Paris Youthquake

I’ve been immersed in show show show in Paris, writing up words for BBC and Dazed Digital as per usual so words here have been on the slow side.  There’s lots to say about the biggies – the houses that will have dominated headlines – but I wanted to turn my attention to the “yours” of Paris.  With news of yet another house being resurrected – Charles James by Zac Posen and a new expression of Nina Ricci by Guillaume Henry, it made me yearn for new identities formed independently.  And in Paris, in particular a city where fashion youth is just beginning to come to the forefront through initiatives like the LVMH Prize as well as a changing schedule that allows for new designers to show, it certainly feels like there’s a fertile movement going on around.  And more interestingly, a sort of aesthetic that is collectively reflecting on the awkward nature of growing up and coming of age.

Simon Porte of Jacquemus is perhaps the brightest star leading this wave of deliberately naive expression.  For A/W 15-6, he went further into the mindset of his inner child but taking his designers to even more primitive and raw places.  Sure, people will be focused on #FreeTheNipple especially with the opening silhouette but for Jacquemus it was about the childish state of being when you’re not aware of society’s frowning upon public nudity.  Without mining cliches, he was also looking at African tribes where toplessness is normal and was tapping into the freeing nature of being free of clothing constraints out in a wide open space.  Surreal hands covering the top half and collages exploding on the body were inspired by Michel Gondry films where dreamscapes appear out of mundane surroundings.  Jacques has always had an eye for the cartoonish but here the silhouettes are even more extreme, angular and exaggerated.  That awkward French suburban girl becomes a sexless young child.  I find it interesting that Jacquemus divides his audience where young Parisian “hipsters” (for want of a better word…) emerge from his shows excited and itching to wear what are perceived to be difficult shapes and then journalists that critique the technical aspects of his collection.  What I think is most pertinent about his work is that very raw energy, which can often be misinterpreted as “messy”.  Does it matter that there’s imperfections in his collection?  No, not really when he has an idiosyncratic way of looking at the world.  He’s once again in the LVMH Prize shortlist and for good reason.  With that sum of prize money, Jacquemus could take his vision to higher plains. 

Vetements is another LVMH shortlisted label, fronted by Demna Gvsalia, who worked previously at Maison Martin Margiela.  This was the first show I’d seen of theirs and whilst it is clear where the roots of the garments lie, it’s also speaking to a younger audience who won’t necessarily remember every single Marginal collection verbatim.  In a darkened Le Depot nightclub , oversized outerwear, vintage sportswear and irony-ridden items like an Antwerpen-Centraler bike shirt came out with a throbbing fast pace.  This was Margiela’s stomping ground but as that house heads in a different direction under Galliano.  the Vetements crew are reinvigorating this aesthetic for an set of kids (and they really were kids – I felt distinctly old at this show) who’d be thrifting for these clothes.  Maybe it’s s a touch perverse to be rehashing these styles as expensive designer clothing but to have them jostling for attention in the high fashion world also feels important.  Vestments is articulating a gawkish awkwardness as a rejection of preened perfection and that’s resonating with a specific strand of fashion crowd in Paris and beyond.

Another newcomer to Paris was AALTO, designed by the Finnish Tuomas Merikoski who is based in Paris.  He’s seeking to explore the diversity of modern Finnish youth culture and so for AALTO’s first collection, he has worked with the Finnish photographer Jouko Lehtola, who sadly passed away in 2010 and beautifully depicted the innocence and rage of Finnish teens.  His photos are printed on silhouettes that fuse the feminine with masculine.   I wasn’t at the presentation but just a look through these images gives you a strong idea of what AALTO (meaning “wave” in Finnish) is all about.  So much of our idea of Scandinavian fashion hails from Sweden or Denmark that it’s also a nice to see Finland having something to say about their youth culture and how they engage with fashion. 

Y/Project isn’t particularly new but Glenn Martens turn as creative director of this Paris-based brand is in the process of being established.  The Belgian designer has always been interested in the fine line between youth and adulthood and not dissimilar from Vetements, expresses this through graphic tailoring, streetwear elements and some 90s-tinged nostalgia.  Rave-inspired lenticular fabrics are contrasted with Harris tweeds.  These fabrics are made up into relaxed suiting, bomber jackets and track suit sets, which feel familiar and not all at once.  Again, it’s an expression of some sort of frustration or discontent at the world – a dissatisfaction of engendered style stereotypes and formalities. 

J.W. Anderson isn’t a Parisian designer but his collaborative zine with Larry Clark was shot in Paris as the boys and girls from Clark’s forthcoming film The Smell of Us are trussed up in Anderson’s menswear S/S 15 collection.  He launched it at colette last week and copies of the book will be included with the new issue of Document Journal.  Clark’s lens together with Anderson aptly sum up this youth-fuelled energy.  The lid is finally being lifted on this energy in Paris and long may that continue.