The Human Touch

Stained clothing features in Robbert Wun’s last couture show that included a reinvention of their popular Spring/Summer 2023 gown covered in wine stains and delicately tailored. This push and pull between what is seen as perfect or ideal is part of a wider conversation on dissolving the boundary between high and low culture. Wine stains are natural and human marks, supposedly a source of shame, but when presented as a valid answer to fabric print artistically, it says: you can definitely stay at the party even with red wine on your clothes. Live a little.

In the same vein, wearable roughly hand painted garments by 032c x Telekom Electronic Beats were released during Paris Fashion Week. They’re inspired by the protagonist breaking down a wall in The Prodigy’s No Good (Start The Dance) video. This widespread destructive and transformational impulse is being reframed in the fashion moment as a way to access something deeply human and visceral, whether that’s in Ready to Wear or Couture. Like the (di)vision Copenhagen Fashion week event in 2023 when a model knocked a host of glasses over as she waltzed off in her table-cloth train dress, the choice to create this way is above all eye-catching. It’s also magnetic to be so carefree.

Another new look at perfectionism is seen at Glenn Martens’ Maison Margiela debut that features decaying garments, such as tailored trousers that appear muddy and tea-stained. Designers present a fresh look at human imperfection or natural touch as a sort of ideal. Mess already arrived at the Central Saint Martins BA Fashion show on chalky marks coating parts of Sam Fisher’s suiting. This potentially harps back to the many times Alexander McQueen presented stain-like marking on high end pieces including but certainly not limited to  bleach-stained suits for Menswear Autumn/Winter 2010 and red washed dresses in Autumn/Winter 2021. What unifies all these pieces are the textural, irregular and tactile markings that come out of unpredictable processes and rely on human hands.

Beyond the pattern of spills — DSquared2 has a red stained white shirt for Spring/Summer 2026 that easily fits into the theme of organic residue in fashion — innovative designers and artists repeatedly visit mistakes intentionally. Quoted from Fail Again, Fail Better METAL 51 Kim Petras says, “Mistakes have always made me better,” and designer Walter Van Beirendonck is also clear that “Studying fashion is a lot of trial and error; it’s the way you learn.” In fact, much of life is trial and error too.