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Haute Interlopings: Music and Tech

Since the debut of wired headphones to Bluetooth earbuds, streetwear brands have not been shy about collaborating with tech companies. Luxury brands have taken notice, with the earliest viral appearance of a luxury headphone likely being the iconic Dolce & Gabbana Gold Crown Headphones that Rihanna wore in 2016.

While many high-end brands have tried to make a quick profit by using simple, unremarkable logo patterns, such as Louis Vuitton earphones or Saint Laurent earbuds, other fashion houses have rushed to transform common headphones into statement pieces.

Recently, Lily-Rose Depp starred in Chanel’s Premier Sound Watch Campaign, featuring an 18k gold-coated watch that includes a pair of wired earbuds that can be worn separately. With Chanel and Nadine Ghosn reinventing the way earbuds can be worn, can we expect to see more such innovations on the runway.

Celine has recently unveiled its first wireless headphones, which appeared in their Spring/Summer 2024 runway show. In classic Celine fashion, the headphones come in black or brown smooth calfskin and lambskin with Triomphe embossing, embodying Celine’s “quiet luxury” reputation.

It's safe to say that while luxury tech has been integrating eco-friendly fabrics, 3D prototyping for quicker sampling, and fit-tech for better sizing, designers like Daniel Roseberry have recognized the potential of incorporating tech for avant-garde purposes. This includes bedazzled robot babies in Schiaparelli's case, but with Thom Browne, Viktor & Rolf, Loewe, Rick Owens, Alexander McQueen, Maison Margiela, and countless other houses pushing the boundaries of avant-garde fashion, the intersection of tech, music, and avant-garde fashion is closer than we think.

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Christian Dior - Spring 1997 Couture

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A veryyy brat lookbook by @mode-genesis

I absolutely love Charli XCX for such a long time and wanted to make a lookbook inspired by the Brat Album. In the lookbook, I took inspo from charli's style in her use of latex and leather, as well as the iconic brat green. I styled more out-of-the-box pieces since i feel like it captures a "campiness" to the looks. Ofcouse, alot of these pieces are Alexander Mcqueen and Jean Paul Gaultier since Charli's whole persona is very raw, individualistic and expressive. When creating this lookbook, I wanted to create looks that can be mixed and matched, but also had a casual-sophistication to them.

Overall, stream brat and buy your Sweat tour ticket!

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The Legacy of Meadham Kirchhoff

by MODE GENESIS

Known for their outrageous interloping of romanticism and rebellion, Meadham Kirchoff had become an iconic brand in the early to mid-2000s. The brand was founded by designers Edward Meadham and Benjamin Kirchoff, both graduates from Central Saint Martins, which gained fame through its extravagant expression of whimsicality. An interview by Glamcult with Kirchoff verbalizes how he designs from instinct in a state of “aborted happiness,” and both feel the fashion industry is “based on a repetition of ideas, often aimed at product placement.”

Their inspirations ranging from Victorian dolls to Courtney Love lookalikes in the SS 2012 show, the duo expressed a fresh approach to fashion which became one of the signatures of their brand identity.

Each show transported you into a carefully crafted almost theatrical performance with scent, visuals, light, and music accompanying. Their rebellious spirit brought new design innovation through patchwork dresses in velvet and leather, stacked glittering platform shoes, and a runway decorated with what looked like blood-dipped tampons. Each piece in their collection was carefully made through tailoring research and using techniques such as Elizabethan lacework. The handwork which came in forms of hand embroidery showed in garments in almost all seasons, and detailed construction of each piece became a standard for the brand

Although their womenswear lines achieved most of the media attention, their menswear emerged as out of the ordinary on the London scene. The collections set the direction of modern-day menswear, anticipating the arrival of gender-fluid casting and boy-meets-girl styling. One of their final shows, SS 15, was reclaimed as a celebration of different bodies, genders, and races. The use of rubber, chiffon, color, and layered drapery was an ode to the liberation they stand for. They were chosen as LVMH Young Fashion Designers but weren’t included as finalists so in their show notes they elaborated, “Fuck LVMH corporate fashion,” which is admirable considering the nature of the fashion industry, LVMH, and celebrity culture. As a Dazed article states, “Because fashion doesn’t just have to be about seasonal trends; it can, at its best, be a broader reflection of society, and like riot grrl, BodyMap, Westwood, and Leigh Bowery before them, Meadham Kirchhoff is making clothes for the people they love: the dykes, fags, slappers, and freaks.”

The brand met its demise when most of their clothes they were making weren’t sellable; the market was too niche, and production costs of garments became too high. While it was believed for Meadham Kirchoff as a whole for their clothes to be either too expensive or costume-like, critics praised them, and many designers looked at them as an inspiration. As a Dazed Article states, “They were showing detailed lace on par and on time with the wonders that Alexander McQueen was showing on its runway. Some have even likened the brand’s jackets—particularly from years ago—as foreshadowing those that made Christophe Decarnin a star at Balmain.”

Most of the brand’s pieces have been long lost, as the archive was taken by their landlord and sold in 2015, leaving only pictures and memories of what once was. Since the brand shut down, the duo has gone on separate paths. Meadham launched a new label called Blue Roses, and Kirchoff has become a stylist and menswear consultant. While Meadham Kirchoff could not have survived in the corporate fashion world, they live on as a martyr of sorts through their fun, cheeky, whimsical yet rebellious spirit, which inspires the future of the industry and may even have been ahead of its time.

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