Dress Code: A Class Act/E5S Fashion Week Primer

-I read a discussion on another blog awhile back about style bloggers using fashion week photos to pad their content. Critiquing runway collections is something I've been doing, in private for years, and on this blog for almost two years. I don't do it to pad my content, obviously I'm not going to attract readers by posting images they can see over at GQ. So the content is the words and the ideas that I provide. Our readership has consistently grown over the past two years, but it has grown significantly in recent months thanks to the help of a growing community of interconnected style bloggers. Many of the people who regularly read Class Act now probably weren't reading the last time I posted fashion week images, so for our readers I felt I'd just preface my posting: I don't pretend to be any sort of fashion expert, I just find looks in shows that appeal to me for one reason or another and I try to articulate why they appeal to me. American sartorialists have, as of late, fallen out of love with the big houses, and European fashion in general. Most of you are well aware of the trend toward Americana, Japanese interpretations of Americana, and the general growing emphasis on quality, sourcing and workmanship. While I have an appreciation for these things, returning readers know that I've been reluctant to join full-on in the 'workwear etc.'  fervor. As someone who grew up reading GQ aspiring to wear Gucci suits (not Woolrich Woolen Mills hunting jackets or Filson mackinaws) fashion shows are still exciting for me. I'm always interested in how I might creatively prepare for the coming season.
-So that said, I will continue for as long as this blog exists to comment on fashion week collections. I only post looks that I like, I'm never really looking to critique things I don't like: My job is to find what appeals to me, not second-guess what appeals to the particular designer. Doing this is mainly for me. It's to try to find inspiration in new collections, not just about which new things I'd like to buy, but about how I could use the things I already own and love in a new way. With so much emphasis on history in American style right now, it's interesting that people are turning their backs on the Italian and British fashion houses that are steeped in so much seminal menswear history. Referencing and recreating history is always important in fashion, but we also need the visionaries to imagine how style might resonate in the future — which is an idea that I think is lamentably absent in the current American scene.