High Fashion Should Be Fun, Too, Dammit

I just spent the morning looking through images of Christian Siriano's 2014 Resort presentation, and I can't stop smiling. The colors. The stripes. These shoes.

The thing is that I'd already seen the photos, but I'd returned to them. There have been other presentations that have knocked off my proverbial socks—Céline not being one of them, naturally—but nothing has made me absolutely beam like looking through Siriano's snaps. If anything, I found myself paying more attention to the collection because of how animated the models were, how much they actually looked like they were venturing out on a resort vacation.

This kind of energy is why, I think, people are drawn to backstage snaps that look a lot like these presentation pics. Photographer Mark Leibowitz captures this beautifully, and I love his images for evoking the humanity of the models—a kicked up foot here, a subject flashing a peace sign, and often, a smile. Of course, there's plenty to be said for models as a canvas for clothing: inanimate, serious, and, well, unfun. The business is the garment, after all.

But I think of why I returned to these photos, and realize that the models and the collection hit a point of fusion for me where their personalities and the spirit of the piece came together into a place where I could see myself as the woman in that intersection. I wanted to be the woman in that intersection of fashion and spirit.

And that, to me, is the best selling point of all.