HOT Fashion education for free As people all over the world remain locked up, the fashion world is feeling generous. Suddenly you can access educational and inspirational fashion content free of charge, so now you know how to spend your newly gained free time. Institut Français de la Mode offers the online course Understanding fashion: from business to culture for free, so all you need to do to get taught by amongst others Jacquemus and Francesca Bellettini about both the cultural and logical aspects of fashion is to sign up here.
Sarabande Foundation, established by Alexander McQueen, have released their Sarabande Sessions on their website. You can now watch multiple inspirational and informational talks on fashion, film and digital strategies without paying. But be quick, because they have stated that the talks will remain free only for the lockdown period – and you wouldn’t want the happiness of being released from lockdown ruined by missing out on the Sarabande Sessions, right?
Prada are doing their part too, with ‘a series of digital talks exploring culture, fashion and life’. The Prada Possible Conversations are livestreamed on Instagram, check out the schedule here.
The 00’s
I would be lying if I said that the 00’s trends are not heating up. It might feel like it’s too soon, but they are coming back, whether we are ready for it or not. To be honest, I genuinely hope that we have left most of the 00’s fashion behind forever, yet some parts of it are actually hot! I’m talking rhinestones, low rise jeans, and a pink, glittery Y2K aesthetic in general. If you’re not really feeling crowning Paris Hilton as your style icon (yet), look over to Bella Hadid, because I dare say she’s a professional at making the 00’s style look good in the 20’s. Personally, I will never accept tight low rise jeans, but I have found myself taking a liking to baggy pants with a low rise fit. (I think this might be a result of me shopping in the men’s vintage section and ending up buying trousers in the right length, but wrong waist size – which leads to them hanging out further down my hips than my usual waist-hugging ones.) Pair such pants with a cropped top and show off your midriff to look hot with a touch of 00’s. My next experiment for summer is a 00’s loose fit, low rise denim skirt – again, Bella Hadid will make you want to try it!
SKIP Dinner’s Apocalypse survival guide It’s safe to say that the corona crisis has spread a somewhat apocalyptic feeling throughout the world, but here’s some comfort: we’ll survive this too – at least with the help of SKIP Dinner’s Apocalypse survival guide. SKIP Dinner is the satirical fashion platform made by the fashion journalist George Serventi (who you can read more about here in our interview with him), especially targeted at insiders in the industry. For London Fashion Week this year, SKIP Dinner released a printed Fashion Week Survival Guide, but here we are now, with no fashion week in near sight. That’s why @skipdin is fighting the boredom and the apocalypse at the same time, by giving us ‘30 blockbusterpages of fashion satire’ in a new survival guide. You can still get your own copy at their website (skipdinner.co.uk), or just try out the custom made face filter on Instagram, to find out what your contribution to the end of the world will be. Apparently mine will be preaching online, which is scary accurate considering what I’m doing right now… Anyways: some fashion comic relief is welcomed in these times.
NOT HOT
Redundant logos In March, Valentino started posting photos on Instagram of their new designs, and they are working with maxi logos. This awoke a feeling of disgust in me, which awakes every time I see a huge logo or brand name turn a decent design into shit. Unless the logo is classic enough to elegantly carry the entire essence of the brand in it, an excessively large logo looks tacky 90% of the time. Honestly, text in general ruins most designs. The Balenciaga Ville bag with the graffiti logo has been annoying me for a long time now, it would have been much better off without the huge added ‘BALENCIAGA’. And I can’t leave this topic without scolding Off-White, since this is their speciality. Their Tomboy Arrows t-shirt, for example, looks like a Billabong tee my dad would buy in Thailand from the front, and like a 2014 feminist tee from H&M Divided from the back. Need I say more…? Perhaps what’s bothering me with maxi logos is that they make the brand in question more significant than the actual design. Oh, and of course: they are usually just ugly. Logos (and “statement” pieces covered in text) have had their glory days, but allow me to proclaim that they are over.
Facemasks as fashion I was actually a little torn between calling this hot or not, because it’s definitely boiling in the fashion world right now, but as you can see I ended up putting it on the not-list, so let me explain: Nobody can possibly have missed the boom of fashionable facemasks that are suddenly on the market due to the coronavirus. In multiple places wearing a face mask has become mandatory, so I do understand that people want the big piece of fabric covering half of their face to look fashionable. I get it. But I can’t help my scepticism. Maybe it’s that it feels so very forced. Maybe it’s that companies are using it as a way to profit off people’s fear (and vanity, but that’s nothing new). Or maybe it’s only that it sends off hypebeast vibes… It just doesn’t sit right with me. Face masks aren’t hot for real, somebody has to say it. They’re acceptable because of the extreme situation we’re in, but now all influencers are in some kind of group psychosis where fashionable face masks are the best thing that has ever happened. Can we please stop pretending? They might be a necessity right now, but they’re not hot, and they shouldn’t stay in the limelight for a minute longer than needed. I’m not saying they won’t be a trend, because they certainly will be. I’m just hoping it dies quickly together with the virus.
The death of physical fashion stores You’re all already familiar with the perks of shopping on the internet, so I don’t have to go in any further on them. What I would instead like you to bear in mind for a moment is what’s happening to physical clothing stores at the moment. They were already threatened by our increased online shopping, and then the pandemic came and forced them to shut in many countries, thus establishing our digital shopping behaviour even more. And that, my friends, is worrying me. No need to call me a boomer, I’m not one to preach about how it was better in the good old days, or about how the internet is ruining everything. And don’t worry, I won’t write an economical essay on this either, I trust you enough to believe you’re already aware of the down going trend in physical retail. I just have to admit, that even though I love how online shopping is making everything accessible I would grieve the death of physical stores. Walking around in a store surrounded by colours and shapes, feeling the fabric between your fingertips, and trying on the fit before buying – it’s all an essential experience when it comes to fashion. I will continue clicking ‘add to bag’ because I’m a hypocrite, but I’m also hoping that my favourite physical stores will survive this pandemic and everything else up until the end of the world. So remember that #supportyourlocals includes fashion too.
by Cornelia Falknäs