the late 90s and 2000s, when everything was about Jill Sander, Prada, Miu Miu, and Helmut Lang.  All those very androgynous and minimalist looks, but it wasn’t just about the fashion.  It was also about the life I had at that time.  It was fun, surprising, and something entirely new for me, so whenever I see something that reminds me of that era, I’m so happy and refreshed.  Incidentally, at that time, minimalism was soon replaced with maximalism.  

2.  My views on maximalism and craving something new: I love some maximalist brands, and I love colour; I love print.  After the late 90s/2000s minimalism, when I stopped wearing all my Helmut Lang and Miu Miu, I started buying Marni - all colour and clashing prints.  I wore oversized and Maharshi with vintage scarf tops from Smithfield market.  The key point is that only some of us are either minimalist or maximalist only.  As with our moods, we (as humans) always crave something new.  That is the beauty of fashion; we can create a new vibe so easily.  That is the beauty of fashion and its limitation, especially when looking at sustainability.

3.  My approach: So, what would I choose from the two?  Minimalism at its best is buying high-quality, beautiful pieces and keeping them forever.  I still have some Prada, Miu Miu, and Gucci from that era.  I wish I’d kept more of Miu Miu, but I literally wore them out.  Yet I have had my maximalist periods and kept all my Marni.  The best expression of maximalism is the vintage pieces you’ve kept, the hero items you bought pre-loved and the gorgeous eclectic acquisitions.  The key to this is your attitude to shopping and consumption.  It’s not always about the next new thing; you can shop your wardrobe and keep things forever.  Make fashion fun and beautiful, enjoy yourself with it.  

The terms minimalism and maximalism pertain to design and architectural philosophies or even a way of life.  When we start to equate them to fashion, it’s very easy to become trend-focused.  To address this for myself, I’m both a maximalist and a minimalist.  It depends on my mood.  What I’m feeling at the time and what I’m choosing to wear.  I would say I have more of a purist philosophy, but I’m certainly not a minimalist, as in having very few things I own.  I once met someone who worked with us at Puma; he owned something in the region of three pairs of khaki pants, four shirts, two T-shirts and two pairs of shoes.  He owned very little.  He had a true minimalist philosophy and approach to life.  There are people who wear the same thing every day, but that’s not me, and I don’t foresee me ever being like that.  

As you know from reading this blog, I’m very passionate about clothing and fashion. I enjoy it; it’s a way of self-expression. Do I love the minimalist style? Absolutely. Do I ever have a more maximalist approach? Yeah, for sure. However, my approach is still based on a purist philosophy for how I treat my wardrobe. Have a look for yourself. What is your lifestyle philosophy when it comes to your wardrobe?

As always, have fun, love life, and enjoy fashion.

Kate xx