In the search for authenticity in fashion, the struggle is how to look normal, un-styled and real. Historically, fashion has been about aspiration not reality. But in the same week that the couture shows drew to an end, a Paris exhibition and book explore film director Gus Van Sant’s fascination with authenticity – or “unstyled styling”. Because in 2016, a return to normalcy is the apotheosis of style.
Van Sant doesn’t aim to be on trend. Rather he attempts to create hyper-realness in his films’ aesthetic. Tees worn over long sleeves in Gerry, a semi-improvised film following two men called Gerry who get lost in the American wilderness. Hoodies and layered skatewear in Elephant and Paranoid Park, precisely what kids were wearing in the early 00s. Grey marl hoodies, plaid and denim jackets in My Own Private Idaho, which places pin-ups River Phoenix and Keanu Reeves among unknown actors, all dressed in the same gritty, grimy stuff. Matt Damon in baggy trousers and a grandad shirt in Good Will Hunting.
The 1990s-inspired grunge at the heart of Van Sant’s aesthetic has been a fixture in fashion for a while. The key is to look normal, and for your clothes to look worn and/or grubby: “Sometimes, as in Elephant, the actors wore their own clothes so it looked more real,” says Matthieu Orléan, a friend of Van Sant and curator of the exhibition. “In using real kids instead of actors, his films looked more authentic and more realistic.”
The look is there in the work of Juergen Teller and Corinne Day, who is credited with discovering Kate Moss and turning conventional fashion photography on its head by capturing her subjects at their most fragile and real.
It was there in last autumn’s Céline campaign starring Joan Didion, looking wonky and dishevelled. And it was even alluded to in Chanel’s couture show, which was set in a functioning atelier, so as to remind you that the clothes are constructs, not fantasies.
This sentiment certainly chimes with what Jian DeLeon of trend-forecasting agency WGSN says is happening in British fashion, with the rise of Roadman style. The problematic word describes young, sportswear-wearing men from, usually, urban areas: “Think of it as a rough-around-the-edges answer to the oft-derided ‘athleisure’ trend,” says DeLeon. In eastern European fashion, the same can be said for Gopnik, a pejorative term for working-class men that inspired the post-Soviet look. In Australia, the term is “Bogan” (AKA surfers with bad taste), from which designers such as Ex Infinitas are borrowing. In the US, it was typically known as slacker chic, which segued into the “hipster” aesthetic, which was, in its most basic sense, an attempt to recreate authenticity.
The timing feels pointed. Catwalk fashion has long been dominated by a hyper-styled thrift-shop look created by what is known as “New Gucci”.
Simon Chilvers, the head of menswear at matchesfashion.com, thinks that while Van Sant’s work has informed a generation of men, “It’s just not possible to recreate that sort of authenticity in fashion.” He thinks Gosha Rubchinskiy, a Russian designer known for his sportswear, comes close “because he uses models he found on Instagram, ie normal models”.
Vetements has become the go-to metonym for this sort of look, too: hoodies with a twist; oversized sportswear and dresses that look like hand-me-downs; agitprop slogan hoodies and T-shirts. It’s no coincidence that Vetements showed at couture for the first time this year. Topshop Boutique’s new collection heavily references it with longline hoodies and comically big floral dresses – so it has broken into the mainstream, too.
Whether it marks the end of styling is up for debate. But as Rubchinskiy said at the end of his show: “I am not fashion” – and this new look looks set to subvert the polish we associate with fashion.
