Not Board Yet

For the inaugural issue of Miss Vogue Australia last year, I wrote a piece investigating the true nature of “Sk8ter Girl” style speaking to female skate insiders and learning a little about brands that are as far and away from Celine-printed skateboards and Thomas Tait separates as you could possibly get.  One quote that stuck with me was from Maria Falbo, someone whose own passion for skate does cross over into fashion as she’s about to relaunch her skate-infused line of clothing and accompanying editorial site Copson Street.  “In a way I think it’s great, as my whole lifestyle has become a little more acceptable to the general public making it a little easier to do whatever you want whenever,” said Falbo.  “I guess it is the perfect example of the trickle up theory with things bubbling under the surface to collectively help place skateboarding in front of a more mainstream audience.”  Well, it doesn’t get more mainstream than the windows of Selfridges, seen by thousands of people on a daily basis.  “Board Games” have taken over the windows and the concept store – no, not Scrabble or Monopoly – but skate and surf boards to neatly coincide with the ever-lingering influences of these active sports on fashion in both menswear and womenswear.

In the opening intro of a collaborative supplement compiled by Dazed, for Selfridges’ Board Games project, I said that the reason why fashion has become consistently inspired by skate (and to a lesser extent surf) culture was that search for authenticity. “Keeping it real” is incredibly important to these sub-cultures and that’s a notion that is definitely slipping away from the fashion industry.  By tapping into these worlds, it lends credence to fashion, even if the results of these skate-inspired attire wind up being far-removed from what “real” skate attire is.

My original Miss Vogue piece had skaters objecting against this intersection between their realm and that of fashion.  One even called it “lame”.  The collusion between the two worlds seems to be an agreeable one at Selfridges though.  A quick wander through the ground floor concept store and the skate/fashion crossover is evident with Slam City Skates taking over with their more “straight-up” skate wares and then on the other side, you have an impressive wall filled with limited edition skateboards from over fifty designers.  Even at a fairly quiet hour, people were putting their names down to order these boards, with designs by the likes of Preen, Givenchy, Stella McCartney and Yohji Yamamoto.  Jayne Min of Stop it Right Now probably has a lot to answer for with her now iconic Celine DIY board that had people agog.  Selfridges have taken it a step further with more limited art boards created by such as an engraved granite board by Rick Owens or a moulded silicone board by Sacai complete with attached feet.  My eyes are on the striped floral Dries van Noten board to ride in amateur fashion in Selfridges’ soon-to-open skate park located in the Old Selfridges Hotel at the back of the store.  It will be interesting to see if “real” skaters embrace this space with open arms.

 

Fashion wise, Board Games merely cements the changing direction of Selfridges’ buy, brought on by a change-up in the buying team. In the last two years, we’ve seen dramatic changes made to Selfridges’ designer womenswear, contemporary womenswear, menswear and now contemporary menswear floor, where brands like Virgil’s Off-White label, Hood by Air and Marcelo Burlon’s t-shirts reflect what’s going on in menswear where high fashion has converged with streetwear. With every visit and every new initiative, Selfridges are stepping up their game.  Board games is merely representative of a shift that makes the department store even more relevant in today’s competitive retail environment.

 

You can read the Dazed & Selfridges collaborative supplement online here: