Sometimes good designers get so much into their own heads they over-design. Self-editing is a terribly hard skill to maintain, and when you're stressed, and competitive, and under pressure to deliver season after season, collection after collection, the overdesign bug must be very dangerous.
Like so, from Proenza Schouler, and the same modified dress worn recently by the never-aging Lucy Liu:
In both cases the armor-like bodice is not flattering (although the runway version is better), skirt is too distracting when paired with the bodice, and the shoes - while different in each look - are both clunky, clod-hoppery, and just plain terrible. Less is more, ladies.
Or here, another example, this time from Roksanda Ilincic's Spring 2014 collection (which was otherwise quite fab, and had lots of orange lovelies):
Or, in a modified version, worn by Lizzy Caplan (whose costumes in "Masters of Sex" I love while being bored silly by the show itself):
There are just too many crafty elements here and they fail to cohere into one succinct sartorial statement. Come to think of it the whole thing smacks of something an anal-retentive OCD patient would draw to calm themselves.. Kinda like Lee Krasner's work, as in so (Untitled, 1948):
