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Moodboard for outfit two.

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Moodboard for outfit one. 

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Styling

When it comes to styling, I want to use clothes that are appropriate for girls ages 8-14 and be conscious of choosing appropriate clothing but also look high-end and on trend with my futuristic, robot theme. 

I have opted to use things from my own wardrobe as I have a few garments in mind that would be perfectly suited to the Blade Runner-esc style. I also want to keep the styling in with the 80s Sci-Fi trend by using bright colours and angular silhouettes. 

Outfit one will consist of a black denim skirt and metallic blue long sleeve top. I will be pairing this with a white leather jacket and blue welly boots, crossing practicality with looks from Raf Simons and Calvin Klein Spring / Summer 2018. The lighting will be orange and pink, contrasting to the blue in the outfits.

The second outfit will be a black dress with a clear rain coat, inspired by Joi from Blade Runner 2049. I’ll give the mannequin black boots and black cat eye sunglasses, inspired by Gucci’s Autumn / Winter 2017 sunglasses collection. The lighting will be blue and purple, reflecting off the plastic rain coat and silver mannequin to give a neon light effect. 

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Childrens fashion

Children's clothing is often more casual than adult clothing, fit for play and practicality. Nowadays a lot of kids wear is very much influenced by trends in adult wear. Good quality well designed garments are a priority for a growing number of parents. 

More recently gender-specific children's clothing has become a debatable issue for the growth of a child’s personality. Children's clothing has become increasingly segregated, with young girls especially being expected to wear pink. Cinderella Ate My Daughter is a book written by Peggy Orenstein and raises the issue that pink and princess themed clothes are almost pushed upon young girls. This is problematic as it limits girls to not only one colour, but also to one spectrum of experience, fusing identity to appearance. 

Looking good makes everyone feel good and I believe that has no exception to children, parents also want their kids to look presentable. Stylish kids has become a trend in itself due to celebrities such as Kim Kardashian styling her daughter, North, into a tiny trend setter in her own dad’s fashion label. 

There are loads of Instagram pages now of style conscious kids which is cute to think that themselves and their parents take so much pride in fashion. Following this, many designer labels such as Gucci and Dolce & Gabbana have their own high-end children’s clothing ranges. It is debated that this can be “too adult” for children, but I think fashion is about expressing one’s self rather than pleasing others. A lot of kids just want to dress up constantly and look like their parents so why not give them that opportunity to express their personality even more.

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H&M Kids

I have chosen to produce girls collection in H&M’s Premium Quality range as this is something they do not currently have. Their current kids clothes range from newborns 0 - 9 months, babies 4 months - 4 years, kids 1-10 years and older kids 8 - 14 plus. I will style a collection for older girls between 8 - 14 plus because I need to keep in mind practicality for children, appeal to parents and keep in with the Premium Quality range.

The older girls clothing in H&M at the moment, is completely, typical girly, strictly featuring a lot of pink, florals, cute animals and ruffles. I know first hand that a lot of girls that age aren't girly and are finding their own sense of style. 

As I have done intensive research on high end fashion labels, especially ones that have been inspired by Sci-Fi and the future, I aim to style my model to look like a robot, rather than having a robot printed onto a t-shirt. Kids love Sci-Fi, robots, aliens, Star Wars, etc so I think that creating a collection of futuristic, robot, Blade Runner-esc clothes ties in nicely with my research and is also appealing to kids and dressing up. Blade Runner and the latest Star Wars movies both have leading female roles as well, so the girls will be able to dress like the character they like. I will used the same mannequin and lighting as I did when recreating Nick Knights photography style. The lighting gives the background a dull gradient in contrast to the neon glow reflecting off of the silver mannequin.

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H&M Ranges and Promotional Imagery

With such an extensive amount of ranges, H&M have a huge array of promotional imagery and campaign ads shown through billboards, posters, social media, online and on television. 

H&M’s campaigns are usually very similar, a group of well dressed people in an unusual setting, all standing in a line, wearing almost every item of clothing in the collection. Their aesthetic does branch out in some cases, with collaborations, but again, because there are so many different ranges and collections H&M have, it is a good thing to keep to the same aesthetic as every one of their campaigns are typical of their brand.

H&M and Kenzo’s collaboration is a collection rich in colour, diversity, print, cultures and detail. Kenzo’s creative directors Carol Lim and Humberto Leon unravelled their vision for the collaboration: a collection celebrating the brand’s history by reproducing iconic pieces from the 70s, 80s and 90s, and connecting them to the contemporary street aesthetic. It mixes and merges prints and patterns from the 80s till today, and features several remade replicas of iconic items from the label’s archives. There’s a limited edition maxi-dress that was first seen in Kenzo’s A/W 1982 Russian collection, and tiger-printed leggings and roll-necks in different colours that were important pieces in one of the label’s late 80s campaigns. For this collection, they’ve both been updated in new colours and print combinations. 

John Paul Goude photographed for H&M and Kenzo’s collaboration in 2016, using an idea for and advertising campaign that he had in the 1980s that he never used. 

Their current collections all hold a similar aesthetic of people in natural settings. The natural tones of the images make it clear that their whole brand is now sustainable and supportive of the world, which is very different to what their campaigns usually look like. 

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H&M

H&M is a Swedish high street brand, founded by Erling Persson in 1947. It first began as Hennes, meaning “her” in Swedish and was primarily a women’s store. In 1968, Persson hired Mauritz Widforss as a buyer and stylist, which lead to the inclusion of mens clothing. The brand says they are “aimed at fashion lovers all over the world” and now retailing in 62 countries with over 4500 stores, H&M is the second largest global clothing retailer, with an extended, inclusive target market of women, men, babies, children and teenagers. 

H&M have many different and affordable ranges and concepts that appeal to every one of their target consumers including: Divided, Trend, Modern Classic, Party, Basics, L.O.G.G, Sportswear, Premuim Quality, Conscious and Sustainable Style along with their home, jewellery and beauty ranges. 

With so many different ranges and concepts comes a lot of different styles, trends and fast fashion. To keep up with it’s ever changing style, H&M has collaborated with a lot of high-end designers to stay different but with a sense of high quality. The collaboration include: Stella McCartney, Viktor & Rolf, Roberto Cavalli, Comme des Garcons, Matthew Williamson, Jimmy Choo, Sonia Rykiel, Lavin, Versace, Marni, Maison Margiela, Alexander Wang, Balmain and Kenzo.

The H&M Group now own six other individual high street brands, with very different styles and target market to H&M. The brands include: COS, & Other Stories, Monki, Weekday, Cheap Monday and ARKET, which are predominantly women’s clothing brands, excluding Weekday and Cheap Monday, and they are said to be expanding 90 H&M stores into department stores this year for all of their brands.

H&M are also said to be creating a marketplace store, called Afound, offering a carefully selected, broad and diverse range of discounted products from well known quality fashion and lifestyle brands for women and men, from external brands, with a focus on styling and inspiring presentation.

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Sci-Fi’s Influence on Fashion

Sci-Fi movies are often made up predictions of technology and action packed adventures of the future, but the also hold a very big impact on the present. From dusty post apocalyptic earth to neon light advanced worlds, the scenes depicted in Sci-Fi movies are often very aesthetically pleasing and everyone is always really well dressed. Art Deco angles of Metropolis and the neutrals of Star Wars: The Force Awakens, designers and trendsetters have taken inspiration from sci-fi for decades. With so many new Sci-Fi movies that came out in 2017 I have researched a few that have influenced our current day style.

Blade Runner (1982)

To dress the characters in this rainy, noir-inspired drama, costume designers Michael Kaplan and Charles Knode drew inspiration from both 1940s silhouettes and emerging trends in the 80s of retro-futurism and cyberpunk. The retro 40s shoulder pads were a big trend among women of the 80s, and soon after inspired Alexander McQueen. He said the film was a huge inspiration for his Givenchy Autumn Winter 1998 collection.

The Alien Series (1977-1979)

Alien and has inspired some of fashion’s most crazy designs. From Thierry Mugler’s 1990 Giger jacket to Alexander McQueen’s Alien shoe in 2010, Giger’s influence has forced itself through the fashion world for decades. Thierry Mugler was so inspired, he named the whole 1990 collection and a his most famous perfume “Alien”

Calvin Klein S/S 18 + The Matrix (1999)

The Fifth Element (1997) 

The Fifth Element overlapped Sci-Fi with fashion from the start, with model Milla Jovovich starring as heroine Leeloo and designer Jean Paul Gaultier making costumes based on his existing designs. Alexander McQueen’s 1998 spring ready-to-wear line, which featured strappy bandage dresses and one pieces reminiscent of Leeloo’s white dress.

The Star Wars prequels (1999-2005)

In 1999, Alexander McQueen debuted his “Eclect Dissect” show, featuring elaborate headdresses and geometric hairstyles that was inspired by Princess Padme. Costume designer Trisha Biggar incorporated Chinese, Korean, and Mongolian influences into the designs for Natalie Portman’s character, and the fashion world followed suit - Yves Saint Laurent, Dior and Comme des Garcons to name a few.

Yeezy S/S 2015 + Star Wars: The Force Awakens (2015)

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80s Sci-Fi Trend

In the 1980s, science fiction ruled over everything and most of the biggest movies and books of the decade were sci-fi. Cyberpunk became the era's popular and now iconic aesthetic.

When researching science fiction aesthetics from the 1980s I found that Blade Runner’s streamline outfits with the neon glow of a Tokyo-like cityscape was a truly iconic sense of a futuristic world, or, at least, what the people of the 1980s believed to be the future. Humans and replicants wandered the overpopulated, rainy streets in multicoloured, clear trench coats with light sabre-esc umbrellas like weird plastic robots. 

Blade Runner has made a huge impact on fashion today, especially because Blade Runner 2049 came out last year, following the same glowing, neon, 80s aesthetic. Designers such as Raf Simons, Givenchy and MM6 have been completely inspired

Raf Simons’ S/S 18 collection is filled with patent leather trench coats and working boots, accompanied by umbrellas, identical to those in Blade Runner, and Japanese style lanterns. Various pieces in the collection is covered in the word “replicant,” Japanese writing or album covers of popular 80s bands New Order and Joy Division.

For Autumn / Winter 1998, Alexander McQueen, at Givenchy, took inspiration from the movies leading female character, Rachael. Wearing tailored, tweed dressed with fur collared, matching jackets, the models looked strikingly similar to Rachael, even down to the hair style.

A/W 18 at MM6 matched trench coats and boots, a typical look from the movie, with everything silver, giving a completely, tinfoil robot aesthetic.

The Fifth Element takes elements of futuristic style from the 60s and 80s with the help of Jean Paul Gaultier as the costume designer, creating costumes in his signature, futuristic look. His Autumn / Winter 2008 collection is a great example of him recreating the Fifth Element aesthetic.

A/W 18 for Jeremy Scott also portrayed a futuristic, Fifth Element style. Models wore neon bobbed wigs, fluorescent metallic dresses, and shaggy faux fur moon boots. Plastic dresses, hair and eye make up in angular shapes with bright neon lights added to the overall eighties allure of the whole affair.

Moschino, also designed by Jeremy Scott, upheld the same sort of aesthetic, even melding both Blade Runner and The Fifth Element together into a tailored, neon, alien fiasco.

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Appreciation or Appropriation

Adopting elements of different cultures is a natural, human consequence of the interaction between different, diverse social groups. Designers have always said the traditional attire and art of other cultures are sources of inspiration, but how do we differentiate the line between respect for other cultures and the exploitation of cultural imagery? Cultural appropriation is the adoption of elements of one cultural group by a different group. It is underplaying ideas, images and styles from other cultures, which degrades their original significance in the name of fashion. With this in mind, the fashion industry has certainly had a part to play in the continuation of cultural and racial stereotypes.

In 2013, Dolce and Gabbana sparked controversy with their use of stereotypical, African and imperialist imagery.

Victoria’s Secret was also scrutinised for putting a feathered headdress on a model: a symbol of honour and respect in Native American culture.

An argument against reoccurring cultural appropriation in the fashion industry is that wearing an item with cultural connotations is a sign of admiration for the culture in question. Unfortunately, the issue is far more complex than that. Those guilty of appropriating are often of white ethnicity and are representative of Western ignorance. For the most part, people do not realise that wearing culturally significant garments inadvertently reinforces segregation and stereotypes. Those who use the excuse that ‘imitation is a form of flattery’ fail to acknowledge their inherent privilege or recognise the history of oppression suffered by the cultural group in question.

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Culture and Politics in Fashion

Celebrities and stars turned up dressed in black at the 75th Golden Globes Award ceremony and instantly the media was in frenzy over what they dubbed political fashion statements on the red carpet. This is just one of the most recent political fashion statements. At the 2016 US President election women wore suits in solidarity with presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, it then progressed with white supremacists uniformed in polos and khaki during their infamous Charlottesville demonstrations last year. As the effects of Brexit, Donald Trump in the White House and the rise of alt-right activism in Europe, political dressing is trending. Feminists, white supremacists, antifa, nationalists and social justice advocates are outfitting themselves to match their political mindsets. This type of political dressing is not the dress code of politicians, just individuals and groups using everyday dress to express their political outlook. The problem is that often onlookers quickly rush to label it fashion.

Political dressing is a united group effort to call attention to a social issue, they do so by dressing in an identical style. Dress expresses style, individuality, political views, conformity or rebellion and by doing so, sometimes offers an alternative to the status quo, challenging the views of social ideals and politics. During the riots in Charlottesville, Antifa protesters opposing white supremacists wore “black bloc” - an all-black uniform, meant to show a unified stance against anti-black racism. Simultaneously, “black bloc” dress indicated a willingness to resort to violence if necessary, much like the Black Panthers did in the 1960s and 70s. The Black Panthers took advantage of a loophole the U.S. constitution that made it lawful to wear unconcealed firearms in public.

Fashion occurs when a society follows trends, aesthetic or cultural sensibility through any realm of lifestyle including arts, music, technology, etc. Fashion is a huge industry with a lot of advertisement all over the world, relating to everyone’s sense of style differently. Following this, everyone has to buy clothes and therefore follows some kind of trend. In today’s globalized world, most people automatically identify clothes with fashion. The fashion industry employs a global army of trend forecasters to research historical records and day-to-day cultures. They use this data to identify what colours, styles and products people would want next season. More concerning, though, is that fashion forecasters are contributing to the public confusion about political dress as fashion. They are ignorantly using the terms dress, style and fashion without any regards for a political style of dress’ meaning.

Political dressing is now a fashion trend. Several collections during the latest fashion weeks employed political statements, such as pink Pussy Riot - a Russian feminist group - balaclavas at Missoni and white bandanas as a symbol of inclusion at Tommy Hilfiger, Prabal Gurung, Phillip Limand Diane von Furstenberg. Meanwhile, black berets and Black Panther uniforms were shown at Dior. This, however, isn’t necessarily good news, the fashion industry has a solid record of appropriating cultures and movements, shown here with three white models, alongside one woman of colour, dressed as Black Panthers.

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Historical and Cultural References: Gucci

Gucci was founded by Guccio Gucci in 1921 and began by manufacturing high end leather goods. Alessandro Michele was appointed creative director in 2015 and had completely recreated the brand, with inspirations from a vast variety of fashion from different eras in time, cultures and pop-culture.

For Autumn / Winter 2017, Gucci came out with an advertisement campaign inspired by 1970s sic-fi movies. Along with this came interviews, castings and karaoke clips of the models, who were said do be real life aliens, creatures and superheroes. The characters involved include Kerelanda Encanta from the planet Xoph, a 7,000-year-old being named Xeod, a robot, and even a sea creature.

A post shared by Gucci (@gucci) on Apr 20, 2017 at 2:52am PDT

This collection was inspired by David Bowie, Elton John the gaudy fashion of the 1970s, including ensembles in a complete mishmash of patterns, ruffled blouses, super flared trousers and long, flowing, over-the-top dresses. Notable accessories include oversized grandma style glasses, super embellished sunglasses, sweatbands, canes and big, 70s, bowl cut hairstyles. 

Historical - 1970s, disco, David Bowie, Elton John, Grace Jones Cultural - Studio 54, Club kids, Sci-Fi, Pop Social - luxury, wealth, bling Environmental - unnatural, preserved, chemical, otherworldly

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Historical and Cultural References: Versace

The Italian designer created lively and brightly colourful clothes that mixed fine art and pop culture, hugely influenced by Pop Art as well as Ancient Greece.  At his death, his sister, Donatella took over as the designer of her brother’s fashion house perpetuating his love for sexy and flamboyant silhouettes. Versace was very popular in the late 80s, early 90s and in 1991 created a totally colourful, typically 80s, Pop Art collection. 

This year, Versace has recreated this collection using the same fabrics and designs with typical 80s silhouettes, tight jumpsuits in neon colours.

Historical - 1980s Cultural - club scene Social - club kids, drinking, social events, high class Environmental - party, cover girl

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Historical and Cultural References: Alexander McQueen

Alexander Mcqueen takes inspiration from a huge variety of historical cultures, art, textiles, film, make-up, film and their techniques and design processes. Every one of his runway shows were a theatrical production, tributing the design work of many eras in time. A lot of his collections referenced the dark, dismal melancholic Victorian Gothic era. When I think of the Victorian era I see dark clothing, winter, taxidermy, death, the plague and poetry. McQueen embodies this, often in his Autumn / Winter collections, using exaggerated Victorian styles silhouettes and big hats, bird feathers, dramatically white make up and skulls.

Historical - Victorian Gothic, 1800s Cultural - Edgar Alan Poe Social - sadness, death, social class Environmental - dark, decaying, victorian london streets

Following this will be pictures of how the Victorian Gothic era has inspired McQueen throughout the years and my essay on how historical art movements inspired Alexander McQueen.

There are a lot of fashion designers who are looking for uniqueness in futuristic and contemporary designs. In contrast to this, Alexander McQueen is recognised as being original and outrageous for looking back in time. This iconically British designer was passionate about art and more often than not applied historical fine art, print making, makeup and sculpture to his designs. McQueen is inspired by a huge spectrum of art and historical art movements ranging from renaissance paintings from as early as the mid 1400’s to cinema in the mid 1900’s. “Angels and Demons”, McQueen’s Autumn/Winter collection, is the very last collection he started to create before committing suicide in 2010. This collection takes great inspiration from artists from the 16th Century, using art movements such as the Renaissance and Classicism which depicts classical, religious scenes. One piece of art to mention in particular is titled The Temptation of St Anthony (1501) by Hieronymus Bosch. This triptych painting depicts the mental and spiritual torments endured by St Anthony throughout his lifetime. Each third shows unending scenes of demonic debauchery, the temptation of luxury and violence. In his Angels and Demons collection, McQueen created a few different garments inspired by the medieval artisanal textiles of the 16th century, like gloves and traditional style dresses with a modern twist of using the painting, which was digitally printed, blown up over the fabric of the garments. One garment in particular is a traditional corseted dress showing a specific scene of Saint Anthony being assisted by three others crossing a bridge, in a state of complete exhaustion, after being beaten by the devil. Here he uses deep, blood reds, earthy browns and black, portraying darkness and hell on earth. In choosing this piece of art, with its torment and darkness, it is argued that McQueen was trying to reflect his own turmoil. This unfinished collection was a way to free his mind and open up to the unending sense of suffering he was feeling at the time.

In contrast to this, he also created more garments in his Angels and Demons collection depicting another triptych by Bosch titled The Garden of Earthly Delights (1510.) These three panels show the story of Adam and Eve and the sacrament of matrimony, a dreamlike portrayal of earth, and humans succumbing to temptations in hell. Although there is still a dark undertone in the last third of this triptych, a skirt McQueen has designed portrays a scene of earth with naked women and animals playing whimsically and un-shamefully in a fountain. Here he uses a multitude of bright colours, including grassy greens, crystal-like blues and pale pinks, portraying a glimmer of hope and regeneration. The word ‘renaissance,’ in French, means ‘rebirth,’ this could be what McQueen was trying to do with his name in the fashion industry. This collection is unlike any other he had designed before. The colours he used were very different to any other of his past collections which often held colour schemes of black and grey. It is very clear that he has captured both of the paintings’ opulence and embodied that into his creations with the use of his colour scheme and the use of the paintings themselves printed onto the fabric. There is a contradiction of emotions demonstrated through the scenes depicted in this collection, from the chaos shown through The Temptation of Saint Anthony to the tranquility of The Garden of Earthly Delights, quite like the contradictions between angels and demons.   

Alexander McQueen also took inspiration from the British Arts and Crafts movement of the 19th century. William Morris’ designs were typical of the arts and crafts movement which paved the way for traditionally British looking wallpaper and fabrics, featuring repeated images of traditional English flowers in muted polychromatic colour schemes. Both McQueen and his fabric designer Simon Ungless loved the designs by William Morris and created fabric using continuous floral shapes which was the leading fabric in his Autumn / Winter 1995 collection “Highland Rape.” This collection featured torn lace dresses made in traditional Scottish textile design. The not-so-perfectly symmetrical and intricate designs by Morris were digitally printed onto sheer lace fabric, this was manipulated and ripped, representing violence and to show the intimate skin of the models. The Highland Rape collection was wildly misinterpreted by the media, denouncing McQueen as a misogynist who was glorifying rape. Whereas, in actual fact, McQueen used the torn fabrics of famous British designers in traditional Scottish textile design to signify England’s violation with Scotland.     

After McQueen’s death in 2010, the continually innovative designer shocked once again with the help of the brands current creative director, Sarah Burton. Through the grief of losing Alexander McQueen, Burton reincarnated the heritage of the man and the label, designing an Autumn/Winter 2011 collection and the wedding dress for the Duchess of Cambridge, Kate Middleton. This collection took influences from the fine art paintings of the Victorian Gothic period. One painting in particular titled Critics in Costume (1880) by John Callcott Horsley. This painting skilfully portrays two women who are dressed very regally in white silk dresses, completely covered in white embellishments. One dress in particular is almost an entire copy of a dress in the painting with its pale colours but intricate design and embellishment, transcending harsh regality and soft femininity, a perfect way to style royalty on their wedding day.   

In 1996 Alexander McQueen designed a collection for Givenchy titled “Romantic Exoticism.” When referring to the collection, McQueen once said “As a designer you go through every nook and cranny to find inspiration. I get more inspiration from the personality of a region than the actual ethnic origin.” This collection’s inspiration derived from many, many different cultures around the world ranging from, Africa, China, India and Turkey. Japan’s traditional fine art was a particularly significant inspiration in the collection. Magpie on Viburnum Branch by Genga is a painting of a bird sitting on a tree branch from the historical, traditional, Japanese art movement Muromachi (1336-1573.) This painting features on the arms of a kimono McQueen designed in the Romantic Exoticism collection. The painting was embroidered onto the fabric of the arms, so when the arms were folded you could view the whole image as one. McQueen believed that “Fashion can be really racist,” so by incorporating a traditional painting to the garment, he also wanted to use elements of traditional Japanese embroidery and craftsmanship to really appreciate the craft of Japanese textiles and fine art working together to create something breathtaking.    

McQueen’s Spring/Summer 1995 collection ‘The Birds’ is a complete mix up of design, patter and colour but complies with one conjunctive theme of birds. Not only was Alexander McQueen inspired by historical fine art, he was also inspired by graphic design. Maurits Cornelis Escher created optical illusion designs based on reflection, symmetry and geometry. His drawings were very dark, scary and confusing. McQueen adapted many of Escher’s pieces, for this collection including drawings such as Day and Night, Sky and Water I and Liberation, which depicted continuous patterns of birds. These drawings were digitally manipulated onto the fabric to create a geometric houndstooth design that grew in to images of flying birds. This collection really elaborated on McQueen’s eye for art and fashion working together, creating extraordinary fabric designs with the use of graphic design.   

The Spring/Summer 1995 collection also derived inspiration from Alfred Hitchcock’s film The Birds which was created in 1963. Alfred Hitchcock was an English film director and is widely regarded as one of the most influential filmmakers in cinematic history. This film depicted a world infested with killer birds. McQueen was inspired and created a beautiful dress, which was a similar pale blue colour that Tippi Hedren wore in the film, with a typical 1960’s silhouette. To give the dress a McQueen twist, the neckline is adorned with real bird feathers and it looks like the dress is being devoured by the bird. ‘The Birds’ collection is a fantastic example of how many different art movements Alexander McQueen was inspired by.    

Through my research I have learned that every detail of McQueen’s collections, from when he was in university to after his death, yield connotations of destruction which he portrays through his love of fine art and textile design. He has purposefully explored a vast array of historical art movements and by doing so has given him the title of the world's most prolifically innovative and outlandish designers.  

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Historical and Cultural References: Yves Saint Laurent

Yves Saint Laurent founded his own fashion label in 1961 with iconic collections which created typical trends of the times in which he was alive, embodying the swinging 60s, bohemian 70s, over the top 80s and streamline supermodel 90s. In recent years, with the help of Heidi Slimane and Anthony Vaccarello, the brand is taking inspiration from it’s self and bringing back looks from the 70s, 80s and 90s.

In 2015, Heidi Slimane encapsulated the fashion of the 1970′s for his Spring / Summer collection. Models walked down the runway to psychedelic rock music resembling the cast of Almost Famous. Donna Jordan and Robert Plant were big inspirations for Slimane. The women models wore huge platform sandals, skimpy flared leotards and long flowing maxi dresses, all in varying patterns of stripes and florals. The men wore brown suede jackets, unbuttoned patterned shirts and tight jeans. The colour scheme held browns, reds, purples and gold which were popular colours of the time.

Historical - 1970s, rock stars, glamour, bohemian Cultural - Led Zeppelin, psychedelic rock, disco Social - rock music, groupies, casual (colour scheme), party, teenagers, hand-me-downs Environmental - Rock concerts, grimy, vintage

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Historical and Cultural References

As I have explored when researching the trickle down and bubble up theories, fashion is designed and acquires a lot of inspiration from historical and cultural references. With out all of the history of fashion, textiles and trends through out time, there will be no evolution of trends or styles. So many designers such as Yves Saint Laurent, Alexander McQueen, Versace and Gucci not only take inspiration from fashion of other decades but are now also taking inspiration from their own past archives. I will be researching these four designers and taking four references into consideration: historical, cultural, social and environmental. 

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Does fashion reflect the world we live in?

How do you create fashion that reflects the turmoil of the world we live in that isn't just a slogan on a t-shirt that nobody will wear? It’s easy to be very in your face with feminism and global warming, but designers are mixing it up, making vague hints on how to stay fashionable when global warming hits it’s peak and what to wear in a nuclear attack. Calvin Klein, Prada and Gucci all found inspiration in creating clothing that might offer protection from - or a sense of humour in - the turmoil. 

Raf Simons of Calvin Klein sent woolly balaclavas knitted by your nan, up cycled hi-vis dustbin man coats and protective tin foil hoods down the scaffolding held, post-apocalyptic runway. The scary set was covered in a snow storm of popcorn which models trudged through in white, puffy spaceman boots towards an aluminium bunker.

Prada also portrayed a post apocalyptic world that was slightly more style conscious. Models walked down a dimly lit, metal grate runway in garments which looked like they were made of anything the person could find. Sheer plastic bag looking material and bleached fabric, all of which looked stained with neon oil slick were the main looks of this collection. Big welly boots and rubber washing up gloves are among other notable garments.

Gucci created a collection of nuclear poisoned mutant beings carrying their own futurama style, severed head mini-mes and tiny dragons with human skin down a clinical blue operating theatre runway. The invitation to “Gucci Headquarters” was an orange countdown timer sealed inside a nuclear waste bag with the words “warning” and “explicit content.” The clothing incorporated a mishmash of patterns, cultures, logos, architecture, historical and futuristic design. Creating it’s own tiny population of melded cultures through a horrible nuclear disaster. Balaclavas, sheer garment bags, buildings as hats, bejewelled trainers and traditional tapestry patterns from every country imaginable are just a few items to mention in this collection.