Obsession with youth-movements and teenhood has permeated fashion culture for years. Graham Tyler known for his millinery work for Lady Gaga, dressing club kids of New York and timeless young-emo collections, is back with a fresh take on youth.
A hand break turn away from Antoine de Saint-Exupéry’s book The Little Prince that inspired Spring Summer 2021 Graham Tyler turns his attention to the near-past this season for Autumn Winter 2021. It’s a goofy celebration of the myspace character excess that scene kids crafted so well. The collection is also obsessed and in collaboration with Mori Chack’s Gloomy Bear, an icon of the original scene aesthetic. Gloomy was born in Japan in the noughties, they are the antithesis of cute cuddly bears and have a violent streak. We see garments dipped in Gloomy's iconic bubblegum pink shade and with clashing blood splatter motifs that create tension in the best way – like slamming into someone at a mosh pit or clashing teeth whilst you kiss. It’s uncomfortable, but it’s exhilarating.
As Zizek wrote in Pandemic 2 today’s teens and twenty-year olds obsessively revisit this recent past, something that this collection also enters into. We have a nostalgia for experiences we never lived and never will due to the irreparable changes to nightlife and social interactions caused by covid-19. But when we look at these garments, feel them, wear them that pain falls away and we can live the scene kid life again. Please cancel 2021 and bring back the noughties. Excess and partying for the sake of fun!
As Zizek wrote in Pandemic 2 today’s teens and twenty-year olds obsessively revisit this recent past, something that this collection also enters into. We have a nostalgia for experiences we never lived and never will due to the irreparable changes to nightlife and social interactions caused by covid-19. But when we look at these garments, feel them, wear them that pain falls away and we can live the scene kid life again. Please cancel 2021 and bring back the noughties. Excess and partying for the sake of fun!
