Harper\'s bazaar Malysia September 2018

164 HARPER’S BAZAAR SEPTEMBER 2018

STYL E

The

With designers trying to out-fugly each other at the Autumn/Winter ’18 collections,

Jamie Huckbody checks in with some of the industry’s most infl uential buyers and creatives

to get their take on the so-bad-it’s-good phenomenon.

Fashion is deep in the throes of a love a air with ugly. What

started out as a risqué  irtation with the mundane (laundry-

bag-inspired separates for Céline Autumn/Winter 13)

and the strictly o -limits (Christopher Kane’s furry-trim/

jewel-encrusted Crocs) has blossomed into a fully  edged

movement that is revolutionising the very notion of luxury.

Cue Autumn/Winter 18’s ultimate accessory: a prosthetic

head à la Gucci; Vetements’s Little Edie-goes-grunge mash-

ups, and Jonathan Anderson’s crafty dissonance both at his

eponymous label and Loewe.

“I sometimes think to myself, ‘Are the designers taking

the piss?’” says Kathleen Buscema, womenswear buyer at

Harrolds. “But it’s cool—fashion is just having a laugh.”

Because how else would you explain the industry’s

ongoing obsession with the disposable carrier bag as luxury

accessory (this season it appeared in clear and baby-blue

plastic at Burberry); the fugly shoe (more about those in a

bit); and the kind of out ts that look as if they’ve been put

together in a kilo sale? “ e shift to the absurd or weird or

‘ugly’ is more relatable to the millennial generation’s idea

of street cool,” Buscema continues. “It’s a zone they feel

comfortable in. It’s their protest. It’s their anarchy.”

Indeed, if you scratch the surface of these sartorial

shenanigans, you’ll  nd a serious commentary on the di cult

questions relating to current protest movements, such as:

what does it mean to be sexy in the era of #MeToo?; what do

we consider real beauty in a social-mediascape saturated with

retouched and  ltered imagery?; and what can be trusted in

a post-truth world in which the boundary between fact and

 ction is blurred to buggery?

“Fashion’s current celebration of the ‘ugly’ comes partly

from our desire for authenticity—there’s nothing more real

than ugly—and partly as a reaction against outdated beauty

standards that have failed to take diversity into consideration,”

THE UGLY TRUTH

Backstage at Gucci

Autumn/Winter ’18

Balaclava

chic done

right at

Calvin Klein

205W39NYC

Alessandro

Michele’s

eclectic prom

dress at Gucci

Piñata furs

at Dolce &

Gabbana

Double trouble at

Vetements