Episode Details

Is fashion art? Why is archive fashion everywhere in 2026? Have designers created anything genuinely new since 1970—and what do postwar Paris, May 1968, 1970s punk, quiet luxury, vintage clothing, fashion TikTok, and the decline of print magazines tell us about how people dress now?

On this episode of Pair of Kings, Sol and Michael sit down with Dr. Alexis Romano, fashion historian, writer, curator and professor at Parsons School of Design, for a conversation about fashion history, modern fashion trends, and the forces that turn clothing into culture. Alexis studies twentieth-century fashion, photography, women’s history, clothing archives, and everyday dress. Her book, Prêt-à-Porter, Paris and Women: A Cultural Study of French Readymade Fashion, 1945–68, traces the rise of French ready-to-wear after World War II through garments, Vogue and Elle, film, photography, oral history, and the lives of women who bought and wore the clothes.

The conversation begins with a fit check spanning Rick Owens, Crocs, selvedge denim, and a vintage Mollie Parnis Ultrasuede set before asking whose clothing gets preserved as fashion history. Museums often prioritize haute couture, luxury fashion, and famous designers, while everyday sportswear, workwear, ready-to-wear, and heavily worn garments disappear. Alexis explains why ordinary clothing and oral history create a richer record.

Sol, Michael, and Alexis trace French prêt-à-porter and its tension with haute couture. They discuss how postwar modernization, technology, urban life, New Wave cinema, fashion magazines, photography, and changing ideas about women shaped the modern fashion industry. They examine how ready-made clothing became fashionable rather than merely practical, why casual dress grew alongside social liberalization, and how fast fashion represents the latest stage of a much longer ready-to-wear system.

That history leads directly into the fashion landscape of 2026. Why do many well-dressed people now choose either expensive designer clothing or vintage and secondhand clothes? Why are the 1990s and Y2K still being recycled? Has archive culture made younger consumers more historically literate—or convinced them that old clothes are automatically better than new design? The episode connects the 1970s “beige decade” to The Row-era minimalism, natural-looking materials, texture, tactility, pared-back luxury, and the quiet-luxury conversation. Alexis breaks down the decade’s competing trends: American sportswear, punk fashion, disco style, polyester, plastic, lamé, bold color, natural fabrics, wide-leg trousers, and Ultrasuede. Contradictory aesthetics existed at once—much like today’s mix of minimalism, maximalism, streetwear, high fashion, and microtrends.

A major section asks the central question: is fashion art? The group discusses The Met Costume Institute’s 2026 Costume Art exhibition, the Museum at FIT, the Whitney Museum, MoMu Antwerp, and the growth of museum fashion exhibitions. Rick Owens becomes a case study in how a garment can be a consumer product, collectible design, personal uniform, museum object, and artwork at the same time. They also discuss Yohji Yamamoto exhibitions, the boundary between a fashion store and an art gallery, museum merchandise, and why fashion may be “the art of the people”—an art form audiences can wear, touch, collect, alter, and recognize in their own closets.

This episode is part of Pair of Kings’ exploration of “integrated fashion”: the idea that brands increasingly operate across clothing, art, media, music, fragrance, retail, technology, museums, and lifestyle, while consumers build wardrobes around their hobbies, identities, communities, and references. Fashion is not only what appears on a runway. It is also what gets worn, photographed, posted, remembered, collected, studied, resold, copied, preserved, and eventually called history.

Whether you follow high fashion, menswear, streetwear, archiv