BATMAN, HITCHCOCK, GODARD; RAG AND BONE SPRING 2009
The struggle over the merits of being "retro" has been the subject of quite a few heated and sometimes violent debates amongst actively creative creators for some time now.
With every aesthetic cornerstone, there will always be an adventurous soul exploring its dangerous boundaries. Unfortunately, it is quite difficult to find that balance between doing something meaningful in the present while tipping a hat to the glorious past. Often times, works dedicated to the latter find themselves a bit too dedicated and experience widespread abhorrence for their apparent "lack of creativity."
For a fashion designer, where the muse can play as significant a role as thread, golden images of a fruitful yore often serve as fertile sources of inspiration. Whether it’s 1960’s "old lady chic" at Phoebe Philo-era Chloé or the Thin White Duke via Hedi Slimane Dior Homme, some fine collections have been created under the guiding wings of the past.
The question then becomes whether or not excessive reverence is necessarily a bad thing. As a point of recent reference, how does one view the almost tongue-in-cheek interpretations of youth counterculture in the Spring 2009 RTW collection from Rag and Bone. Indeed, there’s an obvious, "Oh boy, here comes England again" sentiment to the collection; with its mash-up of mod, skinhead, Two-Tone, and punk. There are arguably better, definitely more abstract, and consequently more interesting collections that also worship at the hallowed ground of English youth culture. Whether it’s samurai goths marching through a barren Gareth Pugh wasteland (Fall 2008 RTW) or vampires with a distaste for human form at Yves Saint Laurent (also Fall 2008 RTW), a Bauhaus redux seems to be more worthy of conversation than another collection chock full of skinny suspenders and drainpipes with haphazardly placed bondage zippers.
On one hand, this can all be perceived as an inability on the parts of David Neville and Marcus Wainwright to interpret their influences creatively.
Nicole Phelps, Style.com:
"For one, the British music scene is a favorite point of reference for designers, and even if Neville and Wainwright have more of a right than most to explore it, there's bound to be a sense that it's all been done before."
On the other hand, there’s something that, for me at least, will always be stirring when a tangible aesthetic; an aesthetic created by a disgruntled group of English kids, is turned into a chic, high-fashion runway show. Although that, in itself, is quite tired, it’s not Rag and Bone’s fault that Hedi Slimane made a career out of doing the same thing season after season.
Don’t get me wrong, I appreciate a complete visual reinterpretation of an established aesthetic as much as the next person. To me, Gareth Pugh’s Fall 2008 goth is like Frank Miller’s Batman from his 1986 graphic novel, The Dark Knight Returns. There’s something comfortably familiar in there but it’s hard to really get a hold of it since it's unlike anything I’ve ever experienced before. I mean, looking at the collection, these are goths, right? If these kids were real, they’d idolize Siouxsie Sioux and Dave Vanian. I’d sincerely love to hang out with them and their inevitably impeccable record collections if it weren’t for the fact that they’re a bit too proficient in the katana arts for my comfort.
But it's collections like the last Rag and Bone that really excite me. Despite a lack of 92.5º angles and parachute suits, I like seeing something so accessible elevated to this level of fashion. All of the English cultures that inspired this collection are true examples of street culture and, to me, collections like this break the barrier between us down here and those up there while still maintaining the degree of inaccessibility that I truly believe high fashion must maintain in order to be relevant.
Confused? Let me elaborate. Recently, a friend and I had a conversation about why we like classic film so much. Specific examples were Hitchcock’s Rear Window and Godard’s Breathless. The conversation essentially revolved around the fact that these films were set in real environments with believable characters (of course this is also due to the non-existence of computer technology and multi-million dollar bombastics). There’s nothing too ridiculous about L.B. Jeffries or Michel Poiccard. However, we (as would most) also agreed that we enjoy film because it lets us escape from the doldrums of our reality. In the end, we had to discern between different interpretations of realistic film fiction. The other film that entered the conversation was Soderbergh’s Traffic. There’s a point where realistic becomes a bit too real for us. Although it’s unfortunate that neither of us have enough experience in the Mexican drug trade to really make a call, we agreed that watching Traffic was less of an escape and more of a depressing reality check.
In film, we need something that’s outside of our tangible reality in order to lift us away from our nine-to-five saturated existence for a few precious hours. Although the Greenwich Village apartment or the cobblestone streets of Paris aren’t necessarily fantastic enough per say, there’s no escaping the fact that L.B. Jeffries is played by Jimmy Stewart and Grace Kelly is totally making out with him right now. There’s no escaping the fact that Michel Poiccard is a cop killer carelessly jaunting around the streets of Paris with an aspiring American journalist. There’s a certain degree of simple romance and celebrity in both films that keeps it in that happy median between absolutely comic book and depressingly realistic.
That’s what Rag and Bone Spring 2009 does best. It creates this sartorial world that I can believe in; however, it does this while still maintaining a snobbish distance. A Gareth Pugh collection is definitely a visual force; however, it comfortably ventures into the realm where people have to make up too much in order to explain what it is that they’re looking at. Seeing drainpipes on a major fashion week runway now and then is good for you. It keeps everything grounded but, especially when you try to obtain the stuff, reminds you that you’ve been wearing the same Urban Outfitters jeans for the past six months and that, despite this miserable reality, life is good.
