Pig ruffles: Where is the line between irony and bad taste?
In a world judged by appearance, One of the most common fears is to look ridiculous, ridiculous, or inappropriate. However, the fashion industry is actively offering fun products, and they are in demand, even if they cost a thousand pounds. Sleepers in the form of kittens, clutches in the form of a chewing gum, sweaters with teddy bears - they all actively buy it with the words "Oh, what a cool thing." We argue how humor, coupled with pop culture, forms modern fashion and at what point it is best to engage in jokes.
Mid June. Florentine exhibition Pitti Uomo, dedicated to men's fashion, in full swing. The fortress Fortezza da Basso is filled with serious and polished men. Here white-tooth tanned handsome men in white shirts, brown loafers and blue jackets all gathered together. All as from one casket, with a silk scarf in a breast pocket. Looking around, you notice the girls, but also in three-piece suits and hats. Their uniformity causes, if not laughter, then at least a heavy sigh.
A guy modestly sits on a bench sideways for posing for Style.com (as it turns out later, from New York), dressed in an equally snow-white shirt and suit with shorts fitting his not-too-thin hips. He silently scrolls instagram tape, fingering with his feet. Attention attracts the color of his suit - canary yellow. On the general background, he looks like a man with a rare sense of humor and self-irony that is needed in fashion. Coincidence or not, the color of his costume is “minion yellow”, named by Pantone companies as the main one in 2016. The color of optimism and pop culture, as can be seen even from the name.
The third Moschino men's collection, Jeremy Scott, a special guest of the Pitti Uomo this season, is shown in one of the old Florentine Palazzo Corsini of the 17th century. In the baroque rooms, decorated with old frescoes, it is hot. Guests sit with each other on their heads in the palace, which was once the property of the Medici family. Guys and girls cheerfully go to the podium with curls on the head and front sights on their cheeks. Pink ruffles, bows, brocade, transparent lace, earrings, crowns, tracksuits, low-slung microtrusts, golden loafers, tuxedos in stones, anorak and leather jackets embroidered with flowers, coated bicycles, T-shirts with the inscription "More Scores than Casanova" - next year, the Moschino man should dress in tatters. In this baroque collection, Mr. Scott mourns over pretentiousness,GQ-archetype and borrowing of femininity by men, turning machismo into clowning. Why, indeed, not to make a huge crown and not write on it "Uomo"? Although this, of course, will not be Freddie Mercury, but the king of the diner. However, Jeremy Scott is not an innovator. He recycles old ideas of the same Franco Moschino. Remember the Moschino advertising campaign of the early 1990s: Franco himself posed in a frock coat, wig, shorts, elegant glasses, necklaces, and earrings.
At the party after the show, looking for the eyes of the most elegant. Those who will wear this collection in a year. I see a guy in a vest from sequins and a choker around his neck, an elderly gentleman in a fuchsia suit and pointy shoes. I think on the fingers of extravagant persons. There are still a couple of free fingers on his left hand. Another collection of Jeremy Scott - on the verge of when it is not funny, but it will be sold. Only not here, but, judging by the reports of market analysts, in Asia and America. The sports collection unit and shirts with bright prints, feels the heart, will fly away at the moment. No wonder Moschino made a big bet on Jeremy Scott: even a documentary film about the designer is being prepared for release, and his autobiography was recently published. But between what Jeremy Scott does at Moschino in 2015, and what Franco Moschino himself did in the 1980s, is the abyss.
Humor, fashion and intelligence are closely related. It is impossible to handle things boldly and without too much piety, to mix extraordinary accessories, clothes and shoes without a sense of humor and even a drop of detachment - just as funny to joke, not having a broad outlook and an unprepared look. Many style icons were not just eccentrics, but also brilliantly educated people. Remember Peggy Guggenheim, Diana Vreeland, or the living legend Iris Apfel. The surrealists of the 20s of the 20th century, that is exactly a century ago, were the first to joke around in fashion. Lobsters on dresses, buttons in the form of candies and peanuts - Elsa Schiaparelli flirted with public ideas about bad taste and came up with challenging ideas with Salvador Dali and Jean Cocteau.
In the late 70s, it was not a joke, but the punk movement offered the slogan “Anti-fashion is fashion”. This idea was implemented in the 80s and 90s by Vivienne Westwood, Jean-Paul Gauthier, John Galliano, Franco Moschino and Marc Jacobs. Moskino, decadent, a visionary and a surrealist, turned out to be funnier and more radical than all of them. The former illustrator Versace wanted to make fun of the overpricing of things, ridicule and undermine materialism and capitalism and founded his clothing brand in 1983 - however, she herself soon turned into a successful business. House Moskino produced women's and men's clothes, accessories, perfumes, worked on couture and second line.
Moschino did not come up with a new form in a cut or a new fabric, but thanks to him the world received a riot of ideas in its own closet: necklaces with croissants and Rolex watches, hats in the form of an airplane or a giant light bulb, golden bra tops, dresses in the form of a shopping bag, daytime ("dinner") costume, decorated with cutlery, coat with teddy bears. He first showed a men's shirt with very long sleeves, tied around the body, like a straitjacket. As an illustrator, Moschino transferred the images to things - hence the fried eggs on the skirts and the smilies on the jackets. Moschino openly and subtly ridiculed fashion victims. The first to put on things ironic slogans, puns, and Moschino's advertising campaigns turned into campaign posters (think of the campaign "Stop The Fashion System" or against racism). The success of the house Moschino proved: adherents of fashion are ready to be both ridiculous and absurd, retaining and expressing their own originality. Moschino himself did not consider himself to be either a designer or a "singer of a new era", speaking of himself with coquetry and all the same self-irony: "I am just an artist and a decorator."
Franco Moschino, the author of the phrase “A good copy is better than a bad original”, is Andy Warhol, only in the fashion world: he was an ardent postmodernist and showed how copies work, similarity of similarities, for example, by changing the Chanel jacket in his own way and making a fortune . The designer died at the zenith of fame in 1994 from AIDS, a year after the retrospective of Moschino’s house “Ten Years of Chaos”. Since then, Rossella Giardini, past assistant Moschino, has become the creative director of the house. In 2013, Giardini transferred the Moschino case to Jeremy Scott.
Jeremy Scott - the face of a different era, post-postmodern. In fact, his works carry the inverted idea of Franco - "a bad copy is better than a great original." Unlike Moschino, Scott does not so much ridicule materialism and capitalism as he speculates on the topic. Where Moschino was finely joking, Jeremy Scott rolls one gag after another onto the podium. Jeremy Scott is a populist. He makes up collections for his brand Jeremy Scott, that for Moschino or adidas from the parade of symbols of modern pop culture, without particularly dissecting or deconstructing them, knowing full well that this is an international language. Mickey Mouse or Coca-Cola are understandable to everyone, from the States to Kazakhstan. The output is clean kitsch, appealing to the most massive taste.
In an interview with New York Magazine, Jeremy says that he has to work with a trash aesthetics from his childhood, which he spent on a farm in the backwoods of Missouri. But he built a career in the fashion industry in the late 90s in a completely different atmosphere - in conservative Paris. Scott worked in the PR department of the house of Jean Paul Gaultier, hung out in the clubs of the Pigalle district and shocked the French with his first kitschy collections and shouts of "Vive l'avant garde!". In 2001, Scott made the surest strategic step in his career - he moved to Los Angeles and became friends with all the celebrities who still support him and are setting fashion today. Jeremy Scott is supported by Britney Spears and Madonna, Katy Perry and Lady Gaga, Rihanna and Beyonce, Rita Ora and A $ AP Rocky.
If you look at all the work of Jeremy Scott from the late 90s to this day, it becomes obvious that all of his collections are designed for one continuous show. In this way, Scott is similar to Karl Lagerfeld, who acts on exactly the same principle and from season to season manages to sell his kitsch audience to his audience. Apparently, their like-mindedness is not a secret for the designers themselves: once Lagerfeld noted in an interview with Le Monde that Scott is the only one who can replace him in Chanel. In addition to American stars, Jeremy won the most promising market - Asian. Mr. Scott says that he met fans in China with a tattoo in the shape of his face, and this is an important victory for Scott the businessman: everybody is fighting for the Asian market today. The same Miuccia Prada is trying to improve their affairs in Asia with the help of a bold and infantile new male "post-pop" collection.
Kitsch and humor perfectly respond to the request of a wide audience for something elegant, but at the same time not too pompous: in such cases, bright and funny comes to the rescue. A good example is the love of Russian stars for "semi-formal", "ironic" and "playful" outfits for secular exits: for example, the appearance of opera singer Anna Netrebko in Jeremy Scott's sweatshirt with Sponge Bob. However, if you do not take into account the eccentric pop idols and the aesthetic views of their stylists, most of the audience of luxury brands still takes himself seriously. Sellers in the Moscow boutique Moschino say that the McDonald's women's collection is sold with difficulty, but permanent bells skirts make cash in Russia every season.
“Comparatively recently, the Russian market meant only fashion under the word“ fashion. ”Consumers took themselves very seriously and wanted their clothes to be associated with maturity and prosperity,” say representatives of the Podium Market. “In recent years, we have seen positive changes. The influence of bloggers and street-style photographers has given rise to a new, healthy attitude towards themselves and others, a sense of humor and immediacy. We noticed that people began to dress erratically, like in childhood, in colorful bright things. For example, in the Podium Market, bathrobes with the inscription “Bitch" scattered on their backs in an instant. We are very pleased that Russian consumers have become more relaxed towards themselves. Fashion is a serious business that should not be taken too seriously. "
“Some trends are well received, while others simply do not perceive, and this is largely due to a sense of humor. Perhaps the lack of inner freedom and humor just affects the fact that playing with more complex combinations is not easy for people in Russia,” says the team concept store "Kuznetsky Most 20", where frivolous Jacquemus dresses and explosive tops Nasir Mazhar, designed for a wealthy but free-thinking audience, hang. "For reasons that are not fully understood, Russians prefer to dress up in magical forest fairies and fictional princesses, as well as nurses, 19th century ladies and hippies from the 60s. At the same time, it is difficult for them to properly assess and dress up in Ashish leopard sequins beautiful deconstructed thing of the same JW Anderson or Marques'Almeida. "
The uniquely eccentric things in the store best sell "American prisoners' suits" of the Russian brand Walk Of Shame and Piers Atkinson hats with glitter dolls, which he made specially for the 5th anniversary of "KM20", as well as caps with Mickey Mouse ears and cat rims with a veil and large flowers and Hyein Seo things with inscriptions like "School broke my life." But things inspired by the heroes of American pop culture, do not cause a warm response. So, while the whole world is chasing sweaters with a portrait of Kanye West and Kim Kardashian, as well as a “sinful” jacket with an embroidered sequin on the face of Jesus, they are intact in the store, and the golden visors of Nasir Mazhar cause giggles and jokes of foreman and repair.
"The main goal of any business is to earn money, and demand creates supply. For several months, Russian brand AnyaVanya has been holding onto the top of our sales, especially t-shirts with the Crimea and sweatshirts with the president and puppy. In this case, we just give the consumer what he wants. It is not speculation is humor, and it is a fashion that reflects time, ”says Artur Efremov, PR director of multi-brand Aizel. "But one of the favorite brands of the singer Rita Ora and the Hollywood youth House of Holland sells poorly. We made a big bet on t-shirts and bombers with the slogan from the times of the sexual revolution" My Pussy My Rules ", but apparently Russian girls are not very inspired by progressive ideas emancipation. "
All these data speak of the state of humor in Russia as well as the writers of comedies or the stand-repertoire of writers. The Russian consumer is torn apart by contradictions: he is not ready to perceive the extravaganza of glitter and lace on the verge of the grotesque, but uggs in rhinestones remain popular winter shoes. Culottes for many look like a clown, and a t-shirt with Putin in roses or the inscription "All women are like women, and I am a goddess" - funny. A robe with the inscription "Bitch" is bold and ridiculous, and the jacket with Jesus is blasphemy. A shirt with half naked women is OK, and supersize things are outrageous trolling. Still, self-irony is not as simple as it seems.
Photo: Schiaparelli
