Budapest Post

Cum Deo pro Patria et Libertate
Budapest, Europe and world news

The Lost Season-What the Post-Crash Collections of Fall 2009 Can Teach Us About Menswear Post-COVID

The Lost Season-What the Post-Crash Collections of Fall 2009 Can Teach Us About Menswear Post-COVID

Typically when covering fashion, you are always looking forward, only rarely can you pause to glance back, but looking back at fall 2009 is to learn about now.

Between US home sales peaking in February 2007 and the unraveling of that sub-prime-fueled spike leading to the bankruptcy of Lehman Brothers and the crash of September 2008, many painful events created many painful consequences. One of them, infinitesimally minor in the grand scheme of life but increasingly notable to us, was that Style.com, the still-loved forebear of Vogue Runway, hit some turbulence-and our menswear coverage (always the sideshow, let’s face it) was the chief victim. All of our fall 2009 collection images and the accompanying reviews by our then-menswear-supremo Tim Blanks were apparently wiped from the Style.com/Vogue Runway archive.

Typically when covering fashion, you are always looking forward, only rarely can you pause to glance back. But the lockdowns of recent months gave us the luxury of enough time to fully notice this absence within our otherwise pretty damned comprehensive archive of 21st century fashion shows. Then it dawned on us that it might be worthwhile to look back at this “Lost Season” in an attempt to restore some of what we were missing-maybe just the collection images, and a contextual piece like this one-in order to divine whether there might be any parallels to be drawn with the state of menswear now. After all, back then we were similarly at the tail-end (we hoped then as now) of a historic disruption that affected almost every corner of global society. And because the shape of fashion is symptomatic of society, when society is rapidly altered fashion is duly reshaped. Furthermore, 2009 was another year in which Joe Biden came into the White House, although in an altered, prefiguring capacity.



Back then, regrettably, I was not around to report on the season, either: It would not be until just after the spring 2010 menswear shows that Emma Tucker, now editor of The Sunday Times and then my boss on The Times (the original one, in London), had the for-me life-altering brainwave to send some unqualified klutz from the features desk to cover womenswear in place of a fashion colleague on maternity leave. Arriving for my first shows in New York, I was so ignorant about the state of capital-f fashion that when all the other British journalists talked so passionately about visiting Duane Reade, I assumed he was some hot new designer. What I did quickly understand, however, is that fashion is an industrial art whose function and expression is psychologically infinitely interesting and writable. Plus, it’s the best fun. But anyway.

Luckily when looking back at The Lost Season (Style.com-wise), there are some great surviving dispatches from Adam Tscorn of the LA Times, Guy Trebay of the New York Times, (all the younger Times have to put their location in their name to distinguish themselves from The Times-Times), as well, of course, as a tranche by Suzy Menkes, then of the International Herald Tribune. (Another personal aside, but on that first season of mine, Suzy, herself a Times veteran, shared a cup of terrible coffee with me in The Bryant Park tents and gave this newcomer sage, nerve-steadying, and still-useful advice-what a dame.)



Focusing upon the fall 2009 coverage from that January by looking at those historical reports, plus what can be Googled of the collections themselves paints a fascinating snapshot of a moment. Mad Men was all the rage, Barack Obama came into office mid-Milan (great news for Jason Wu and the late Isabel Toledo), and-as was usual at the time during menswear in January-half the world’s fashion eye was on the red carpet hoo-ha unfolding at the Golden Globes and SAGs.

But bubbling queasily under all these momentary inflections was a discernible sense of unease and insecurity. As Tscorn wrote in a post for the LA Times fashion blog, All The Rage: “There’s a place in the world for escapist fare-books, movies, and yes, clothing-that takes our mind off the bleached bones of our 401(k) fund and the fact that our houses are more valuable as raw lumber and copper wiring.” This was written in the context of assessing a brace of humorous and colorful shows from Etro and Moschino, and very shortly after a Prada show that had sent his thoughts in precisely the opposite direction: “If anyone at the Milan men’s shows was still unsure about the effect of the global economic meltdown on the designers showing here, the Prada show hammered the point home.”



That Prada show, looking at it now, was unflinchingly tailored-something that in retrospect seems counter-intuitive at a moment when a cadre of men disguising their amoral financial actions through the adoption of the institutional uniform of tailoring had been exposed as such a malignant force upon the world. Yet, however, tailoring remained dominant back then. So if you did not know that the market would shrink by 12% in 2009 (which it did), and that panicked discounting by wholesale retailers would lead to a devaluation of luxury tailoring that would further hurt for years (which it did), plus that this was arguably only the first season in which the ‘streetwear’ that would become transformative broke through on the runways (when Kanye West’s new sneaker designed with Louis Vuitton was revealed alongside Paul Helbers’s collection on January 22), then leaning into tailoring must have seemed like an appropriate move when the priority, as Miuccia Prada said pre-show, was “survival.”

As Guy Trebay observed in his Milan wrap-up: “What with all the economic Cassandras making prophecies that the retail sector will be a disaster well into the third quarter, designers reacted by staging a mass memorial for themselves, one show picking up the somber thread from the last.”



And yet this was also a season in which, unbeknownst but hoped for to all those concerned, there were shows that prefigured the flowering of empires and glittering success. Thom Browne’s debut at Pitti Uomo was similarly suity-and let’s face it you’re never not going to get a suity menswear show with Browne-and his discreetly perverse rigor seemed fully formed. Or, as Suzy put it: “Just two outfits-suits and knits-appeared at the American designer’s first European show during the Pitti Uomo menswear fair in Florence. But the essence of Browne’s sartorial style does not begin to describe the atmospheric sense of pent-up masculinity and menace.”



Another great American designer also took his first menswear bow on this side of the Atlantic that season: Rick Owens. This event went mysteriously uncovered in the New York Times-apart from a Cathy Horyn On The Runway blog post mention that ran “Rick Owens? Original but I don’t want to know what the wearer’s hobbies are.” The redoubtable Tscorn flexed his keyboard to file a report that also took in Gareth Pugh’s first Paris show. Of Owens, Tscorn wrote: “With music from the opera Salome playing, models-some with partially shaved heads and others with locks as long and flat as the designer’s-strode forth, bundled in layers of skins, tunics, and wraps atop a collection of boots so malevolent-looking that they could have clip-clopped out of the same shoe store of the damned where Gene Simmons gets his demon boots.” Everything changes and nothing changes: Owens’s many-layered signature sounds as defined and unique then as it remains now.



This is by no means a comprehensive look back at that particular season. Lanvin, in particular, looked wonderful: Lucas Ossendrijver in his pomp. Yamamoto crackled too, and there were some great collaborative dadcore pieces at Junya Watanabe.

As you can maybe detect, we had a blast going down the rabbit hole of looking back at fashion for fall 2009 as we prepared to restore what collections we could get to Vogue Runway before the menswear shows kick off this weekend in London. But then something crazy happened: we rediscovered a tranche of those long-thought-lost Style.com reviews, courtesy of some spectacular digital sleuthing by Steff Yotka. So today we’re bringing six of them back into the light-Prada, Commes des Garçons, Rick Owens, Thom Browne, Dior Men (or Dior Homme as it was back then), and what sounds like a cracking Dries Van Noten. Reading them makes you feel like you were there.



Looking back at the 2009 shows, and then in contrast looking ahead to the spring 2022 menswear season, I am certain that these new collections will remind of the old. Patterns will recur, woven through the context of the moment just a little differently: new stars will rise, others will fade, and something nobody realizes is especially significant will happen that later acquires much greater significance. What seems like a moment overshadowed by endings will pan out as a time of beginnings. This time around, however, Vogue Runway (née Style.com), will make sure to keep the archive unfolding.

AI Disclaimer: An advanced artificial intelligence (AI) system generated the content of this page on its own. This innovative technology conducts extensive research from a variety of reliable sources, performs rigorous fact-checking and verification, cleans up and balances biased or manipulated content, and presents a minimal factual summary that is just enough yet essential for you to function as an informed and educated citizen. Please keep in mind, however, that this system is an evolving technology, and as a result, the article may contain accidental inaccuracies or errors. We urge you to help us improve our site by reporting any inaccuracies you find using the "Contact Us" link at the bottom of this page. Your helpful feedback helps us improve our system and deliver more precise content. When you find an article of interest here, please look for the full and extensive coverage of this topic in traditional news sources, as they are written by professional journalists that we try to support, not replace. We appreciate your understanding and assistance.
Newsletter

Related Articles

0:00
0:00
Close
Altman Says GPT-5 Already Outpaces Him, Warns AI Could Automate 40% of Work
Russian Research Vessel 'Yantar' Tracked Mapping Europe’s Subsea Cables, Raising Security Alarms
Global Cruise Industry Posts Dramatic Comeback with 34.6 Million Passengers in 2024
U.S. Demands Brussels Scrutinize Digital Rules to Prevent Bias Against American Tech
Private Equity’s Fundraising Surge Triggers Concern of European Market Shake-Out
Tokyo’s Jimbōchō Named World’s Coolest Neighbourhood for 2025
European Officials Fear Trump May Shift Blame for Ukraine War onto EU
The Personality Rights Challenge in India’s AI Era
Italy Considers Freezing Retirement Age at 67 to Avert Scheduled Hike
Italian City to Impose Tax on Visiting Dogs Starting in 2026
Study Finds No Safe Level of Alcohol for Dementia Risk
Trump Says Ukraine Can Fully Restore Borders with NATO Backing
Europe Signals Stronger Support for Taiwan at Major Taipei Defence Show
Germany Weighs Excluding France from Key European Fighter Jet Programme
Cyberattack Disrupts Check-in and Boarding Systems at Major European Airports
Björn Borg Breaks Silence: Memoir Reveals Addiction, Shame and Cancer Battle
When Extremism Hijacks Idealism: How the Baader-Meinhof Gang Emerged and Fell
JWST Data Brings TRAPPIST-1e Closer to Earth-Like Habitability
Trump Orders $100,000 Fee on H-1B Visas and Launches ‘Gold Card’ Immigration Pathway
France’s Looming Budget Crisis and Political Fracture Raise Fears of Becoming Europe’s “Sick Man”
Three Russian MiG-31 Jets Breach Estonian Airspace in ‘Unprecedentedly Brazen’ NATO Incident
European manufacturers against ban on polluting cars: "The industry may collapse"
Turkish car manufacturer Togg Enters German Market with 5-Star Electric Sedan and SUV to Challenge European EV Brands
Christian Brueckner Released from German Prison after Serving Unrelated Sentence
World’s Longest Direct Flight China Eastern to Launch 29-Hour Shanghai–Buenos Aires Direct Flight via Auckland in December
New OpenAI Study Finds Majority of ChatGPT Use Is Personal, Not Professional
The conservative right spreads westward: a huge achievement for 'Alternative for Germany' in local elections
Pope Leo Warns of Societal Crisis Over Mega-CEO Pay, Citing Tesla’s Proposed Trillion-Dollar Package
Poland Green-Lights NATO Deployment in Response to Major Russian Drone Incursion
U.S. and China Agree on Framework to Shift TikTok to American Ownership
Le Pen Tightens the Pressure on Macron as France Edges Toward Political Breakdown
Czech Republic signs €1.34 billion contract for Leopard 2A8 main battle tanks with delivery from 2028
Penske Media Sues Google Over “AI Overviews,” Claiming It Uses Journalism Without Consent and Destroys Traffic
Indian Student Engineers Propose “Project REBIRTH” to Protect Aircraft from Crashes Using AI, Airbags and Smart Materials
One in Three Europeans Now Uses TikTok, According to the Chinese Tech Giant
Could AI Nursing Robots Help Healthcare Staffing Shortages?
NATO Deploys ‘Eastern Sentry’ After Russian Drones Violate Polish Airspace
The New Life of Novak Djokovic
German police raid AfD lawmaker’s offices in inquiry over Chinese payments
Volkswagen launches aggressive strategy to fend off Chinese challenge in Europe’s EV market
France Erupts in Mass ‘Block Everything’ Protests on New PM’s First Day
Poland Shoots Down Russian Drones in Airspace Violation During Ukraine Attack
Apple Introduces Ultra-Thin iPhone Air, Enhanced 17 Series and New Health-Focused Wearables
Macron Appoints Sébastien Lecornu as Prime Minister Amid Budget Crisis and Political Turmoil
Vatican hosts first Catholic LGBTQ pilgrimage
Apple Unveils iPhone 17 Series, iPhone Air, Apple Watch 11 and More at 'Awe Dropping' Event
France joins Eurozone’s ‘periphery’ as turmoil deepens, say investors
France Faces New Political Crisis, again, as Prime Minister Bayrou Pushed Out
Nayib Bukele Points Out Belgian Hypocrisy as Brussels Considers Sending Army into the Streets
France, at an Impasse, Heads Toward Another Government Collapse
×