Fashion wonder Daphne Guiness was interviewed recently in Interview magazine. It’s a great interview, very much worthy of a read, but one line in particular stuck out. In speaking about fashion movements she says:
“There hasn’t been anything real since grunge. That was the last movement led by music or an art form.”
The grunge or prefer punk fashion movement was indeed a great one–stunning in the way it essentially took all that came before it, tore it down literally to shreds and reconstructed it into something brand new. Punk was so great that it’s achieved a sort of classic status in that designers from now to eternity are sure to reference it in a cyclical manner like they do all the great fashion eras.
Still, there most definitely have been fashion movements since “grunge,” or at least running concurrent with it–starting with hip-hop style, which is marked by its royal (as in African royalty, people) celebration of adornment and boldface style, including big fur, flashy jewellery, animal prints, body-conscious silhouettes, all of which is often mixed up with athletic looks (a tribute to the great successes of black athletes?) like track suits and sneakers. And then there’s the whole beauty supply world of nail art, false eye lashes, bold lip colors, hair extensions, etc!
Sure, there was over-the-top style before hiphop and rap came along (thank you disco and soul and funk) but who could deny that the movement didn’t put its own extremely special stamp on the look just like punk did rock ‘n’ roll and create a style who’s influence has been at least as huge as punk’s.
In another line, Guiness describes the current fashion movement as “corporate.” Agree somewhat but not entirely…but that is for another post entirely.
On the next page some more hiphop fashion looks from back in the day,a look that is still alive and evolving.
