Who's Next in Fashion? No One

Whos Next in Fashion No One
There is an exquisite irony to the idea that the 1980s are being revisited as the latest fashion inspiration.

For that giddy, glitzy fashion era was labeled - first with enthusiasm and later with distaste - "the designer decade."

It did, indeed, give birth to a roster of names that are now imprinted on the public consciousness.

Jean Paul Gaultier, who celebrates 30 fashion years during this Paris season, came to fame and glory in the 1980s.

The same is true for Ralph Lauren and Calvin Klein in the United States, and for an A to Z of Italian designers from Armani to Versace.

The decade also spawned the "alternative" designers, especially the Japanese and later the Belgians.

Almost everything that happened in the 1990s grew from roots in the flamboyant '80s.

So, who's next? Make that "Who's Next?" - the name of an ongoing project in Italy to find new talent.

That search is being replicated across the world from Fashion Fringe in London to the "You're In! You're Out!" of "Project Runway," the U.S. reality TV show.

The answer to that burning question for the fashion world is this: No one.

The current state of the industry and a cultural state of mind makes it virtually impossible for any new designer to brand-build in the way that the 1980s seedlings flowered into mighty trees.