Last week, Ashley Olsen, the Washington Post‘s Robin Givhan, and Isaac Mizrahi gathered to chat with Glamour‘s Cindi Leive about the “Future of Fashion.”  Judging from the discussion, the atmosphere was very casual and relaxed, more like a talk show setting. As a whole, the discussion was pretty insightful, and the selection of guests was diverse. Here are a few tidbits:

On what fashion magazines are doing wrong:

Isaac Mizrahi: “They’re too obsessed with movie stars. I like models, too.”

On receiving design criticism:

Ashley Olsen: “I don’t pay attention at all. I don’t go on the Internet, I don’t read magazines at all.”

On the the whirlwind fashion cycle:

Ashley Olsen: “The Row currently has three [store] deliveries a year, we want to add two more. I struggle with how many deliveries to make for Elizabeth and James to stay on trend.”

Isaac Mizrahi: ”Your store is like a produce department. You always want to keep fresh, beautiful produce in it. I don’t think Fall, Spring anymore, just twelve months a year.”

On celebrity designers:

Ashley Olsen: “A lot of celebrities get involved because they get a licensing partner, want to slap their name on clothes, and it will add to their brand. And for us, it was totally different. That wasn’t my point. For me, when I look at it as a celebrity brand, it’s almost silly to me, because I’m not coming at it from a celebrity standpoint [since she got out of acting at 18].”

On runway diversity:

Isaac Mizrahi: ”Honestly, I’ve actually booked girls [for runway] that weren’t obese, they were real girls. Like gorgeous anatomy. And one was a stripper. And you could feel the energy in the room just go down. Closed the books. Pens went down. They were angry. I could feel the anger. And I never did it again, because I thought ‘Why bother?’ It takes a lot to rile women. It takes like actual breasts. Someone with implants, they’re fine. Yes, you’re right. Fashion advertisements are hateful. Hateful. Yeah, but they wouldn’t do it unless it worked, right? It works.”

So the question of the night remained, what is the future of fashion? ”It’s going to be more democratic,” Givhan said.

“It’s going to be less obvious and less visual. More about fetishes. More fetishistic!” Mizrahi exclaimed.

Olsen responded with perhaps the most promising words. ”It’s going to be more exciting. And more fun.”

Fun is definitely on the agenda. What do you think?

[source]