Since being in my retirement I have been watching the fashion world from afar and coming to the sad conclusion that it has become an escalation of over-the-top disguises, a dressed up carnival of screamingly vulgar outfits. “Fashion” is now condensed in the half hour before the shows while all the wannabees parade around, wearing literally anything in the desperate hope to be noticed. I never was a fashion fan in the first place, especially despising the habit of calling artists what are merely artisans but it appears to have become in the last few years a tasteless exercise of mercantile encouragement, another tentacle of capitalism offering brainless role models for a whole generation of teenagers who would rather appear on the latest blog or on the red carpet of the party from hell than achieving excellence in any field.