How Has Fashion Predicted the End of the World?
The world has experienced apocalyptic-level events over the past 13 months, but fashion has a long history of exploring destruction, devastation, and dystopia. So how accurate were designers of yesteryear? L’Officiel investigates.
To be eternally optimistic about the future is easier said than done. For tortured artists and creative geniuses—aka fashion designers—it’s a near impossible ask. And that’s because the end—doomsday, the Upside Down, the apocalypse, dystopia, or whatever you want to call it—is just so much more rife with inspiration. Misery breeds the best ideas, and what’s more miserable than a world that’s gone to shit?
It’s a concept that’s perversely captivated the attention of the most illustrious designers of our time, compelling them to funnel a vision brimming with chaos and destruction into a collection woven with a pessimistic thread of nihilism.
After the year and month we’ve just experienced, during which we saw half the world burning and the other half drowning, a global pandemic that’s claimed the lives of millions, worldwide race riots over social injustices, and an insurrection that nearly toppled American democracy, there’s never been a time that feels more apocalyptic. With a new administration, initiatives to fight global warming, and the rollout of effective vaccines in place, there’s finally some semblance of hope, of coming out on the other side and into a post-apocalyptic world. So, while the end has been forecasted by the fashion industry for decades (sometimes literally, other times figuratively), it’s worthwhile to take a look back at what designers got right about the looks we’d wear during times of monumental strife, as in, right now.
Of course, the first to inadvertently toy with the notion was Rei Kawakubo. Her Comme des Garçons Fall/Winter 1982 show featured a largely all-black collection called Destroy, that played with the idea of beauty found in destruction—distressed knits that she redefined as “lace.” Critics at the time called it “Hiroshima chic” or “post atomic,” though Kawakubo eventually dismissed it in an interview, going on to say that living in post-war Japan had nothing to do with her work.
A few years later Lee Alexander McQueen imagined a post-apocalyptic future for Spring/Summer 2010 in which we lived underwater: “Humankind is made up of creatures that evolved from the sea, and we may be heading back to an underwater future as the ice cap dissolves,” the designer described in a press release. Thus reptilian patterns were digitally printed on microdresses, aqua color palettes, and fabrics that mimicked the skin of aquatic mammals.
But Karl Lagerfeld’s take was much more literal—and darker—for Chanel Fall/Winter 2011. "The world is a dark place," he quipped in an interview. And his version of the world was indeed a darker vision of that: models navigated a set of “still-smoldering scorched earth” wearing dark layers that were either haphazardly piled on or chiffon intentionally shredded.
Marc Jacobs presented a similar “scorched earth” concept for his Spring/Summer 2014 collection that was apparently so oppressively hot, fans were handed out to guests. While the clothing itself wasn’t dark or gloomy—appliqued Victorian-style evening dresses paired with sporty Teva-style sandals—the set certainly was: a black sandy wasteland littered with trash that Jacobs described as “a lovely nightmare.”
It also comes as no surprise that the last four years saw a critical spike in collections that tackled end-of-the-world themes in some way, especially given the previous American government’s administration’s attacks on both the environment and humanity. For Fall/Winter 2017, Gareth Pugh staged an all-black dystopic show, shrouding models in garbage bag-like plastic clothing as they marched to discordant noises.
But it was a year later that we felt a true sense of urgency, with designers desperately needing to communicate an encroaching sense of doom. First up: Raf Simons for Calvin Klein 205W39NYC who brought something like a horror film come to life for Fall/Winter 2018 with models outfitted in firefighter-inspired protective gear, replete with heavy-duty hazmat boots and balaclavas, as they waded through popcorn (one interpretation: nuclear ashes or “singed-out cornfields”). Miuccia Prada also explored hazmat dressing with oversize rubber coverings for Prada. But it was John Galliano who took the idea of personal protective equipment one step further for Maison Margiela, armoring his models either with giant, outsized windbreakers or see-through plastic shells that also crept up to cover their heads.
Marine Serre too tackled climate change for Spring/Summer 2020. Or rather, what the world would look like destroyed by climate change. Titled Maŕee Noir (or Oil Spill, but more literally: Black Tide), she introduced her collection with the words: "Imagine…By hiding in caves and shelters deep underground, small but illustrious groups have survived the Apocalypse—the climate wars, the heatwaves, mass extinction." Her survivors were outfitted in protective jumpsuits, recycled plastic raincoats, utilitarian capes (that also covered the head), and her signature crescents as under armour.
Demna Gvasalia was also all about climate change for Balenciaga’s Fall/Winter 2020 collection, but through a biblical lens, flooding the runway with water and dressing his models in long, priest-like robes before doing a 180 with leather moto suits and skin-tight evening looks, against a backdrop of crashing waves and flocks of crows.
So, did fashion’s post-apocalyptic sartorial predictions come true? Wrapping ourselves in plastic has yet to become the norm, with most of us opting to spend last year in quarantine living in DIY tie-dye and matching sweats. But seeing as how some of us have donned hazmat suits, these designers weren’t that far off.
