At Liberty Fairs in Las Vegas, Designers Phillipa Price (left) and Smiley Stevens (right) took a different approach at their booth, choosing to show an art installation rather than a collection. The approach was a push back on the lock-step expectation that designers should crank out calendar-dictated seasonal collections whether or not they are feeling creatively inspired to do so. As well, the art project, which included three video projections backed by a rack of white industrial jumpsuits (see image on next page), reflected the designers’ weariness with nonstop social media inundation they believe cuts into creativity and creates sameness. “Before Instagram,” says Price, “you coudn’t see what designers were doing before they showed. Now it’s information overload. And we’ve having this exact discussion with so many people who feel the same.” No exact details on the next collection, but Price and Stevens said they were working on a fashion project with Vice in connection with its coverage in North Korea. See the installation on the next page.
