Our current economic climate, in addition to plenty of other apocalyptic governmental issues like an insanely rushed schedule to pass Obamacare and green party warnings of environmental Armageddon (and plenty of other doomsday situations) have begun to take their toll on fashion. It’s well documented that fashion is a gauge of the financial state of affairs—the 1920s were “The Roaring Twenties” because of economic boom post-WWI, while skirt hemlines have risen in commensurate with Dow Jones volumes. But as we enter into a greater recession than ever (ever!) before, it looks like American fashion is beginning to take on a whole new level of damning social climate parallelism.

Rewind to the earlier 2000s, when the market was doing much better and taxes were, ahem, stabilized, no one knew what a “stimulus package” was, much less a “second stimulus package,” and people were allowed to drive their Hummers without judgment. Asians styles were all the rage: mandarin collars were being passed off down the runway in unprecedented numbers (see Dior fashion show from 2007), Louis Vuitton had begun using more Asian models and even added the exotic Calla lily to his signature monogram handbags, and chintz, satin embossed fabrics were everywhere. The compendium of Asian empires is still holding strong today: most markets (that is, the capitalist ones) are holding.

Now let’s take a look at today’s fashions. With GDP dropping lower than ever since records of GDP were taken, and the dollar losing its once almighty value, designers are finding inspiration from other sources. There are gladiator sandals aplenty, native and tribal designs that are more warrior than pampered consumer, and now the Egyptian look is coming back onto the scene, with Christian Siriano finding inspiration from the country’s landscape for his Winter 2009 collection. Problematically, there seems to be one uniting link between Greek, Incan (and other South American tribes), and Egyptian cultures: they were all once at the zenith of the world’s power scope, only to come crashing down. It’s interesting that kohl-rimmed eyes, which have always been so popular for winter months, exploded onto the scene in a surreal juxtaposition with Spring’s usual florals. Louis Vuitton has ditched its standard typefont for a more chaotic style. Togas and gladiator shoes had a slow start in 2002, when they first stepped onto the scene, but have only recently overflowed into mass production discount stores. Could we be sensing the setting sun on our once seemingly limitless hegemony?

Of course these fashions are worn all around the world, and not just the US. But with clothing being cheapest to buy in the US, designers know derivative versions of their runway styles will trickle into places like Forever 21 and H&M. It’s certainly something to think about. To add to your sartorial musings, check out this excerpt from W.B. Yeats’ “The Circus Animal’s Desertion,” which focuses on the poet’s inability to gain inspiration. It was one of the last poems he wrote before his death after a career of poetry made notable because of its concerns with the fall of the Irish empire, as well as other institutions (see “The Second Coming” and “Sailing to Byzantium,” from which “No Country for Old Men” draws its title). “The Circus Animal’s Desertion” is particularly interesting in this context as a high-end designer denim company, Rag and Bone, decided to pull its moniker from this arcane bit of literature (emphasis added):
A mound of refuse or the sweepings of a street,
Old kettles, old bottles, and a broken can,
Old iron, old bones, old rags, that raving slut
Who keeps the till. Now that my ladder’s gone,
I must lie down where all the ladders start
In the foul rag and bone shop of the heart.