This "unfashionable" style actually originated from the "Grunge" style in the 1990s.
Tom Ford, a famous fashion designer, once said: Music is the rhythm of time and fashion culture.
Let’s follow the song "Come As You Are" by the famous Grunge band Nevermind to learn about this trend led by Duke Zhou again.
Since 1950s, the fashions extended by pop music have been rock, punk, goth and Grunge. The first few can be said to be "anti-fashion" trends, with special iconic styles, anti-mainstream, but still for modeling.
Grunge, on the other hand, is completely different. It belongs to "unfashionable". To put it bluntly: just ask for food and clothing, not styling.
Because under the influence of the great economic recession in the 1970s, the bands in Seattle had no money to record, so the distortion and overload effects were strengthened in the songs, and the low-cost recording was simply made into a style.
At that time, six independent rock bands in Seattle collaborated to produce an album Deep Six, which defined Grunge’s musical style. Naturally, members of the band can’t afford expensive clothes and accessories, and their hairstyles are even more self-releasing, and they go out directly with their long hair untrimmed.
You know, before that, young musicians wore fur coats and rivets, and kept the shape of mohicans’s head.
Later, as Grunge music became no longer a niche, it was not until Nirvana band launched "NEVERMIND", which once surpassed Michael Jackson’s "Dangerous", and Grunge music was completely popular.
In 1992, the rock comedy film Singles was based on this music trend, and many band members were invited to guest star.
Nirvana’s lead singer Kurt Cobain’s modeling is the main Icon that affects popular fashion. At that time, although there had been great achievements in music, the band members who had not made any money still lived a life of living on the street. The stage performances are all dressed in "beggar style".
The most famous appearance on stage is an artistic printed T-shirt and ripped jeans, and a cardigan inherited from grandma, or a "programmer’s shirt".
This old sweater was later exhibited as a Grunge culture.
Where did this kind of clothes come from? All the band members bought them in a second-hand shop in Seattle. Different from the current second-hand shops, what was sold in the second-hand shops at that time was not that the middle class bought expensive brand clothes to pay back the money, but that the blue-collar workers who also had no money sold their old clothes for meals.
So … the holes in the clothes of these band members are really worn out, not broken at the beginning of design. Kurt Cobain insisted on wearing it even after he became popular, also to express his protest against materialism. Coupled with the continuous rain in Seattle, this kind of clothes is very comfortable and stylish.
But sometimes things are so dramatic. The old clothes people wear when they are not red are called second-hand, and the old clothes they wear after they are red are called trends. At that time, Kurt Cobain’s tramp style became the coolest match in the hearts of young people.
The subculture trend around Grunge has suddenly become the most popular "traffic password". From clothes to daily necessities, you should bring a little of this style to sell.
Kurt Cobain and his wife Courtney Love have become the standard fashion Icon of men’s and women’s Grunge dressing styles.
Men’s Grunge style is large, wrinkled plaid shirts, cardigans, tattered jeans and sweaters, while shoes are Converse, Vans canvas shoes and martin shoes.
The reason why there was a more expensive martin shoes was that there were many loggers in Seattle at that time, and martin shoes was the work shoes that loggers just needed. Of course, after everyone chased and bought it as a fashion, they all wore Dr.Martens’ boots.
Women’s Grunge style, on the other hand, is relatively less neutral, but wears wrinkled and tattered doll skirts. After all, second-hand women’s clothes are also these clothes.
Finally, even the high-end fashion industry began to design clothes in Grunge style. In 1993, Marc Jacobs, who was the designer of Perry Ellis brand at that time, boldly designated the main body of the spring and summer collection as "Redux Grunge" and let the models walk on the runway in "tattered" clothes.
It was a tragedy to be scolded at that time, and all major media published articles attacking the show, thinking how to put this decadent style on the runway of high fashion. And the brand fired Marc Jacobs for it. To make matters worse, Marc Jacobs gave this series of clothes to Kurt Cobain and Courtney Love as gifts. As a result, the couple were very angry and thought that he was a cultural appropriation, which violated Grunge’s original intention of "unfashionable" and burned the clothes.
Interestingly, this incident has also become a turning point. Although being dismissed by the brand was denied by everyone, the design of this series won Marc Jacobs the annual women’s designer award of the American Fashion Designers Association and encouraged him to start his own brand. Since then, a series of stories in the fashion circle have been opened.
Grunge style once faded out of fashion after Kurt Cobain’s death. Until nearly 10 years, it was re-selected as a source of inspiration by fashion designers and re-entered the modeling stage. For example, when Fear of God first came out, it was such an atmosphere. Marc Jacobs once again launched the Grunge series in his own brand in 2018, making fun of himself.
Among high-end fashion brands, Christian Dior’s autumn and winter 2018 collection and Saint Laurent’s autumn and winter 2013 collection all have the revival of Grunge style.
After knowing this logic, it is easy to grasp. First of all, plaid shirts can still continue, because there are still many men and women who buy plaid shirts in this era.
The size you choose must be one size larger, otherwise you can’t create the atmosphere of second-hand clothes that you don’t have much choice in size. A large plaid shirt with some ripped jeans is a very Grunge atmosphere.
Like Yang Mi and Nana Ou-yang, baseball caps can be used to match the street feeling.
You can also use the plaid shirt as an ornament and tie it around your waist to match the summer T-shirt.
A big shirt made of colored blocks like this is also a good choice. Paired with ripped jeans, it is a full-body patch.
Pants can be worn with more holes, shorts and boots, depending on whether you want to be more sporty or chic.
Layered collocation can also create a sense of wandering, such as a long coat to match pants, and then a coat, this combination is very OK.
Therefore, those dresses can be worn as tops with trousers. Pants should be loose rather than tight, so as to have a loose overall style.
And holes and crochets are naturally items with a sense of atmosphere. With their large-scale matching shapes, there will be a sense of wandering.
Source: SAINT LAURENT official, Oriental IC, Google, instagram, Sina Weibo.
