제 14 호 What’s Against the Main Fashion Trend?
Kicker: LIFE (FASHION)
What’s Against the Main Fashion Trend?
Fashion Denying the Traditional Custom
By Sol-Hyang Park, Editor-in-chief
Power is usually meant to flow from top to bottom. Fashion is the same. The fashion of the upper class, such as the aristocracy, has become a trend and spreads downward from the past. However, is there any case where the fashion of the lower classes spread to the public?
What Is “Anti-Fashion?”
Anti-fashion’s origin goes back about 70 years. In the 1950-60s, mass production systems developed with the development of technology, and popular culture also developed rapidly as mass media such as TV and, movies emerged. The economy grew, the middle class expanded, and its consumption and cultural activities became active. Due to these social changes, it became easier to get, experience, and try fashion. Moreover, fashion became more personalized and diverse as more and more people consumed fashion. Like this, with the development of popular culture, fashion has begun to express various values of society. At that time, mainstream fashion was usually focused on high fashion brands. For example, in the 1950s, Dior led the popularization of fashion with its Haute Couture’s success.
However, several social problems emerged caused by industrialization. Some people started to reject the uniform society brought about by mass production and resist the mainstream society. This movement began to express rebellious messages about society and various personal identities through fashion - this is “Anti-fashion.” Such anti-fashion often showed the needs and identity of subcultural groups, and most of them contained political and social messages. The representative examples that were born like in this way are now well known to us, such as hippie, moz, and punk styles.
Representatives of Anti-Fashion
Anti-fashion is the story of the sub-group, and the way non-mainstream is against the mainstream. Let's look at its resistance by looking at the three representative examples of anti-fashion.
1. HIPPIE
Hippie arose among young Americans in the 1960s. The young born around the Second World War and went through various wars, rejected cruel wars and sought love and peace. They criticized a human alienation in capitalist society and valued folk values. Furthermore, they rejected the city rife with capitalism and human alienation. Instead, they pursued nature, spiritual liberation and freedom.
Reflecting their values, the hippie style overall feels like a free spirit, similar to an ethnic(=reflecting national traditions)style.It emphasizes the printing or embroidery of natural patterns such as flowers that represent ethnicity, with a loose silhouette easy to move. Hippie style has now become a particular fashion style – we can often see the style in popular culture in concepts that emphasize freedom or nature.
2. PUNK
Punk came from the younger generation who opposed the despairing society in Britain in the 1970s.
At that time, Britain had a serious economic difficulty after the war. The British government imposed restrictions on workers' wages to curb inflation : accordingly, workers and the young were furious. This situation and the popular punk rock music culture at the time were met, and punk fashion appeared.
Sex Pistols, a British punk rock group that represents the punk style of the 1970s / photo by Eric EchenbergThe young expressed their confusion, frustration, and anger through punk. They also rejected the norms of society and the uniformity of mass production systems and emphasized an independent attitude and individuality.
In this context, punk has a rebellious, aggressive, and free-spirited style. In particular, they emphasized the DIY (do it yourself) spirit, revealing their own attitude and personality, so they tore T-shirts or wrote down a message. They also put Safety pins, studs, spikes, chains, zippers, locks, and straps. The hairstyle was pouty, and the makeup was a thick smokey. Punk style also has now become a particular fashion style – we can often see the style in popular culture in concepts that emphasize being naughty or rebellious.
3. GRUNGE
Fashion emerged in the U.S. in the 1990s. In the early 1990s, the U.S. was filled with anxiety and depression with the Gulf War outside and the economic downturn inside. The young of this era expressed their dissatisfaction, fear, and cynicism about this unstable reality through grunge looks.They criticized the capitalist system and elitism and emphasized economic inequality.
The most noticeable feature of grunge is that it openly shows 'poverty.’ Grunge shows a lot of holes, loosened strands, and torn details everywhere without hiding. We can also see a mess of mix-and-match of various fabric and excessive layering. It also emphasized the old, worn-out details against the fast-changing trend of mainstream fashion.
Anti-Fashion Sweeping the Mainstream
We looked at 3 representative anti-fashion styles, all of which do not try to look beautiful from a social perspective, but instead focused on social problems and their independent values.
The original identity that anti-fashion showed has attracted the public's attention. Mainstream fashion has been inspired by anti-fashion and they have borrowed its characteristics and brought up to new ideas. In the process, mainstream fashion brands have eased the aggressiveness of it and added popularity, expanding it to mainstream fashion.
Now, numerous fashions are introducing anti fashion - anti-fashion has swept the mainstream fashion. The spread of anti-fashion has led people to question what fashion is and what the definition of beauty is. Thus, attempts have emerged to overcome the limitations of mainstream fashion. For example, deconstructivism, which destroys the standardized composition of fashion, has also drawn attention.
Anti-fashion still plays a big part in fashion in the 21st century. Still, many fashion brands borrow a lot of anti fashion styles. They also deliver social messages about environmental protection and LGBT rights.
Anti-fashion has led to new fashion by expressing their own identity beyond the existing fashion norms.In this way, fashion is a communication tool that not only covers our body and shows off something, but also can convey social messages and show the values of a particular group. I hope more diverse classes will resist society, the mainstream and express their values through fashion. Therefore, the fashion world will become more diverse, new, and beautiful.
Sources
https://visla.kr/feature/128754/
