exaggerated shoulders

It's official- the big shoulders of the 80s are back. But I'm not exactly sure that's a good thing. Reading WSJ correspondent Christina Binkley's report from milan got me thinking with a more skeptical eye of all the 80's styles we've been seeing. She spoke of 80's fatigue, and predicted that the collections that were overly reliant on the decade would look entirely out of date within a year, maybe two.

I understand that designers are trying to get consumers to open up their pocketbooks. It seems like you can do that either by one of two ways- a)designing more commercial, basic pieces that appeal to the consumer as an investment, or b) creating exciting, "i gotta have it" pieces that consumers will pay for regardless of their bank statements.

The second method certainly worked for some- balmain's outrageously expensive clothes were flying off the shelves, their $2,165 dollar jeans were quickly sold out.

But I feel like too many designers tried to generate the "i gotta have it" effect by too closly immitating balmain's 80s inspired collection. While balmain has no patent to the exaggerated shoulders these over the top, blown-up shoulders were on practically every runway and ended up feeling omnepresent, stale, and worst of all gimmicky.

You want to inspire us to ignore our sinking portfolio's and spend like it's 2007? Give us something fresh, new and inspired- not something that we've already seen last parade down the runway.