Does a brand have to be sexy, stylish and youthful to be unique or relevant?

Looking through the majority of the collections this season, it seems like many designers are making sure their attires are youthful, cool and sexy. Are these elements required for a brand to be relevant? It really bothers me because I am starting to feel fashion may have lost it. What happened to elegance and power dressing? Clothes should make a woman to feel empowered and not an object of sexuality and lust?

Why is "cool" so hyped? Why do clothes have to be young and sexy to be smiled upon?

I think too much focus on the red carpet and celeb styleand not enough focus on real womenand real life cause this. And that the looks girls and young women favor are awful and elegance is the furthest trait from their goals. But, when you're young, you're very much influenced by what you see in the media, and sadly, there aren't any elegant young ladies as inspirations for these girls.

Few also think the sense of youth and sexiness will always be a dominating feeling in high fashion. It’s just easier to market. It's much easier to style a young girl to look older, more mature, even matronly and still look acceptable than to style an older model to look like she's sixteen. And older women and men know this.

I keep in mind wanting to be elegant when I was young.  There are a number of famous examples of elegant young women, but in general I think it's difficult to be both quite young and elegant. I find elegance to be one of the rewards of age.

I'm all for being young at heart, but let's be real.....!