Runway Fashion: who actually wears it?

I understand completely where you’re coming from with this collection…and yes Lady Gaga is the only person i could think of, who could get away with this extreme look.
Some designers do get a bit carried away with their designs and do often use the ‘art excuse’. I say, makes clothes we’d actually wear of display them at an arts exhibition; simple really.

You make a good point Shabana, especially when talking about coutures lesser end of the scale and how it is somewhat fed into the public wallet rather than the more artistic end of the scale.

Yet it is important to allow room for understanding that artists such as Lady GaGa are not merely dressing this way for the sake of doing so. There is both a deeper and more indepth need to express ones self through the use of “fashionable art”. We saw this with club kids, Michael Alig and James St James, during the late 80’s in New York City. Not forgetting the inspiration that strung ferosciously from Andy Warhols revolution. GaGa has openly said in many interviews that she will never be seen in a simple dress or t-shirt purely on the basis that dressing in such a conservative way is not who she is.
Couture in a sense is not there to simply be “commercially plausible” as you’ve put it. Many people question the point in couture and this is something that sadly, for me, shows a slight lack in understanding. Couture is all about exploring the use of materials in a way that may not be conventional. Yet these unconventional pieces eventually trickle down onto the highstreet where you, and many others, buy the clothing, not aware that the “commercially plausible” is actually inspired by the higher, more adverturous end of the market.

Hi Josh. Thank you for voicing your opinion. I completely understand what you are saying – that fashion, for many like Lady Gaga is beyond an art form, but is rather an identity through what one chooses to wear. I know that even a simple t-shirt in Primark will have been produced as a product of a “higher, more adventurous” end of fashion. However, my point here is specifically about the EXACT garments that are shown on the runways. Why do most of these never make it into our wardrobes? Why do designers show a range of fashion which is then picked a part, and then only what is considered to be worthy of the public, goes on to be sold in the shops. By this I mean, why are none of the clothes that Gaga wears readily available, in the form that she wears them, for the public to buy? I understand that that’s her individual style, if that’s the case then why use fashion to inspire others when you’re not actually sharing it with people. I don’t think that I lack understanding of the fashion world – I think we have two very different perceptions of it, and that’s what fashions all about!!