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Fashion Observed


Trend observations with a sociological eye from afar...

by Darryl S. Warren  

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State Of Decay

Doomsayers are nothing new in our society, but when our culture faces more stress then those more negatively prophetic voices tend to be heard more frequently. Think of moments when religious groups gather for anticipated end days that invariably come and go and you’ll find they tend to line up with periods of societal tension. And when something a broadly advertised as the end of the Mayan calendar was approaching, many were anticipating the end of civilization itself. It’s worth noting that the Mayan culture actually used their calendars to help remind them that there will be a future despite the fact that they are no longer around yet we continuously look at our calendars with the end of our civilization constantly in sight.

For all the progress our civilizations have made, the success we have achieved and the technological advancement we take for granted, we are a fairly pessimistic lot. Our entertainment has programming devoted to examining warning signs of impending apocalypses and more recent reality programming of people preparing for the expected dissolution of society. Some television programming in the US currently features dystopian scenarios while reconstituted fairy tales in film feature far grittier and grimmer environments. And as detailed in a previous article (“From Honest Abe To Mad Max”, November 25, 2012) our pop culture is looking to further explore post-apocalyptic setups for entertainment. How fitting that fashion should have something to say about this subject matter.

Given that the recovery is not unanimous for many countries and that the existing recovery is tenuous at best, not everyone who participates in the industry has the rosiest expectations, nor do they see these within their clientele. The artful execution of such cultural decomposition that was seen last year has not abated. Rather, it is interesting to note that some of the heavyweights included some elements within their creative dialogue and even renowned UK trending organization Mudpie took note of it as of recent, admiring the textural detail that this article will touch on. As detailed in another previous article (“Threadbare” March 18th, 2012) fashion gives the impression of exploring the anticipated crumbling of society in fashion through the execution of deconstruction and the dialogue that was noticed last year seems to be continuing.

Custo Barcelona had some fur that seemed more barbaric in rough panels compared to what most have on their collections. Frayed edges came from a few designers. Central St. Martens’ Marie Rydland’s men’s caftans all had rough unfinished edges, Haider Ackerman had some frayed edges on military tweed with more raw edges in later pieces, Vivienne Westwood had some deconstructed fraying of edges on some pieces and Lanvin had a laser raw edged 40s militaristic sleeveless jacket amidst the more ladylike fare. Meanwhile, Christopher Kane had feather as distressed fringe on seams in more oversized structured 90s stuff like suits, dresses and coats.

If some had fraying, others went towards even more pronounced states of decay. Chanel had some hyper textural layers topping some rather hyper-destroyed distressed jeans towards the latter portion of its collections. Chalayan had some items towards the end of his collections featuring a textile that had a texture like shredded paper on dress, as if a layer is cracking up and peeling up on itself.  Johan Ku also had some distressed shredding in a few gown while Balenciaga, now headed by Alexander Wang,  had mohair knits that were coated with a lacquered surface that gave the appearance of cracking paint and pants that had an unusual  devore with subtle amorphic patterning  and only in places showed skin as if the material was in a gradual state of dissolution.

Some went a more literal state of being in midst of repair. For instance, Anne-Sofie Back Atelje had an unusual line with some literal construction site elements while Ashish had construction tape in places. The line also featured patchwork denim in various states of wear but not in a random careless application but more like Bauhaus abstract assembly. Junya Watanabe as well had patchwork on a lot of worn denim. Viktor & Rolf may not have used actual worn textiles but opted out for trompe l’oeil fraying and holes. And Jay Arh had string fringe pouring from aggressively scratched out silver spots in random excess on a few items. 

If the previous death of this creative design aesthetic was due to too close of association with poverty, these incarnations seem to address that to some degree. The materials are luxe, the implementation is more artful and more sophisticated and, while representational of decay, may not be as easily replicated nor may be actual decay upon closer inspection. Our technology may have found a way to allow us to play apocalypse without having to lose the societal segregation markers such as class distinction. It’s a shame that barriers to unity couldn’t be subjected to decay but the irony is that our insistence of maintaining separation could be our ultimate undoing, represented in the finest textiles and techniques available and delivered via some of the most astute minds in an industry.

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