Haute Couture.. what about fashion for today?

John Paul Gaultier for Christian Dior, Spring Couture 2010

Hello all!
I just caught up on all the Spring Couture shows from Paris and will be updating you on my favorite looks and major trends I saw within the shows - Alexis Mabille, Anne Valérie Hash, Armani Privé, Chanel, Christian Dior, Elie Saab, Givenchy, Jean Paul Gaultier, Thimister, Valentino - from this past week. In the mean time, today the New York Times published an article titled, "Tempted by History," in their Fashion Review section, which gave Couturiers a bad reputation for taking inspiration for their collections from designs that have already been done in the past. This is a topic that is frequently discussed in many of my classes at F.I.T. Designers are constantly going "back in time," and taking their inspiration from different periods throughout history, art work, culture, etc. but what ever happened to fashion for today? Karl Lagerfeld himself stated,

"I don't believe in avant garde clothes for a future that will never happen. Fashion is always now."

I completely agree with the NYT and Lagerfeld. Fashion is supposed to be for the people of today. This past Fall/Winter season, there was a trend of 40's fashion stressed on the runways and promoted in major magazine editorials (such as, US Vogue & Harper's Bazaar). According to Stylesight.com, this Spring was supposed to be all about Dior's New Look, influenced by 50's style. But why should designers reflect back into vintage fashion when they should be creating designs for the people of 2010? Come to think of it, the last "clothing invention" was Diane Von Furstenburg's wrap dress and that was how many decades ago?

Just thought I'd get your minds off the glitz and glamour of couture because as much as I love looking and dreaming about fashion, in the end, haven't we seen those garments before?