ATB - Foo and Foo FW23

Everything was beautiful at the ballet, I was happy...at the ballet

Writing this immediately after the show so I actually remember it. That's not (really) shade at all, the models were all running so we did not see any of the clothes. At all. This is what I was thinking the entire time.

Shout out First View for the pics - everyone was moving so fast that I couldn't take any photos. Let's get into the motifs of the collection + specific looks:

Studs/buttons

We had this ignorant-style anchor made out of these target-looking studs, and then this pink jersey dress with studs that look like the stud work Lola Dement-Meyers did for Lucky Jewel last season...see below.

Some things that are well constructed

This ruched jacked is interesting, love the return of the double zip that we've been seeing lately. This double-layered poplin top-cape joint is great too, I love the use of the buttons. Buttons were a thing for this collection, as we can see with this coat, I love this coat so much, both the construction as well as the buttons. Absolutely had to include the detail photo because this particular model was so cunt coming down that runway. Cuntiest fast walk.

Logos

I really wish the logos weren't just screen printed (painted?) on the knits...the fisherman pullover with the front kangaroo pocket is cool but also very annoying. I like the weird ruching on the tee pulling inwards toward the logo, that's cool. Then we have a basic printed wife beater and really weird stripy moment. This model is absolutely gorgeous and I think we simply must ask ourselves: why are brands continuously filtering Meg Superstar Princess' entire look into what a makeup artist would label a "super smoky, unpolished dark eye" without at least inviting her to shows or even acknowledging her existence, let alone influence? Free shit for Meg at least, man.

Canadian Tuxedos

I really hate a Canadian tuxedo that's like both sold as one, and styled as one? I feel like if you're wearing a Canadian tuxedo it has to be a really personal choice made out of clothes you stole from the coat room at a party and your old jeans, or something of the like. Both the dark chambray and the washed denim for these respective looks make me upset, the silhouettes do nothing, the most interesting details are the weird detached hood for the first look and the sheer amount of carabiners on the second look.

Things that made me sad

Yeah none of these looks sparked joy...the pink is a great color but that sweatsuit thing is not okay, neither is the Foo and Foo textile they made. Yeah, and then the mustard hoodie-under-work jacket with the return of the carabiner jeans, that work belt-skirt with matching bolero also in mustard, I quite liked the silhouette of the bolero. Then the bare chest hoodie, like I get what is happening here, all of these pieces will sell. We will see Olivia Rodrigo in this. Tana Mongeau. Bella Hadid most likely wearing the beaters in a very skinny way. I guess I look at these and feel joyless just because I am personally very done with brands focused on an idea of representing youth, when in actuality, they are creating a standard of monotonous neon colored sweatpants and logos and jingly bits on jeans. Just because it's not my taste doesn't make it worthless, but definitely this brand is not for me.

All in all

Traditionally, fashion is all about the garments, and fashion week (apart from it's inception as an industry event) is about how something as quotidian and "necessary" as clothing can manifest into everything but - pure extravagance, adornment, fantasy, impracticality, the list goes on. Contemporarily, fashion has become harder to pin down, instead elevating a sense of general atmosphere as an umbrella for all that extravagance that historically invented the runway itself. And this is not necessarily a bad thing! While I advocate for a general consciousness toward the actual fashion that this "atmosphere" claims to represent in the industry today, aka the clothes, I refuse to adopt a trad-only black and white mentality toward fashion. Yeah, the history of Balenciaga's salons in the 19th century is really awesome, but because I love history, I have to acknowledge that a lot of it happened between then and now: Ted Kaczyinski, the iPhone, the invention of baby clothes, Sonic Youth! This is why I cannot hate Foo and Foo, because it does not have the legacy of couture behind it, it has kids, it has the internet, and it has Elizabeth Hilfiger (yeah, as in Tommy) at the creative helm, making all of this happen in our post-post-post world.

There are some brands that are purely about atmosphere - Foo and Foo is that brand. It's not so much about the clothing as it is about the look, and as much as I personally do not care about the look, that doesn't automatically invalidate the brand. The show was at the Paradise Club in the iconic Times Square hotel The Edition, complete with color blinding red light and also a disco ball. The score was what I could only describe as a Basement-version of Poland by Lil Yachty. The models, again, were hauling fucking truck like the Rob Cantor Shia LaBeouf video I mentioned earlier. Do we know exactly who this collection is for? No - but we know that they're young, either queer or queer queerbaiting, a bit hostile, very shallow, and love carabiners. We could see them at Basement, or Nowadays, maybe the deep ones at Sugar Hill, everyone else at Elsewhere making fun of how normie the crowd is. We see them in logos, specifically the Foo and Foo logo. And that is the point for brands like this - to sell. We cannot discount brands that are for kids who go to parties, whoever that kid is, whatever party that is. That's the atmosphere, a vague hardcore youth with a logo, and it's fun. It does what it's supposed to to: attract influencers and investors, bring everyone to a party, by creating a sellable feeling. For that I applaud the brand with no exception.