Photos via Studded Hearts
While the grunge aesthetic certainly isn't my own personal style, it is something that, as a fashion-obsessed twenty-something, I can certainly appreciate. Marc Jacobs, fashion industry legend, famously lost his job in an attempt to mix grunge with high fashion. He may have lost the job, but he arguably won the war. Grunge emerged as a genre of style all its own - one that is seen in collections and on the street - often since then.
But what does it mean when a legendary French fashion house's newly appointed creative director sends something down the runway that is more reminiscent of youth-listening-to-Nirvana-on-the-California-coast than youth-growing-up-in-90's-Paris. And yes, I get it. Fashion is about reinvention and change and evolution. Sometimes we need to try new things. But as Tim Blanks puts it, "almost nothing looked new".
So: has Hedi Slimane remained true to YSL Saint Laurent and what the fashion house stands for? Or is the collection simply an extension of Slimane's personal aesthetic? If it is the latter, are we OK with this? Part of me feels like we aren't. Or at least, that we shouldn't be.
Bonus: take this quiz to see whether you can tell the difference between reviews of Slimane's Saint Laurent and Rihanna's collection for River Island.
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