"Fashion is not what it used to be; there's really not much fashion anymore," she says. "It's become really rather commercial, and everybody copies everybody else." Much of what she sees strikes her as "same old, same old," evidence that people are too scared to take real risks. And yet despite her malaise, she still intends to see Naeem Khan's latest collection and is looking forward to Calvin Klein's presentation, which she does indeed attend a few hours after our interview.
But overall the state of fashion depresses her, and not even its resident enfant terribles can stoke her interest: "The problem is when they try to do something different, they do something so insane, like an overcoat with three sleeves." She declines to name names.
"Clothes are made to be worn," she continues. "They can be very beautiful and artistic." But they aren't themselves art, she maintains; they're fashion. And they need to be chosen with care, a concept that few seem to grasp. "People are so inappropriate," she says. In fact, "'appropriate' is a word that seems to have left the fashion lexicon." It's not that she takes such offense at "lounge-y clothes," which have their time and place. But she can't fathom why some people think it's acceptable to wear them to dinner parties.
