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The business of fashion.

These seemingly harmless words shatter my hope for everything I hold sacred. Maybe that sounds a tad dramatic. But, put in perspective, what if everything beautiful in the world was replaced by a cheaper version of itself? If all flowers were weeds, if all pies came in those little boxes from McDonald's, if all books were summarized, consolidated into a few sentences? Cutting corners in fashion is increasingly common. It's just so safe to make hoards of simple, strapless, princess seam dresses. So they are made. By the ton. Suffocating anything pleated, draped, shaped, or interesting on their way out.

I am starting to feel like every time I buy anything from a mass retailer I am eating the very soul of fashion and art. In an article I read in the NY Times it discussed the recently and shockingly fired employees Judy Collinson and Julie Gilhart, former merchandising manager and fashion director of Barney's department store. Why? They cost too much, cradled design too much, loved the beauty of fashion too much. Under their names Barney's went bankrupt in 1996. But, under their names Barney's sold Maison Martin Margiela. Barney's launched Thakoon in to the success he is today. Barney's was every fashionista's mecca.

Let me see if I understand this correctly. Let's create one of the world's most celebrated stores in the world. Then, to increase profit, let's just go ahead and fire the most brilliant of our employees who paved the road to the aforementioned success.

Business of fashion is just an oxymoron. I really do not believe you can have both. Smaller! Shorter! Less pieces, less colors, less seams, less trims! And there you have it! A mutant industry bearing no resemblance of it's parent. Business consumed fashion and now wears it's skin as a victory pelt.

So please carry on everyone. Break down doors on Black Friday and stuff your suitcases with $9.99 hoodies, then talk about how boring the mall is. How you always see the same shit. Well it's probably because you always buy the same shit. It's probably because we simply cannot understand that if we're constantly donating to good will, renting storage rooms, and making walk in closets a must have, then maybe, just maybe we have a little too much shit. The business of fashion wants you to have a whole lot of shit.

And if you need more convincing, if investing in a $500 designer dress rather than two dozen $25 ones simply isn't persuasive enough, let me remind you of when you turned 16. When you turned 16 and got your first retail job. When working an entire shift wouldn't cover the cost of dinner and a latte, let alone the gas to get there or anywhere. When people buy those $25 dresses at your store, you, the minimum wage associate gets maybe half a nickel of it. And they get the rest. And buy jets and condos and villas in France with it.

Convinced yet?

Another company who doesn't bore me to tear, yet, cross me fingers.

Nasty Gal.

I wonder if they care how bad that looks on your credit card bill?

They sell Black Milk though, so I forgive them.

All men are created equal...until they get dressed.

We all have our guilty pleasures.

Personally, I secretly adore putting ice cubes in my wine, Youtubing Miley Cyrus, and brushing my teeth in the shower. For some, excuse me- for many, shopping and fashion represent the ultimate guilty pleasure... so I need to ask: WHY? I feel no guilt in fashion at all. I mean, perhaps if the sum of digits on your credit card bill add up to more then you can count on your fingers and toes a-la-Isla Fisher in Confessions of a Shopaholic maybe a bit of a dilemma looms on the horizon, otherwise- shop, look, and lust away! Don't let your fashion habits keep you up at night, I guarantee your conscience has heavier things on it's plate.

I love fashion, I love fabric, I love design. I love the feeling of unworn clothes against my palms when I run them along stacks of folded sweaters in department stores. I love toying prices tags between my fingers and crumpling silk dresses in my fists. I love thinking about a single fiber pairing up with millions of other fibers to form a garment, a garment which will be worn and cherished, and made to flatter a figure. I think great design in any field elevates something-anything- to a higher, more elegant level, and fashion take us, people, the wearers, to our next level... when you look good, you feel good, where's the guilt in that?

So here's to NY Fashion Week and my favorite RTW Spring 2010 pieces... may you continue being guilt-free on the runway, and shamefully un-so at the after parties. Maybe I'll see you around sometime ♥

Erin Fetherson, by Erin Fetherson.

Proenza Schouler, by Lazaro Hernandez and Jack McCollough.

Thakoon, by Thakoon Panichgul.

L.A.M.B., by Gwen Stefani.

Diane von Furstenberg, by Diane von Furstenberg.

Malandrino, by Catherine Malandrino.

Marc Jacobs, by Marc Jacobs.

I cut just like a knife, but I [look] just like a dream- hellogoodbye.