David Koma - Resort 2021

(Images from David Koma.  All rights. Used in promotion of the designer.)

Before COVID-19 changed everything, there was, in my opinion already social anxiety at large, regardless.  In all aspects, particularly in fashion, as looks from the last seasons appeared strained in delivering what would be an expectation of the next trend.  The industry on a whole showed signs of exhaustion, with a festering turmoil beneath it all.  Looking to the past in a desperate hope to draw inspiration.  Which is fine, except it can also release the hungry ghosts and metaphorically, they are constantly being disturbed.  We learn and at times admire the past, but that, in someways, should be the extent of it, to relive in some simulacrum may offer only frustration.  The trends that occurred at the tail end of 2019 when the virus had, according to reports, already arrived in Europe, more so Italy, were the lingerie out wear styles mixed with hedonist appeal of late 1970s and early 1980s.  A romanticism of what might seem as a era of freedom, yet some of the confusion with current markets, whilst looking at the last three decades is the mix up of the 80's and 1990s.  They are by definition, dissimilar points in time.  The beginning of the 90's heralded in dance parties and a feigned entrepreneurism thereafter, all set within the dawn of cellphones and digital relay loops.  The first part of 80's lived under the shadow of nuclear annihilation within the height of the cold war - infidelity and hedonism were the call cards, ala discos and nightclubs like Studio 54 that all ended in a bang.  As the first major contagion, which was AIDS, impacting on so many throughout the decades that followed. 

David Koma for his Resort 2021 collection has fused the elements of three decades of styles into a collated stylization, that keeps in line with 2020 hopes of a new found hedonism emerging.  Yet its trend may only now be a nostalgic reflection while the lock downs could come and go intermediately in response to outbreaks flaring up from time to time.  This pathogen that has hit the world like a freight train in less than six months infecting millions of people globally and killing over 500,000 with or without the deadly flu season used as a comparison.

Koma's late 70's sexy miniskirts and cocktail dresses on show for his collection are more of a showpiece than a practicality as this new virus, has crushed the nightclub scenes and/or the more intimate cocktail bar settings.  Until we all have testing 'cards' of being COVID-19 free, this may occur at some-point via widespread antibody testing, the thoughts of reliving a sweet spot between 70's and 80's may only be, as mentioned, a romanticized fantasy.   But, so be it.  Isolation could be the normality, as hyper consumer markets take a break and feverish interactions begin to slow down.  Would it be all that bad?

Koma has poured on the sex appeal, with his lookbook setting, as a single model stands alone in the middle of a small lake within a natural setting.  Serene and sombre at the same time, whilst displaying fine tailored styles, with the fetish appeal of latex, corsets and asymmetrical cuts.  Adding to a clever fusion of 90's aspects yet holding true to its 80's styles.