Cathy Horyn, The New York Times' iconic fashion critic who retired in January of this year, is back. The sharp-tongued, best-in-class voice who previously found herself at odds with many inside the industry, most notably Hedi Slimane and Oscar de la Renta, has never been one for cushioning the blow of a negative review. But her latest work for T, is surprisingly rather appreciative of Slimane's recent run at Saint Laurent, going as far to call it "impressive, even prescient," though not before prefacing the statement that she isn't a fan of Slimane.
If you aren't familiar with their relationship, Horyn slammed SLP in October 2012 after she wasn't invited to a runway show. Apparently, this was because Hedi took offense to a previous story from 2004 that implied the idea that without Raf Simons, Hedi Slimane would not exist. The ensuing fallout saw Hedi publish his own open letter to Horyn. It was all quite petty, fashion-like and just at lot of fun TBH.
But in this piece, it's much the opposite of their history. Horyn touts Hedi's ability to make high quality, commercial clothes for any woman—an approach counterintuitive to that of other high-end labels.
The crux of her praise comes on the tails of the recognition that fashion as a whole has gravitated toward a simpler look. The shock and awe factor has fallen off to near non-existence. Not only has this simpler approach helped SLP, whose business apparently grew more than 18% last year, but, as Horyn points out, has also reached consumers. Simpler clothes will be worn more, which makes their pricepoints more palpable.
The shift may be a function of growth and thoughtfulness, but Horyn also argues that—um, hey, guys—we may have run out of fucking ideas. Fashion may have reached the brink of "re-enactment fever," or another "old is new" mindset. It also doesn't help that income inequality and the financial world has prevented people from taking unnecessary risks as well. But that's not for designers to think about or even address, Horyn says. Instead, they must do their best to reflect the times in their collections. And Horyn thinks Slimane has done so beautifully.
