August 31, 2015 |
The following is best read in the voice of the narrator from The Rocky Horror Picture Show… I would like, ah, if I may… to take you on a strange journey. It seemed a fairly ordinary night when the male fashion press, on a late January evening, departed for a Parisian suburb to see the AW15 show from Raf Simons. It’s true that there were no chairs, that they had to stand. It’s true that the light was an eerie, greyish-blue colour. It’s true also that, when the first boys emerged, in long white lab coats covered in doodles, they resembled, every so slightly, a vision of a crazed doctor. A Dr Frankenstein, or even Frank-N-Furter, releasing his vision of man into the world. In just seven days Raf can make you a man. But Raf’s vision is not about creating a perfect specimen of manhood. Raf’s vision is an idealised vision of the awkwardness of youth. The need to belong, to find out where you fit in, not conforming but finding like-minded people. The idea of cult and subculture, and communicating your allegiances via what you wear and how you wear. Who didn’t customise their clothes as a teenager? Who didn’t sew patches on rucksacks, doodle on jeans as a way of communicating who you are? When you’re young, it’s sometimes easier to be heard without speaking. Sometimes what you wear is who you are.
Photograph: Jason Lloyd-Evans
