For Fall/Winter '09 New York fashion week, FADER style assistant Erin Hansen will chronicle everything in a uniform of flannel. Will anyone really give a damn if she wears flannel for a week straight? Who knows? Stay tuned for the fascinating fashionista reactions.
In the office the other day my co-worker asked me how much longer I had to go with my column. With a slight cringe I told him the last day was Thursday, as that was a week's worth of flannel-wearing. While the cringing was minimal — as wearing flannel for a week straight has been mostly effortless — I have to say that today I am rather happy to be back to my normal wears. The problem was not the fabric or pattern of the flannels themselves, it was more of an issue of being constricted to something, a flashback to my days working at a grocery store coffee bar where everyday involved a logo'd polo shirt. Besides every day that I wore flannel for this last week, there were at least one or two people in the office who'd awakened that morning and thoughtlessly put on their trusty flannel as well. This being the case, reactions to a week's worth of flannel-wearing from any one in this office would obviously be underwhelming.
The most interesting result of this project has not been what I expected — a variety of appalled, amused or enthusiastic reactions — it's been the bizarre parallels between this week's presentations and flannel-wearing culture. It's mostly fitting that my fashion week was bookended by Catherine Holstein's gothy grunge looks and Erin Wasson for RVCA's early-Nineties grunge trash looks. It's Erin Wasson's hardness that leads you to believe she's not just a model but this tomboy LES princess with a craving for Pabst and skateboarding. Isn't this what every boy has always wanted? A girl he can share his flannel with but would never touch his skateboard because she probably has her own. Well, if she "gets it" (and I think she does) then she made the woman's counterpart collection to a daily flannel wearer's. Sexy little black dresses, tromping boots, ripped jeans and loose cotton shirts graced the bodies of messy haired models impersonating Wasson-like facial mannerisms. The collection had me thinking, What a perfect look to ween myself off flannel, and Thursday's outfit was inspired by that same Wassonian essence.