Just after a conversation on the slowness of July/August comes a Spring 09 show to our mailbox. Well hello there, St. John. No, you are not as content-friendly as Givenchy nor Yves Saint Laurent but you're fashion, new fashion, and at a time when Fall deliveries are trickling in at a snails pace and Spring shows are weeks away. Why, thank you St. John and how clever, we must say.

St. John is a global luxury brand started from the ground-up, back in the sixties. They are based in California and known for their impeccable quality and chic, albeit conservative, clothing. Shown left is a shot from their Fall 08 ad campaign which has absolutely nothing to do with their Spring 09 show except that we liked both and didn't want to split it into two posts (teehee). The Fall 08 shot shows just how clean and sharp is the St. John aesthetic and just how beautiful is Central Park in the Fall. As for Spring 09, the company focused on the knitwear that gained them notoriety in the first place with subtle nods in other places, to sportswear.

It's been said that this season's Missoni collection was inspired by 'The Women', a 1939 film about New York socialites. The film, a boyfriend's Bryant Park nightmare, is cast entirely of women who manipulate and gossip within fancy New York apartments. As for the film's wardrobe, the outfits are sophisticated and conservative, what one should expect from the relative time period and economic vantage point. They are indeed striking but the film so clearly has a greater message to send. Namely, one that articulates the intricacies of social and economic power from a domestic perspective. What's interesting is how Style.com's Sarah Mower, without reference to the inspiration, attributes Missoni's 'grown up note' to a cognizance that the consistent luxury consumer (one who, perhaps, doesn't even have Levi's in her closet) is least likely to be effected by a recession. The question is, which came first? A cinematic inspiration that happens to call for a more conservative, high-end aesthetic, or the straight-up strategy to appeal to the consumer most stable in a time of economic hardship?

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