Shut Up and Take my Money Phil

Fashion is a unique creative art in that it has a second life as a practicality. One doesn't need to own art or books or movies to function in society, but as soon as you step outside without your clothes on you're going to get in trouble. But because clothes have two lives, as something functional and also as art or design, it can become confusing as to how they should be considered, critiqued, and to which social discussions they belong: commerce? Design? Art? The result is fashion journalism that, while rarely explicitly stating from which angle they are approaching fashion, takes a side nonetheless. Tim Blanks is my favourite writer in the fashion as design/art camp, his pieces are a joy to read in themselves and are incredibly insightful. If you want to "understand" a collection you better hope Blanks has been assigned to review it. On the other end of the spectrum are writers who list elements of the collections, usually accessories, like an inventory, and state things like "outerwear and dresses were the focus point of this collection". Major yawn inducing material.

However if I was one of those commercially minded critics, 3.1 Phillip Lim would have most definitely satisfied me. And by "commercially minded critic" I mean that outwardly I was saying things like "Lim has cleverly created a collection full of seemingly endless separates that will sit super comfortably on shop hangers and will disappear in a heartbeat", but inside I was just squealing and figuring out how many months it will be until I can price compare it all on Polyvore. I don't get this with The Row or even Proenza Schouler, which is partly because of the price point but mainly because there is something, something that I can't quite put my finger on, that is so buyable about Phillip Lim's collection. I can already see these coats and jumpers and dresses sitting on hangers and shelves so clearly. Here are some of the best looks of the collection, peruse the catalog and start your saving.