In the new season, streetwear is being replaced by dresses with ruffles and puffy sleeves

Submission of this material to the April issue takes place against the background of Fall-Winter 2020 Fashion Week is the first fashion show of the new decade. Not that it died down, but at least NYFW took place, the London one finished. On the catwalks — flowers, ruffles, long gloves, feathers, corsets, berets, jackets, high boots, nostalgia for the 1960s, which we now read through the prism of “The Amazing Mrs. Maisel”, dresses made of tulle in punk processing. And even-suddenly! – ties. All this mosaic of trends says one thing: fashion, which for several years danced to the tune of streetwear, changes its vector and defines new industry leaders-Simone Rocha, Molly Goddard, Ganni, Cecilie Bahnsen, JW Anderson, Brock Collection now decide what we will wear in the new season.

Cecilie Bahnsen autumn-winter 2020

© Photo: Andrea Adriani / Gorunway.com

Suddenly? Not really. In December, Dazed published an interview with Virgil Abloh, in which the uncrowned king of streetwear took and bury the trend that provided him with a job. “She will die. Her time has come. After all, how many more T-shirts, hoodies and sneakers do we need? – such a diagnosis of street fashion was made by the founder of the Off-White brand and the creative director of the men’s line of Louis Vuitton, answering the question of how streetwear will feel in the coming decade. You can treat the American’s design skills as you like (although he himself does not claim to be a designer), but you will not deny him the ability to feel and monetize zeitgeist.

Fortunately or unfortunately, Abloh is one of those who defined the 2010s with their “hype-eating”, sneaker worship and collaborations. In 2012, a friend of Kanye West launched the Off-White brand, betting on things that a decade earlier it would have been difficult to imagine in the vanguard of catwalk fashion, and was so successful that six years later he received an offer from the great and powerful Louis Vuitton (journalists joked that PFW should have been renamed Virgil Abloh Fashion Week — so important a player he became there). And if the most important bee decided to oppose honey, it means something.

Especially since you can’t argue with Virgil: the number of hoodies, sneakers and T-shirts really exceeded all imaginable norms. Not least because these wardrobe items have become something of a way for brands to communicate with a younger generation of customers. Not your mother’s — with this postscript now live Gucci, Versace and all the same Louis Vuitton. In the mid-2010s, even Karl Lagerfeld, who once called sweatpants a sign of despair, added sportswear and sneakers to the Chanel collection. I also made Kristen Stewart the face of the fashion house, an actress who literally lives in sweatpants. This “sportization” certainly had a good side: fashion suddenly became as convenient as possible; for once, it went to meet the customer halfway and stopped demanding sacrifices for beauty.

Kristen Stewart and Karl Lagerfeld, 2013

© Bertrand Rindoff Petroff

But, having received the widest possible distribution, streetwear began to lose its inherent sharpness at the start. The catwalk version quickly lost touch with the real streetwear — the one that was invented by surfers and skaters half a century ago, and then found refuge in hip-hop — and ceased to be an acute social statement on the topic of democratization and simplification of fashion. All this turned into a mockery: fashion houses offered customers T-shirts and sneakers with a clearly inflated price tag. And the big brands — with the possible exception of Gucci and Balenciaga-hardly managed to really attract teenagers. Teenagers still have their own heroes and financial opportunities. And what to do with a hoodie for an adult is not always clear.

To streetfire cooled by its own singers. Demna Gvasalia, having played enough with the hoodie, revives the couture line in the Balenciaga House with its inherent complex cut and abundance of details. “For me, couture stands above trends. This is the ultimate expression of beauty, ” the designer explained his decision in a recent interview with American Vogue. Kim Jones, one of the pioneers of the genre, also gave up. If his previous, off-season collection Dior Men was distinguished by collaborations with Nike and Sean Stussy, then in his new collection of sneakers there was no place from the word “absolutely”. And looking at this dashing roll, it’s easy to believe that streetwear-just like Game of Thrones and Ben Affleck’s Batman-will remain a legacy of the 2010s.

And you know what? That’s not bad. After stalling for several years on one megatrend, designers are finally ready to continue their journey. Their new companions are romance and elegance, which editors, influencers and just fashionable girls have already missed. And there is no better starting point than the beginning of a new decade, dubbed the roaring twenties in absentia. Do you hear me, Virgil? We are with you!

Adwoa Aboa in London, 2019

© Melodie Jeng