House of Holland Pre-Fall 2015: Trend Transformation

In the fast-paced fashion cycle, designers are constantly referencing the past and we see trends come, go, and often even come back again, maybe in a new form. High fashion references the street, street fashion reinterprets the high-end designers and the cycle continues. Sometimes trends are even recycled for a different kind of consumer, for instance, the largely discussed Moschino Spring 2015 collection reinterpreting Barbie for adult dress.. With designer Jeremy Scott’s array of hot pink and vinyl matching outfits on models with big tousled hair, and bright oversized plastic accessories, we are immediately taken back to being little girls playing with our plastic fashion idols and wishing we could be them. The reference is clear, intentional, fabulous, and effective. But what about when the references may not be intentional?

Similar to Jeremy Scott, designer Henry Holland makes bold, bright, eclectic statements with his collections each season, usually inspired by a variety of culture and fashion trends. In his most recent Pre-Fall 2015 collection, Holland names 90's cartoon Tank Girl and Asian travel as his primary influences. Cartoon prints and Kimono inspired robes result in a high street mix of bright punk color and quirky prints with a tough girl attitude, true to Holland’s brand and tied together with Japanese doodled combat boots. The Tartan used in many of the pieces, reaching outside the main theme, but true to Holland’s brand heritage, the designer claims is tribute to Seventies Scottish band the Bay City Rollers and their kilts.

But this particular “tartan” in both it’s cascading houndstooth to plaid pattern, and fringe application on Holland’s designs reminded me not of Scottish rock but of a trend off the street I remember with the same kind of nostalgia I remember Barbie with, but that brings me back to middle school, during my pop punk phase between 2005 and 2008. This houndstooth into plaid printed fringe scarf was in in every Hot Topic in any mall, from the same bright blue to pink and purple and red and was spotted on “Emos” and “Hipsters” everywhere. But along with the descent of "guyliner", it disappeared from the mainstream on the street, and the last spot I thought I would see it again is almost a decade later in a high fashion lookbook. But upon flipping through the season’s latest collections, I find myself transported to my 12 year old self staring up at posters of Fall Out Boy and My Chemical Romance surrounding my bedroom walls.

But this isn't even the original source of the scarf. Though sometimes referred to as “desert scarfs” they actually originate from the Palestinian Kaffiyeh scarves worn on the head as a symbol of nationalism beginning in the 1960's and 70's. Worn around the neck they became a political statement to Punks during the 70's and 80's and then an anti-war symbol to many hipsters in the early 2000's. But to us tweens they were merely a fashion accessory, one of the many trends that brought us together as we listened to pop punk or emo bands and idolized stars like Pete Wentz. And now, whether the designer's intention or not, in House of Holland's Pre-Fall 2015 collection, I see the Kaffiyeh transformed, the same plaid pattern in bright punk colors fringed across the body, but as part of a dress or a top. Even if the reference is entirely unintentional, it fits right in with the aesthetic of the collection, with the high-energy punk attitude of Tank Girl and the Japanese doodled combat boots. Looking back, this phase of my life is a time in fashion trends I sometimes wish I could forget, but in this new transformation, in a cool modern dress, it's the same loud, edgy statement I think many of us who wore the scarf would now love to wear as young adults. So trends come and go, they are worn different ways and transformed into different applications of dress, but whether seen on the street or on the runway, fashion is more than just a cycle of trends. It can be personal and nostalgic, and it is the attitude, that image we choose project that makes the clothes and makes us want to wear them.

Sources:

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/02/11/fashion/shows/11KAFFIYEH.html
http://www.style.com/fashion-shows/pre-fall-2015/house-of-holland
http://www.style.com/fashion-shows/spring-2015-ready-to-wear/moschino

http://www.wwd.com/runway/pre-fall-2015/review/house-of-holland?module=runway-all-shows