Fashion Week Ramblings - S/S 2015

[1994]

On to a more interesting topic: the current fashion trend of skinhead styles (MA-1, shaved heads, black with docs etc), gabba style (ok, similar but more sportswear) and urban youth style (tracksuits, Nike Air Max TN). I honestly think that you need to look not further than gay subcultures and their fascination with hyper-masculine subgroups that hate them. Passing as "straight" or "normal" was a basic survival skill in that milieu and has remained somewhat present in the way certain members of gay subcultures like to adopt the trappings of "oppressor" or rival groups. I hear that there are a lot of them queers in the fashion world, probably just a rumor but still...

Fuuma, I believe it has much more to do with fetishizing masculinity in general. There's plenty of room to revere and appreciate what's masculine.

The problem lies in differentiating what's masculine and what's patriarchal. When we start defining masculinity as violence, or a perception of danger, that's a very serious social issue.

In the case of groups like the subcultures we're discussing which are often perceived as being crime and/or poverty-ridden, it forms a cocktail of race, gender, and class structural inequalities. These things are obviously institutional. So again, as white supremacy and nationalism rises in Europe it's not a surprise that the fetishization of skinheads, or the white male hypermasculinity associated with them, is extremely popular.

[Faust]

Glad that Cathy Horyn is of the same opinion re:Slimane

Mine:
"The last show was Saint-Laurent. The clothes are not worth commenting on, because in the last few seasons Slimane forced the fashion world come to terms with his shtick. There is no point in critiquing the fancy thrift store finds he sent down the runway any more than in demanding that Thom Browne stop making gray suits. "

Hers:
"I’m no fan of Slimane’s, but he’s clever. In two years as creative chief, he has barely broken a sweat as he fetches another pussy bow from the ’60s time capsule. Last year, Saint Laurent led Kering’s three biggest luxury brands in revenue growth with an 18 percent rise, beating Gucci and Bottega Veneta. He has also defeated his critics, who no doubt sensed the futility of continuing to point out that he doesn’t seem to be trying very hard to be inventive. (In my own case, he banned me from Saint Laurent’s runway shows when I was this newspaper’s critic.) As Tim Blanks wrote last season on Style.com, “There is no longer any shock of the whatever in what he is offering.”"

http://tmagazine.blogs.nytimes.com/2014/08/18/commercialization-of-high-fashion-hedi-slimane-ysl-nicolas-ghesquiere-louis-vuitton/?_php=true&_type=blogs&utm_source=Subscribers&utm_campaign=cd0bb30c41-&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_d2191372b3-cd0bb30c41-417178845&_r=0

[Fuuma]

Fuuma, I believe it has much more to do with fetishizing masculinity in general. There's plenty of room to revere and appreciate what's masculine.

The problem lies in differentiating what's masculine and what's patriarchal. When we start defining masculinity as violence, or a perception of danger, that's a very serious social issue.

In the case of groups like the subcultures we're discussing which are often perceived as being crime and/or poverty-ridden, it forms a cocktail of race, gender, and class structural inequalities. These things are obviously institutional. So again, as white supremacy and nationalism rises in Europe it's not a surprise that the fetishization of skinheads, or the white male hypermasculinity associated with them, is extremely popular.

Article on this very topic, mentioning Gosha:

http://bullettmedia.com/article/skin-discursive-look-rise-skinhead-styling-mens-fashion/