The Most Overrated Designers...

[Salvatore]

I read Armani and I was in shock! You deserved to be attacked by bottles of Si fragrances for that ahahaha!


Tbh anybody who says that Armani is overrated makes it automatic for me to dismiss any type of opinion they may have on fashion lol.

Hahahaha I was YOUNG ! That was nearly 18 years ago ! I am 37 now and have matured in terms of tastes and style. At that time, my panthéon of those alive was Tom, Karl, Nicolas, John, and Donatella because they gave me excitement ! I think all opinions are valid though and it just goes to show how people evolve.

 

[youthinasia]

Can I start naming some new ones?
Kiko Kostadinov

 

[Creative]

I am curious about who were the best rated designers back then (not overrated nor underrated). I am old enough to know, but the internet culture was young back then and all I remember was McQueen, Galliano, and Gaultier. Was it Tom Ford for Gucci, Phoebe for Chloé, Margiela, Lang, Miu Miu? Who were they? I want to know and would appreciate if an OG fashion follower from that time could tell me, because I love this time in fashion (and music).

I was there at the time haha. Everybody loved Raf Simons for Jil Sander, Galliano (before 2009), everybody was crazy about Alber Elbaz, Pilati was considered super cool (before 2009) as well… Nicolas Ghesquière had his following (I was among them), people were crazy about KL (not because of the quality of the shows themselves, even if some of them were wonderful sometimes), but because he became huuuuuge. It was such a cool moment with all the documentaries and all the interviews he did. Prada was quite loved also and taken very seriously (even if she always had detractors). The Prada show was a huge “event” in 2006/2009. MJ was also huge at the time and he had a very strong following, but I think he was never a “favourite” of anybody. I think Marc’s case is very interesting. I’d love to meet him.

Phoebe Philo was not really considered by the fashion people. I didn’t even like her at the time. It was just for “cute”’girls imo. A commercial success but no one saw in her a fashion mastermind I think.

And people thought the American designers were terrible: Altuzarra, Wang and all of the Wintour protégés.

 

[Creative]

For me a very overrated designer in terms of “fashion quality” is Jacquemus.

The thing is that he knew how to create a very clear and specific brand image, and he has his own world like the big ones (Tom Ford), but I do think he’s been very lucky and his success is somehow unexplainable for me.

 

[Nimsay]

So ^ agrees phoebes Chloe was nothing but cute bags… they melted down when I said that.

 

[Lola701]

Hahahaha I was YOUNG ! That was nearly 18 years ago ! I am 37 now and have matured in terms of tastes and style. At that time, my panthéon of those alive was Tom, Karl, Nicolas, John, and Donatella because they gave me excitement ! I think all opinions are valid though and it just goes to show how people evolve.

Ahahaha!
But you know I agree about all the opinions are valid.
I think the overrated discussion is a bit of a weird question. Why I say it? Because somehow I can distance my personal taste from it.
I was never a fan of Westwood but she is so important for British Fashion that I couldn’t say that she is overrated.

For me, the contribution of a designer in culture, in the industry is more relevant than what her/his work means at the moment.

Phoebe Philo and Martin Margiela and perfect and interesting cases. Phoebe’s Chloé was really « Of the moment ». She captured a moment in time and met pop culture. But let’s be honest, her work didn’t moved the needle of the industry or of fashion at large at that time. But her work at Celine changed the game and her status. She cannot be overrated for me. And we can still see the influence of her work today.

Martin Margiela was a niche, he was a designer’s designer and really, he was appreciated by his peers and celebrated by the industry. He had a moderate success. The amazing and surprising trajectory of his heritage placed him up high with the greatest and his influence post-retirement is huge!

The NYFW crowd Anna Wintour pushed in the late 00’s and that was celebrated for mediocrity (despite good branding) was overrated.

While I love his work in menswear, respect his vision and consider him already as a legend, Hedi Slimane is one talent I would somehow always judge as overrated (and that despite having his clothes in my wardrobe).

I think the phenomenon that is the most prevalent in fashion is talents being overlooked…Because they don’t fit the codes, they don’t have the « card ». I think Roberto Cavalli was misjudged. I think the Caten Brothers are too. And in a way for them, it has stopped their elevation in terms of design.
I think Pierre Cardin is another case. He wasn’t Givenchy or YSL. Amazing designer but overlooked.

I think in the Old School french fashion scene, a lot of designers, who were risk-takers, were overlooked compared to those who were maybe more bourgeois, more conventional. I think of someone like Ungaro.

Even someone like Karl. His work for Chloe and Fendi and a lot of those brands was Amazing. But he only recognized for who he was once he got the validation of Haute Couture at Chanel.

 

[GoldenPetals]

Im happy I'm not the only one who thinks Kors and Jacobs are over rated... they both suck.
Prada is over rated.
Armani is over rated.
McQueen is FAR too over rated. Everyones in love with him.
Demeulemeester is over rated too.

I can't believe I had the nerve to post this 18 years ago🤦‍♂️

Kors and Jacobs definitely overrated.
Miuccia not overrated, but she needs to retire.

McQueen is a shocker to me. I love his work from START TO FINISH. I feel similarly about Demeulemeester too.

I wanna add Karl Lagerfeld.

 

[GoldenPetals]

This thread is such a blast from the past. tFS used to be so f*cking ruthless lol

 

[Kanzai]

I see no Gaultier, Lacroix, Yohji, Azzedine, Martin 😄

 

[gallianostan]

I have never gotten the hype about Lagerfeld, even if he does good pieces, especially for haute couture. He is talented, but sometimes he is hailed next to Coco herself, and I think that goes a little bit too far. Lagerfeld can be very tacky in his work.

idk where you are whitelinen but you spilled!

 

[gallianostan]

no Lacroix, Yohji

because they're legends and deserve their flowers!

 

[GoldenPetals]

I don't want to see Lacroix' name ANYWHERE near this thread.

I still have some of his post-fashion stationery from 2009 somewhere back home.

 

[gallianostan]

hot take: gaultier absolutely deserves to be in this thread, for at least the last fifteen or so years of his career

 

[Kanzai]

^ But he is lovely, so no.

 

[Lola701]

I see no Gaultier, Lacroix, Yohji, Azzedine, Martin 😄

Azzedine was very low key at the time. His work was quite difficult to access for anyone who wasn’t part of the industry.
At the time, Gaultier was in the era where he solidified his status.
Lacroix has people’s heart because we all love an underdog who don’t have a commercial success.
And Yohji…Japanese designers always got a pass. Life is unfair but we love them and they can get away with a lot of things anyway.

I have to say that from the moment I’ve worked in fashion to these days, hearing critics about Rei, Yohji, Martin or Azzedine is something that I have found rarely, if ever.

Martin, when people wanted to criticize him, they usually said « It’s Renzo Rosso’s fault ». Lol

 

[NakedAndAfraid]

I never got Riccardo Tisci. There has to be something good there for all the success he has had, but I never got past the youthful-edgy-hot topic visuals/styling.

 

[Salvatore]

This thread is such a blast from the past. tFS used to be so f*cking ruthless lol

It was the golden era of TFS hahaha ! I learned so much about fashion from this site while having so much fun. There's a reason I've been here for the last 20 years of my life. It's definitely been more tame and less unhinged in the recent years, but it seems things are loosening back up !

 

[Kanzai]

I never got Riccardo Tisci. There has to be something good there for all the success he has had, but I never got past the youthful-edgy-hot topic visuals/styling.

I think differently, in the last 10 yrs, those hyped streetswear designers often consider Raf their God-father while most of what they created, all of them are more or less born of Tisci first.

In comparison, Demna in his heyday at Balenciaga/Vetements couldn't even touch Givenchy Tisci's menswear

 

[MulletProof]

I can't believe I had the nerve to post this 18 years ago🤦‍♂️

I feel like I had already read you were Squizree but seeing this again makes no sense hahah, you were so wild back then! bring him back! (but don't get banned 🙏).

Old account is actually a good example of how 'overrated' works: you see people worshipping something like they're members of an evangelical organization and leaving 0 room for criticism (you signed up to tFS in the days when every designer was trashed but Demeulemeester remained untouchable - because frankly, unless you were trolling, there were hardly any weak points one could point out!), and the fandom really taints objectivity and it even grosses you out sometimes. It's only when it dies down when sometimes you realise the work of the designer wasn't as bad or that it was actually great! it's just hard to appreciate through all the noise. This happened to me with Galliano, I used to looove his work when I was still a kid, I was mind-blown when I'd see the coverage of his Dior shows in my grandma's magazines and could stare at it for hours, but somewhere between growing up, the hype, his increasingly obnoxious behavior too, and the way guys in particular would seriously go into some kind of trance gradually turned me off and there was a point when just reading the name made me want to roll my eyes and immediately think 'overrated trash'. It's gotten better lol, but same effect from Hedi, ever been approached by a Jehovah's Witness? that's how the technical conversations around his work feel ('yes it's a t-shirt covered in rainbow sequins and plaid patches with a giant 'HOT STUFF' slogan across the chest.... but the intrinsically celestial technical prowess displayed in each stitch and the undebatable superiority of his vision that everyone envies and could only dream of, is what makes this t-shirt something that, to reject, is to feel jealousy'... 😑).

@NakedAndAfraid it all started when he had his obscure label back in the day.. he was one of the most exciting independent designers who seemed to almost reject exposure (ironically enough!), so getting Givenchy and getting it right for the first few years (because that house was a dumpster fire!) really skyrocketed expectations. His downfall imo, was finding out exposure feels good, followed by finding out exhibitionism feels really good, followed by getting photographed shirtless, then naked lol.. daytime job became an afterthought.

 

[tourbillions]

although its a commercial success, hedi at celine is quite overrated. He made luxury zara a fantasy and somehow there was demand for it and it took off. Fashionwise he isnt contributing anything new, just well made basics for people who has no access to Chanel RTW.