Charm of Crisis F ashion

The expression, middle-aged crisis (in America also sometimes called male menopause — Ed.), is now in vogue. This psychological, or, rather, psychoanalytical, term means that a man, having achieved a certain material, social, and, finally, marital status by the age of 30- 35, suddenly realizes that there is no further way to go and that his fast zoom was only but running in circles. Awareness of this can either beat down or encourage the victim to start off in a new direction.

This is precisely what happened to the well-known fashion designer Serhiy Byzov. His new collection, Spring – Summer 2002, exhibited at the Egoist Club on Mr. Byzov’s thirty-third birthday is quite an intriguing example of crisis fashion vogue. The collection, which includes not only female but also, for the first time, male garments, is simple and rather modest, striking the viewer not so much with the quantity and variety of form (narrow and wide trousers, classical jackets, asymmetrical and long-pleated skirts) as with its fabrics and colors. Yet, simplicity is a relative point in this case. Although the characters Mr. Byzov prefers to dress today are somewhat ambivalent, they are rethinking some values, clearly preferring spiritual pleasures to material benefits. But still one just cannot go around in rags. Thus casual jackets modestly trimmed with mint and chinchilla fur are just the thing along with very thin chamois, wool, deliberately coarse leather items, and soft knits.