Fashion Weeks' Most Outrageous Outfits: Chic Or Shriek? (PHOTOS, POLL)

The month filled with fashion weeks in New York, London, Milan and Paris has come and gone, and with it, thousands of eclectic ensembles ripe for spring. We've rounded up the wildest get-ups to travel down this year's catwalks, including Vivienne Westwood's zombie marathon runner duds, Louis Vuitton's afros, and Alexander McQueen's ten-inch-tall stilettos.

Which of these outfits are chic? And which just make you want to shriek?

Alexandre Herchcovitch Spring 2010

September 16, 2009 at New York Fashion Week.

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Comments

[Sloane7]

I want to dress like a salad!

[o4tuna]

Where is David Bowie when you need him? I'm sure he could do a compete album based on this images alone.

[mesioul]

I can understand that talented designers would get bored designing clothes that most real women wear... slacks, blazers, modest dresses... and want to just let their imaginations run wild occasionally. And as a few mentioned, it gets them noticed. Some of these designs are interesting works of art, but I don't think they'd be used anywhere more ordinary than a Cirque du Soleil stage.

[janie@atthelake]

..........­........Th­e so called "designers" must be laughing their heads off. Some people will actually like this stuff.

[Mahi Joe]

Naw, what you are seeing is a very small part of the entire collection. Designers at times throw in a few outrageous pieces to get name recognition from a huge group of press people sitting in the audience. I actually went with ABC TV to Paris to do a documentary on the buyer's of fashion apparel and was not shocked to see most buyers selecting the most conservative items in the line. Many of these outrageous pieces are one of a kind used in these shows and are never produced. Come on admit it, it got your attention lol.

[sunny64]

Thank you so much for the clarifications about these designs. I thought they all were show cased as one collection. I was baffled trying to figure out where a woman, in her right mind, would wear one of these get-ups, except maybe to a halloween party. I had a good laugh. That afro is really wearing the model.

[JScott]

Well Halloween is coming up.

[Entwife]

The outfits may be a joke, but starving young women are not. The fashion industry needs to pull its head out of its arse on this issue.

[brettrobbins]

What a kooky, kooky subculture.

[Yves Papa]

Lie Sang Bong has designed the perfect psychiatric ward uniform for those who are afraid of being taken over by the Martian's control air-wave signals.

[Yves Papa]

I wish I could see the moth that ate the holes in that red dress. Was it Mothra?

[TanzaniteDiamonds]

Fanned and faved!! No, it was a "chic" moth.

[Yves Papa]

Seeing the models keeping their composure while wearing these costumes just cracks me up.

[BlueProteus]

Okay, I'm a guy in his fifties, and have never really understood the whole "Fashion" thing. But beyond fashion itself, I've never understood these extreme clown shows.

I mean, has anyone reading this ever actually been to one of these shows? Are all the people in the audience laughing out loud, or even snickering?

Or do they all take this sort of thing very seriously?

[All4ME]

I'm glad you asked this question in the way you asked it.

I have been to many of these collections' shows, and I worked in haute couture in Paris.

NOBODY takes this seriously. It is meant to be in good fun. The models are in on the joke, and even if they keep a straight face, they know it is all for the spectacle. The models do have some acting ability.

Almost no one wears the most extreme stuff, although I have been to some pretty wild parties, and some people will be inspired to create a costume like some of these. It's meant to be fun!

However -- as you can see, the extreme stuff gets you noticed. You get a mention in the media. You get to shock the bourgeoisie. And then the average working person who considers him/herself daring and avant-garde will go out and buy a basic pair of black pants or cologne from Jean-Paul Gaultier and feel as if they've been in some way "daring". See how that works?

Just like the Abercrombie & Fitch cheese-fest (with the nudity in their catalogs), the clothing they sell is really quite boring.

(meanwhile I got bored with fashion and went on to other things, I still find it funny though)

[BlueProteus]

Ok, well that makes me feel a little bit better.

I was starting to think this was the new version of the Emperor's New Clothes, but it sounds like it's just people having fun being crazy, which is ok by me.

[Mahi Joe]

You are so on the money. I have shot the Paris shows as a photographer and totally agree with you on your astute observations. You do see more outrageous clothing at the Pret-a-Porter (ready to wear) shows than you do at the Haute Couture shows. It's done for fun and as a photographer my motor drive on my camera goes on high speed when I see something like this coming down the runway.

[Crix]

Halloween came early this year.

[davidcaruso]

The outfits are not ridiculous if the model wears an ice-cold expression on her face. Then it's powerful. Talk about cognitive dissonance! It's so ludicrous, it must be intentional. Has to be. Otherwise, how can the designers be so utterly delusional?

[iRock]

Carol Burnett looked better wearing drapes.

[Bushdepression]

Why do these women allow themselves to be made ridiculous and ugly by the mostly homosexual designers that harbor a latent hatred of real women?