“"In many industries, delicate creative souls are bullied by corporate suits and unimaginative bean counters. Television viewers read about how some philistine in the corner office wants to drain the creative tension out of a new series in hopes that pablum will appeal to a broader audience. Critically praised sitcoms are canceled. Other shows barely get an opportunity to find an audience before they are killed off. Musicians talk about fighting to retain their unique voice and reisting the pressure to kowtow to prevailing trends. And filmmakers regularly tell tales of mortgaging thier homes and racking up credit card debt just so they don't have to deal with the constraints of a big studio. Not in high end fashion. Once a designer manages to lasso a financial backer with deep pockets - certainly no easy feat - the guys in the suits mostly keep quiet. Investors tend to be enamored of the glamorous aura that surrounds fashion. They equate eccentricity with genius. They mistake bad design with esoteric intellectualism. And they confuse a likable and charming personality with someone who actually knows what he's doing.....The moneymen might tell them when they've gone over budget, but not when they've gone around the bend. Fashion, too often, is all about id and the wrong kind of ego." She uses as examples clothes that make it impossible to walk in, unflattering silhouettes, etc. "The larger problem with this collection,however, is that fall 2007 is not the first time it has been plagued by design flaws caused by treating a women's body like a design hurdle rather than an inspiration. And yet the owners of Calvin Klein, Phillips - Van Heusen, sit back and watch, seemingly too afraid to trust their own eyes to tell them what is obvious to any observer: Too many of the clothes on the Calvin Klein runway don't work. If the Calvin Klein women's collection were a television show, it would have been canceled seasons ago. But fashion has been more patient, more forgiving and more awestruck by a designer who is both charming and well liked.”
