The SSENSE Spring/Summer 2019 Trend Report: Part I

Junya Watanabe collaborated with Ark Air for SS19—a long time uniform manufacturer for the UK marines and special forces—sending models down the runway in a utility-first collection. He showed a variety of standout plaid tactical vests with multiple pockets, though, that had us thinking less about combat and more about fly fishing. Last season Prada gave us knee-high rubber boots fit for wading in a river, and this season Marine Serre gave us a fisherman’s ball gown scattered with pockets and keychains that looked like tackle. Japanese label Eupepomboo's tactical dresses from 1999 come to mind. Margiela gave us an exaggerated fisherman’s uniform complete with a high-vis waterproof bucket hat and bug screen. And what’s fishing without a cold beer? Raf Simons made the most out of the sports staple beverage with plastic beer ring tops, reminiscent, too, of a fishing net, and of plastics toxic presence in our water, our world. Those woven grocery bags on every influencers arm for catching produce from Whole Foods aren’t going anywhere, and bucket hats are coming back. This spring, the humble fisherman gets their time to shine. See you at Bass Pro.

In 1964 Susan Sontag published the trend report to end all trend reports—her essay entitled “Notes on Camp.” Sontag’s interpretation wiped out what was previously a queer-associated term (at times celebratory and derogatory) with a neutralized definition that denoted artifice, frivolity, naïve middle-class pretentiousness, and shock excess. In many ways, Sontag predicted what we now know as the hipster, and also, the entire design approach of Alessandro Michele’s Gucci, and Virgil Abloh’s Off-White: “Camp sees everything in quotation marks. It's not a lamp, but a ‘lamp.’” Random examples of items this season that are part of the canon of camp:

-Margiela Twist-Tie Ring

-Balenciaga Magazine Clutch

-All of the SS19 handbags that are not at all like handbags, but like found objects. Note: see the work of the late Judith Leiber.

-Ambush Beer Can

-Gucci’s over-the-top maximalism—sequinned, feathered, ruffled, referential everything

-What some will wear to the Met Gala this year (those who grasp and abide by the theme)

-Anything “so bad it’s good”

-Everything Virgil Abloh puts in quotation marks

In November, the New York Times reported that David Hockney’s Portrait of an Artist (Pool with Two Figures) sold at auction for a record-shattering $90.3 million. (Jeff Koons had previously held the record with his balloon dog.) While the Hockney sale was momentous, certainly—art as pure trophy, etc—it was an opportunity to bask in the artist’s other aesthetic expression: not paint but polos. Hockney’s personal style has long inspired the fashion world—his articulation of casual prep, crinkled blazers, all playfully color blocked. He is the king of stripes. Of loose tailoring and the mischievous appeal of round frames. Teal, purple, magenta, yellow. Hockney’s spectrum of colors is fun, unfussy. His inventory of rugby shirts is not just enviable, but lovingly worn-looking; the best kind. This season, Hockney’s influence was less obvious making it all the more fun to spot. Xander Zhou sent models down the runway in striped rugby's, collared shirts, and layered-brights. Similarly, Marni, who did not shy away from rich hues—ketchup, mustard, blue saddles shoes (somehow clownish in their size)—seem to channel not just Hockney but the subjects of his paintings. The same might be said about Rowing Blazers and Noah NYC, whose collegiate trimmings are like some collision of Ivy meets Audrey Hepburn in Two for the Road—her character’s style is very-Hockney, very vacation-Hockney, that is. Prada, too, was rife with the painter’s style, showcasing vibrant colors that seemed to combat…the cold: each model strutting down the runway wearing a nylon Ushanka. Less swimming-pool-blue Hockney; more fight-the-winter blues Hockney.