There's a Chinese curse that threatens: "may you live in interesting times"that somehow best describes Fashion's current state. On a parallel plane, blocks away from the N.Y. showing of the Fall Collections, a student named Pierre Costin was finishing his finale piece that capped off the Parson's School of Design's Centennial, on April 30. His black stretch wool garment with a face covering hood, which enshrouds the body like a cocoon was entitled "The Death of Fashion". Rumor has it that school critic, Donna Karan, had asked for permission to use the idea. Perhaps, still waters run deep. Frightened of the close of the century, clinging to the past with clenched fists, there have been few signs of true fashion progress as of late. Particularly on the corporate level. Fear is looming everywhere. Fear of failing retail ventures, fear of booking the wrong models, and fear of bad press don't exactly lend to the creative spirit. We've reached a stand still, with everyone waiting for someone else to come up with the next original idea to carry us over this dreadful hump. Maybe if we all made a wish list of great fashion items that we couldn't live without, collective consciousness would spring a new line that would make us happy. Where's that old Diane Von Furstenberg wrap dress when you need it? To add to the omnipresent sense of doom that prevailed through "fashion" week, amidst fear of continued snow flurries, someone mentioned that one of Nostradamus' interpretations was that the world would end on the Eve of Thursday March 28th. Appropriate, yet unsettling as I lay awake that night afraid of potentially missing Matsuda the following evening. Fortunately, fashionably friendly forces overcame and the show went on. In tradition of using new angles, Matsuda shot his new catalog backstage, and it went like this: