Ironic Fashion: What Is It?
We have been seeing a rise in the new class of consumers that buy luxury not to quench their desire for well-made and lasting products or even to establish their social status. Instead, their need to buy luxury is driven by the notion of irony and inside jokes. Let me explain.
Take Vetements, for example. Their famous hoodies and T-shirts have logos with a letter swapped out, or they are a clever play on renowned brand names. We have all seen that Vetements t-shirt that says DHL, and not to forget their raincoat that looks too much like a stadium security jacket for it to be a coincidence. This says that what was once an everyday attire on daily wage workers has now become camp, and it communicates to the on-looker that the wearer is a fashion insider who is ‘in’ on this ironic joke. According to Armstong in the Daily Telegraph, it is a ‘rebellious response to the corporate greed sucking the creativity out of fashion.’
Though many seem to believe ironic fashion is a new trend that started with Demna Gvasalia with Vetements and Alessandro Michele with Gucci, the truth is that it is nothing but a revival of the contemporary fashion scene of the 1990s, which saw a strong influence of irony in fashion. It seems fresh to those of us who are the next generation of fashion customers with little or no knowledge of fashion history.
Gen X was the first generation that was well educated and was exposed to a lot of TV and advertising growing up. They had marketers on their faces every waking minute of their lives and eventually grew tired of dodging brands left, right, and center. It’s no surprise that ironically embracing the mainstream ideas and trends (not just clothes) must have been so refreshing and new to them. As brands hired younger people to connect with their audiences, irony and inside humor made their way into marketing and advertising. Jeans, for example, through constant advertising, went from being practical wear for labor work to be a ‘comment’ on the same situation. Basically, someone wearing higher-priced jeans somehow ‘knew better.’ This is probably the most prominent example of a blue-collar attire that has been used by fashion houses. We can learn from this that accepting a product of anti-fashion as high fashion has been normalized.
The expensive price tags for fashion garments that are ‘ironic’ help brands turn their clothes from a ‘cheap joke’ to ‘fashionably ironic.’ But what I don’t understand is this: Why can’t an average person be a part of this ‘inside joke’ despite being knowledgeable enough to understand it? This ‘trend,’ though initially created to harbor creativity and exclusivity, has become just an elitist group that promotes cynicism and intellectual superiority.
I actually think that this movement is fun, and it just makes sense to me. I am not denying that there is definitely something about ‘anti-fashion.’ It gives us a sense of freedom, and not to forget, it is so gratifying to overthrow mainstream fashion. It helps one make a personal expression of style- something not dictated by the standards of celebrated designers or popular media. But the one problem with it is that it can go from cynicism with a sense of originality to cynicism for the sake of it. It sometimes desperately tries to say something but consequently says absolutely nothing worthwhile. Instead of being constructive by capitalizing on the kitsch, it offers a non-exciting alternative to saturated mainstream clothing.
The main takeaway is that ironic fashion is exciting not because of the actual message but because it gives the wearer a sense of pride and arrogance for knowing and understanding something when others do not. It tells them they know fashion and fashion history and others do not. Also, it’s always about wearing the expensive version of the same item. Let’s take the DHL shirt, for example. It is not about wearing a DHL shirt that costs a couple of euros, but it’s about wearing the same shirt with a couple hundred euros price tag instead. The clothes become ‘irony,’ and they become acceptable because they are expensive and not just because it’s funny or clever. This makes the trend inaccessible for those who want in but do not have the financial capacity to support this desire.
According to experiments conducted by Caleb Warren (the assistant professor of Marketing at the University of Arizona) and Gina Mohr ( the associate professor at marketing at Colorado State University), products are used to signal one thing to a specific group of people it represents, but at the same time, sheepishly winks to others. They describe ironic consumption as ‘using a brand or adopting a behavior in an attempt to signal an identity, trait, or belief that is the opposite from the widely understood meaning of the product.’
Again, like all other trends, as irony is not constructive, people are bound to grow tired of it.
We need to consider that the market is so saturated because brands parody the aesthetic of the working class and keep trying to be unique and to stand out that they don’t focus on them actually being different from everybody else. They’re trying so hard to project an image of uniqueness when they should be focusing on actually BEING special. We can see a shift in the curve because brands that represent timelessness and quality like Giorgio Armani or Loro Piana and even Bottega Veneta are seeing success. According to nssmag, this could highlight the start of a post-ironic fashion world, a new stage where the focus is on the product and not on its commentary. But I will not be surprised if, a couple of decades from now, people re-invent irony in fashion and believe it to be their own creation. Will this cycle ever end?
