Courtesy of Viktor & Rolf.
Last evening, the Internet went berserk for Viktor & Rolf’s memetastic SS19 couture collection. The Dutch duo sent down a series of rainbow-bright tulle confections emblazoned with the sort of one-dimensional slogans that clog up the Internet: “No photos please”, “I am my own muse”, “Leave me alone”, “F*ck this I’m going to Paris”, or simply, “Freedom” and “No”.
What Viktor & Rolf have managed is somewhat ingenious: exaggerated fairy princess dresses boasting cliched sentiments that have been so heavily recycled and rehashed they’ve lost all meaning. By bringing these familiar statements to the couture runway, the duo draw attention not only to the facile nature of our shared expressions, but at the same time, they’ve made a collection that’s sole purpose is to be shared and recycled on the Internet itself. While poking fun at the memeification of language and Web vernacular, they’ve ironically — albeit intentionally — made a collection designed to be a meme itself.
It’s clever. As expected, the Internet has leaped at the chance to celebrate a collection that is knowingly clickbait, but it also brings to the fore wider questions about the changing nature of not just haute couture, but clothing in general — namely how dressing and trends are becoming more and more about dressing for the Internet and Instagram than for real life.
In early January, Man Repeller’s Harling Ross, reporting on the Golden Globes on Instagram, wrote: “One thesis I’m thinking about is how stars seem to be dressing less for the red carpet and more for Instagram than ever before, opting for outfits with certain details that beg for a viral moment (uber-long trains, sparkly harnesses, velvet bows, tiny bags, etc.)”. Ross’s argument is remarkably astute and has reached full-realisation with Viktor & Rolf’s tongue-in-cheek couture offering. These are clothes to be shared rather than worn, photographed rather than sullied with the grubby actuality of IRL.
Courtesy of Maison Valentino.
Indeed, it’s not just Viktor & Rolf, arguably haute couture is shifting from a rarefied, hermetic industry — exclusively for old money socialites and celebrity patrons, and hinged solely on magnificent craftsmanship — to a viral content producer. The past few days have been hectic ones for the fashion Web. Beyond Viktor & Rolf, there was Maison Valentino’s gigantic, sweeping puff balls similarly in eye-catching (Insta-worthy) Crayola shades: coral, canary, magenta. This obviously follows on from Pierpaolo Piccioli’s recent viral moment — the one that Ross was pointing to in particular — Lady Gaga’s vast periwinkle extravaganza at the Golden Globes. This was another dress designed for the Internet — a heavenly hyperbolic Cinderella ballgown deliberately engineered for a shareable digital moment. Elsewhere, John Galliano for Maison Margiela presented chaotic glitchy ensembles that merged with a technicolour backdrop that could have been mined from the early days of dial-up. Iris van Herpen showcased technically outstanding dresses, but in their elaborate coils and fluid forms, the models resembled otherworldly space-age creatures, cyborgs, or advanced cyber space dwellers similarly ideal for extensive Internet saturation. Indeed, speaking about the collection on Instagram, van Herpen noted, “For Shift Souls I looked at the evolution of the human shape… Specially the imagination and the fluidity within identity change in Japanese mythology gave me the inspiration to explore the deeper meaning of identity and how immaterial and mutable it can become within the current coalescence of our digital bodies.”
Van Herpen seems to be asking what’s the nature of identity as our corporeal selves blur with our digital avatars. If this year’s SS19 couture collections are anything to go by it’s a question that will continue to dominate not just haute couture, but fashion in the long term. Will there be clothes for our daily lives and clothes just for our exaggerated cyber selves? Or is it time to admit that there’s no divide between the two, what’s real life and what’s online will continue to blend and overlap until we can barely determine the distinction at all. For the time being, let’s sit back and enjoy the spectacle.