THE BEAUTY OF OVER-SIZED AVANT GARDE FASHION
Fashion has evolved from functionality and keeping up with the accepted dress code to something more vis-à-vis creativity, self-expression and making bold statements about lifestyle choices and one’s worldview. This is where avant garde springs from.
Alright guys! Before I talk about the matter at hand we should do a quick definition of terms. Avant garde as a word already portends its meaning. It’s a French word meaning ‘advance’ or ‘vanguard’. It basically means something that is against mainstream culture. It has been described as been unorthodox, eccentric, radical, experimental and basically doing the opposite of popular culture. It is being aesthetic and non-traditional.
Avant garde fashion seeks to combine fabrics of various textures, prints and design. For instance, satin with cotton or linen with denim; different prints like abstract patterns with animal prints or batik and Ankara or bohemian fabric and damask patterns. It involves using materials no one would typically consider like newspaper, metal, cello tape and synthetic hair. Think of something outrageous, yes that’s it.
It has to do with the structure of the clothing moving from the natural silhouettes and making use of geometric shapes such as triangular cuts, asymmetrical shapes and whatever angle the designer wants to cut the fabric to.
I am not talking about just a little ruffle on one’s shirt. Nope!
I am talking about voluminous fabrics and exaggerated ruffles, multi-layered looks, baggy-worn-out jeans with oversized parsley top showing just enough cleavage, earrings in the shape of a box, a kite, a car, anything. Slip-on grandma shoes, flared neon pants and a transparent sheer T-shirt. I am talking about rainbow colours, green, purple shoes, orange hair, flowing bubus you name it.
Let’s now talk over sized clothing. Oversized clothing is clothing that is not your perfect fit, a cloth that is bigger than you. A cursory look throughout human life will reveal that customary beliefs, social norms, culture and religion have all played a role in introducing oversized clothing.
Let us consider the role played by Hip-Hop and black urban life in ushering in oversized clothing to contemporary American society. One one hand you have the music/cultural movement originating in the 1970s with the likes of DJ Kool Herc and Grand Master Flash to the expansion by Run Dmc and the Wu-Tang clan. The women were not left out with Queen Latifah, Lil Kim and Missy Elliott operating as flag bearers also making statements.
On the other hand the incarceration of young black men also impacted the over sized clothing trend. When arrested, young black men would have their belts and shoe laces taken from them to prevent them from committing suicide. The white shirts given to them by the police were always bigger. So, when they left prison they continued dressing that way.
On this issue, Van Dyk Lewis says that; “the evolution of Hip-Hop has developed from a self-conscious rumination on words and music to an obstinate expression of contemporary urban life.” And I agree with him. What Mr. Lewis is saying is that Hip-Hop is a culture like you would say Yoruba is and we know that culture is the total way of life of people and automatically it would have an influence on fashion.
The trend of baggy and oversized clothing in the evolutionary movement of Hip-Hop can be seen in multi colored applique leather jackets, hooded sweatshirts, and athletic warm up pants, oversized spectacles, combat and hiking styled boots.
Over the years, we have seen a movement in baggy Hip-Hop fashion that is mirrored in everyday life. In the 80s and 90s baseball caps, camouflage cargo pants worn beneath the buttocks, baseball vests, hockey shirts were associated with men’s fashion. And for the women we had midriff tops, bra tops, sexual and provocative dressing, oversized jewelry and even baggy pants as wore by the men.
As Hip-Hop gained predominance and popularity it influenced urban life and baggy clothing as worn by the rappers became what many termed as cool, modern and fresh. The effect Hip-Hop had on oversized fashion was so subtle that one might not recognize how much of how we dress is inspired by it. It has continued even now to influence the way we talk, interact, dress and even think.
Well enough with the history lesson.
Personally, I think wearing a shirt, gown whatever that is a tad bigger looks better. There is the beauty that comes with excess fabric that seems to aid movement. It has this flowering, graceful, fluid, air like quality and makes the wearer look retro and chic, as influenced by Hip-Hop? Yes you are right. As I’m typing this I am picturing an oversized leather jacket on a pleated plaid skirt just so you can get my drift.
But what does this have anything to do with the generation Z-ers and the Millennials? As a semi detached generation we are moving towards progressiveness and inclusivity. I mean everyone gets a chance to sit at the table with us and fashion is a mirror of the society so we get to see that in fashion too. Nothing is off-limits with respect to what you can wear and how you can wear it. This is the beginning of the appeal of oversized avant garde fashion. Who can stop me from wearing what I want to wear? The answer is no one. What can I wear? The answer is anything.
By leaving the floodgates and removing the limits off ‘normal’, ‘standardized’ clothing we find the creativity juices in our minds flowing we can try on different looks, is it an iro and a jean trouser or an agbada without anything underneath? We can run our hands though different colors and fabrics because we are not trying to look like the average Joe. We can rip our jean and pucker holes in our cotton shirts. We can use what we wear to say something about ourselves.
The beauty in oversized avante garde fashion lies in the freedom of self-expression is gives the wearer. It allows us to be individuals and to communicate who we are by what we wear. You give of a vibe of an iconoclast, a non-conformist.
What makes oversized avant garde fashion enticing to some of the Millennials and the generation Z-ers is that it means thinking outside the book, dressing in a way that is unique and being a creative and that is what being a millennial is all about, ok it is not all about that but it is for the most part. This non-conformist, do it your own way though riddled with its own demerits is what drives this new wave of avant garde fashion. We see this in almost every sphere of life, in music, in art and in literature. There is even a word for things like that ‘alte’.
No one wants to be boring; no one wants to be ordinary. Oversized avant garde is not only beautiful on the person wearing it but it is interesting to the observer and soon to become admirer because it is distinct and unique and in a way alive.
I feel that for a generation struggling to be heard such bold fashion choices it provides a medium for this. It says I’m not like everyone else listen to me. I will not be caged in the box or given a generic label, I am different and special.
Does it have its extremities? Yes it does, like everything else. Sometimes people try too hard and other times some people look just plain crazy but some will argue that this is in fact the essence of avant garde. Ask Lady Gaga, Kanye West and our own Denrele Edun.
By Temitope Iwalaiye [Tweets @the_chayil] for Urban Central
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