Smells Like Grunge Again

[Astrid21]

Originally posted by New York Times@ September 30, 2003

Smells Like Grunge Again

By RUTH LA FERLA

<span style='font-size:15pt;line-height:100%'>Scarcely had fashion decreed bourgeois chic the order of the day when a backlash set in. That reaction, as timely as it is unruly, arrives in the unlikely guise of grunge. That much maligned Seattle-born style, popularized by rock legends like Nirvana, has reared its head once more in the shape of lumberjack shirts, jaunty kilts, beat-up sweat shirts, bleached-out jeans and all manner of leggings in worker-bee stripes.

Its arrival coincides with the advent of neo-grunge rockers, and in its earliest incarnations, it has already filtered into fashion's mainstream. Stores like Hot Topic and American Eagle Outfitters chase after teenagers' dollars with work shirts and jeans, meant to be piled on chaotically in the manner of Kurt Cobain, the iconic lead singer of Nirvana. But new interpretations of the style have surfaced in more rarefied quarters as well.

Grunge has been a recurrent theme in fashion since the early 90's, when rockers like Cobain transformed kilts, moth-eaten sweaters and lumberjack plaids into the insignia of yuppie revolt. "Grunge returns whenever fashion is reacting against a more preppy or establishment look," said Andrew Bolton, associate curator of the Costume Institute at the Met. "It's very much an antifashion statement, one that breaks down the notions of what goes with what."

If Cobain thought nothing of pulling a tattered baby-doll dress over jeans, combining a Pendleton shirt with a kilt, or wrapping said shirt at his hips like a skirt, designers are taking a tidier route. Thus Marc Jacobs, who notoriously created a grunge collection for Perry Ellis a decade ago, reintroduced elements of the look in his secondary line. The collection, shown this month during Fashion Week, was built on an amalgam of rainbow-colored layers, a sprightly version of the style that was once embraced by disaffected high schoolers and the protagonists of "Wayne's World."

Like Mr. Jacobs, Jean Touitou, the designer for A.P.C., gave his grunge-inspired fall collection a playful air. Evocatively christened Smells like Seattle, it is full of lumberjack shirts in plaid polyester, beefy cardigans, striped leggings and kilts. Mr. Touitou's decision to resurrect the look was a reaction to "all that cheap glamour," he said, referring to the ubiquity of Manolo-shod editors and their gin-sipping dates posturing archly in the lobby of the Mercer Hotel in SoHo. "I think the world needs a blitzkrieg answer to all that," he said.

Mr. Touitou would likely find compatriots at Utilikilts, a Seattle store and Web site that sells kilts to men from all walks of life, including, lately, a new generation of Cobain wannabes. The look is no less alluring to the Manhattan adolescents now snapping up corduroy jackets with fake fur trim, or plaid flannel shirts, to be layered two at a time over bleached or weathered jeans, at Marsha D.D. on the Upper East Side. "You would think that grunge is an unconscious influence because these kids are too young to remember its source," said Marsha Drogin Dayan, the store's owner. "But now I'm not so sure."

It is doubtful, though, that the movement's latest subscribers have more than a nodding acquaintance with its counterculture roots. "Today the style is romanticized," Mr. Bolton said. "It's more about nostalgia than politics." </span>

Opinions?

[contessacolette]

oh no.

[Astrid21]

Same here.

[Lena]

maybe the journalist speaks just about U.S. but honestly i simply cannot see the grunge link (either as street style or the fw/ss collections)

i wonder why/how he thought of grunge, MJ's Mark line was absolutely NOT grunge, more like 80s casual teen wear and all the bright colours were not grunge at all

thanks for bringing us the article Astrid

[Cicciolina]

Thanks for the article. I'm not keen on grunge either. Was that picture suppose to portray grunge fashion though?!?!?!?!?

[Erin]

Originally posted by Cicciolina@Sep 30th, 2003 - 4:13 am
Thanks for the article. I'm not keen on grunge either. Was that picture suppose to portray grunge fashion though?!?!?!?!?

That's what I was thinking...

If so, I can live with that.

[fashionablyyours]

Please please no. It was okay when I was 12 but not now

[contessacolette]

grunge doesn't even qualify as "fashion"
grunge is basically very sloppy way of dressing

[Acid]

Grunge is already MASSIVE in london......we have an 'alternative' town just outside the centre of london called camden

[Lena]

Originally posted by Acid@Sep 30th, 2003 - 7:30 pm
Grunge is already MASSIVE in london......

grunge? or sloppy acid? make this a bit clear will you?

London is packed with notoriously sloppy dressers anyway and its more a matter of non-style than a matter of consious style

[HBoogie]

Grunge was all greys and navy blues with an occasional red-and-black lumberjack flannel thrown in, definitely not this colorful.

People still layer things, and people are still sloppy, but overall clothes are tighter, the silouhette is MUCH less baggy than it was in the early to mid 90s.

It just smells like teen casual to me.

Oh, and there have been "neo-grunge" rockers ever since the moment Nirvana came on the scene. We're about in the post-post-post-post-post-post grunge stage right now.

(I kind of think this writer doesn't totally know what she's talking about.)

[Lena]

Originally posted by HBoogie@Sep 30th, 2003 - 8:46 pm
(I kind of think this writer doesn't totally know what she's talking about.)

i agree on everything you said here Hboogie

[Astrid21]

Originally posted by Cicciolina@Sep 30th, 2003 - 3:13 am
Thanks for the article. I'm not keen on grunge either. Was that picture suppose to portray grunge fashion though?!?!?!?!?

That's the picture it came with.

[Acid]

Originally posted by Lena+Sep 30th, 2003 - 5:33 pm--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Lena @ Sep 30th, 2003 - 5:33 pm)</div><div class='quotemain'> <!--QuoteBegin-Acid@Sep 30th, 2003 - 7:30 pm
Grunge is already MASSIVE in london......

grunge? or sloppy acid? make this a bit clear will you?

London is packed with notoriously sloppy dressers anyway and its more a matter of non-style than a matter of consious style [/b][/quote]
its neither non-style or consious style Lena.....its just something they follow to look like their rock/punk/grunge/metal idol's

i need to get pics

[Spacemiu]

Sounds cool to me as long as it dosnt get to baggy