Fashion at the moment is making me feel my years. No really - all of the weight of 23 years which relatively speaking is barely old at all. Yet there it is. I don't like to say that fashion is ageist as I believe that it's the attitude not the age that dictates what you wear but if we're honest, spring summer 2007 is exhuberantly, and perhaps for some people scarily youthful. The spring summer collections are reflecting a certain state of mind. To use the by now sickeningly over stated buzz phrase 'nu-rave' which will probably leave some of you cold, I am already seeing hordes of people take to it like a duck to water. When high street stores like Topshop, H&M and New Look devote entire rails or even sections to loud as you like prints, neon tanks and leggings with kitsch-cute clothing, you know something has properly arrived in the mainstream. Entire magazines dedicated to the subject of nu-rave and what were under the radar club culture personalities who are now almost celebrities in their own right. I can't think for the last few months what magazine have I picked up that DOESN'T contain something that goes with the groove of nu-rave.
What I think is happening and this is just a bone in the air, as people somehow revert to wearing all things naff and tacky, by referencing pop culture in our dress and genuinely 'playing with clothes' (that's actually literal since I've seen people with necklaces of McDonalds toys and soft toy bracelets), it comes from the desire to grasp at youth. If you are young, then it makes you feel like you're age appropriate, doing the reckless fashion thing, not conforming (even though people may not realise they actually ARE conforming). If you are not, then it could well be a case of Peter Pan Syndrome, (something I'm quite familar with hailing from Hong Kong, a place where 50 year old women still wear cartoon t-shirts and short shorts), where you don't want to ever grow up. In the social and financial situation that more and more British people are facing - rising house prices, higher levels of taxation, longer working hours, longer working years, nobody is eager to face the real world and so to the irreverance of nu-rave fashion we go. This is just a theory as I'm sort of suggesting that the garments in question isn't the main point of focus but rather it's the energy, the kind of sense of abandon that people are craving and more than happy to embrace.
At the Jean Charles de Castelbajac AW/06-7 show, you could feel that energy bouncing off the walls of the salle in the Carrousel du Louvre. Even before the show began, as you saw the whole Super Super clan walking around (it was very amusing to see the shocked faces on some of the more elderly fashion press there), you could feel it. As the sow started and Hypnolove began their live set, models strutted down in loud prints, in furry Muppet costumes, plenty of sequins and neon and of course a ton of pop culture references, you could see this was the best of JCDC instilled into a collection. More to the point, in the front row, steely women clad in chic black were sort of smiling and bopping along to the music. Now of course I could never imagine them wearing any JCDC but perhaps they appreciated the youthfulness of it all, the sentiment.
So my thoughts are that what is causing all the major buzz about nu-rave, pop fashion and cartoon excessiveness is quite possibly, the feeling it gives off. The holding onto youth in these uncertain times. Perhaps me reading into it all on a social context is too much and I don't deny the clothing itself is not at work here and is not appealing by itself but at the same time, I can't explaing why suddenly some neon tights have ended up snaking its way into my wardrobe or why I'm loving Kokon To Zai's own label at the moment. Everything in moderation for me of course. It could be the increased prominence of everything but it could be something a bit more latent than that, something in the psyche of nu-rave.
