High Fashion and Streetwear
Where does Streetwear fit in the fashion spectrum ranging from fast fashion, trend hopping to haute couture? Poll your fashion conscious friends and you will likely get answers spanning almost that entire range. At the most recent New York Fashion week, arguably the only streetwear brand present was Visvim, and even they did not show a clear streetwear collection; blending in pieces that would work just as well in workwear fits. There was no true streetwear runway show. However, to lump streetwear in with fast fashion, and dismiss it as the “flavor of the month” from which top brands have already moved on from, would be premature and overly simplistic. Antonio Cristaudo, marketing development manager of Pitti Immagine said in 2015, “Streetwear — understood as a cultural phenomenon and not a trend — is certainly destined to last.” This is certainly true. Streetwear influences can still be seen on the runway, strongly separating it from fast fashion. With fast fashion, which is, by definition, latching onto trends for a brief moment at their peak for profit, there is no interchange of ideas, no interdependence with high fashion. Fast fashion is always, by necessity, one step behind the latest runway shows or fashion trends.
What gives streetwear its staying power is that give and take between the trends inside of streetwear and those of high fashion. While there may be no, or few, true streetwear runway shows, the influence of streetwear is undeniable. H&M’s recent collaboration with Balmain, and prior to that, Alexander Wang, exemplified this. The world’s preeminent fast fashion retailer released collections rife with windbreakers, parkas, biker jeans, and sneakers, all hallmarks of streetwear. Moreover, that these collections were done in collaboration with the, at the time, creative director of Balenciaga, and then one of the fashion industry’s giants, goes to show how far into the fashion world streetwear has permeated. Streetwear made it all the way up the fashion ladder to influence top designers and then be sampled for fast fashion.
Yet, influence is a two way street and the high fashion effects on streetwear are similarly unmistakable. Historically, streetwear has been a more accessible aesthetic. Blending aspects of sneaker culture and strong branding; a pair of jordans with skinny jeans and a band tee, or vans with distressed jeans and a Supreme sweatshirt, to produce an urban feel. There is still a place for these “traditional” fits, but retailers and consumers are looking to incorporate better fabrics and stitching into them. Tee shirts and other fundamentals are now expensive not because of the branding, but because of the craftsmanship. Furthermore, now more than ever, streetwear is moving towards “runwayesque” statement pieces. Brands such as Off-White are at this intersection of high fashion and streetwear. With characteristic, diagonal, white stripes splashed on the sleeves and backs of jackets in combination with loud graphics, the pieces are unmissable. Virgil Abloh, head director of Off-White, described it as “trying to show just how Parisian our Lower East Side streetwear can get.”
This blending with high fashion, and upscaling, of traditional streetwear pieces holds exciting promise for pushing streetwear even further into the consciences of upper-echelon designers, and cementing streetwear’s place in the world of fashion.
jacobvanloon
germansingergirl
kianamaiart
snowghoul
kaledo-art
gummygunk
titsay
andulkaphoto
vaporwave
