NY & Fashion 2024

While watching the stunning new production of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s “Sunset Blvd.” I couldn’t help but wander back to the afternoon I spent walking Madison Avenue. From about East 50^th up to around East 90^th, there are clothing stores from almost every brand you’ve heard of and many you haven’t. I was trying to make sense of the direction of fashion. I wrote a few notes in my book, but nothing coalesced, until the show.

If you are familiar with the Billy Wilder movie starring Gloria Swanson, you probably remember Swanson’s magnetic film performance, but you’ll also recall the wonderful 50s style of Joe Gillis and the young Hollywood wannabees countered by the bygone palatial style and elegance of the 20s era Norma Desmond mansion. If you are old like me and you have seen the 1990s original theatrical production, it was famous for having a swimming pool on stage to service the climactic end. To understand the plot a viewer needed to be immersed in the ambience, right? But what if that is not necessary?

In a neck-twisting reversal, the new production forgoes almost all the outward decadence, drapes the actors in simple black and white, strips the set of everything except the most basic necessities and even inserts cultural anachronisms. The result was as mesmerizing a show as I’ve ever seen. The story was crystal clear because rather than ogling the surroundings, you were instead concentrating on the story, fine lyrics and award winning performances. It is a musical I won’t soon forget.

Like the show, it is no secret that daily-use clothing is becoming increasingly casual. The complex story of life can and does however continue. There was no secret held by outwardly elegant clothing. They did not/do not define the human inside.

As I noted points about fashion, it is clear that the basic units of clothing have stabilized into a uniform of sorts, jeans, cords, pullovers, vests and slightly oversized shoes/boots. The colors acceptable to men are however expanding beyond grey and black. I see more rich greens, burgundy, gold and different blues in menswear. Men are being given a wider berth with accessories. Glasses and sunglasses are becoming more fanciful. (Hey, the conservative Governor of Ohio has been wearing blue glasses for years!) There is more jewelry, bolder belts and funky swimwear available to men today. Women continue to have plenty of options to dress up or down. The extent to which they use that advantage, still remains in question. That power appears to be slimming almost daily.

So how does this relate to interiors?

We see the rise of a softer contemporary percolating right now. Consumers don’t want those stark hard edges, instead they are seeking softer lines, added radiuses and the warmer tones of brass in place of chrome. While still popular, I can see the end of Black on the horizon, it being too stark, too invasive for this new direction. The traditional side of the aesthetic world is seeing increased ornamentation, even the partial return of Victorian design is a muted version. None of this is staid or stifling, however. All of it feels like a home dressed in blue jeans and a cozy, overstretched sweater.

Nothing in the home defines casual more than the return of beige. Beige is again the center of the world. It dominates every showroom I visited over three days. With metal accessories now firmly entrenched in brass/gold, this is a trend that has legs. I really wouldn’t expect to see a shift any time prior to 2040. Brass and beige are THAT dominant a force. If you question this, check out the historical perseverance of this duo from the 1970s to the end of the millennium.

We are not a nation that will go back to the era of Nick and Nora Charles, a proper 5:1 gin martini and dressing for dinner, but the cyclical nature of design and style will drive change. That change will be mixed with the cultural reality of the time, including fashion…as it always has.