horror movie creates an environment that is separated from the real world. For those who like it, it is like a spiritual utopia. You can find things that conflict with the real world, constantly stimulate the senses, and find the pleasure of relief. A poetic horror movie can always fascinate countless fashion lovers, and fashion is a beacon in a sense, which most directly affects the public’s aesthetics. Designers get inspiration from horror movies to make clothes speak for themselves. Intuitively conveyed to the public another side different from the real world. Those dark, grotesque, and Gothic cultures are constantly impacting the mainstream aesthetics. Who knows that those horror elements that originated in medieval culture are still influencing and intensifying in fashion shows?
Horror aesthetics can be traced back to the Gothic culture of the Middle Ages, with crosses, blood roses, endless darkness...many strong visual aesthetics are included. The gloomy, depressed, desperate, ambiguous, and complex psychology in horror movies is often related to the dark and cold colors. This kind of highly plastic visual expression of color can often be associated with aestheticism. And destruction can make people remember that those bleak things convey the beauty of deep despair under the lens. The fashion show can break, extract and reorganize the horror movies in the two-dimensional space and bring them into the three-dimensional space, and show the beauty of them to more people in another way.
From the well-known series inspired by Alexander McQueen in 1992 when he was a graduate student in the East London serial murder case "Jack the Ripper" to the recent 2020 spring and summer fashion week emerging designer Dilara Findikoglu to Zodlov The gothic visual feast inspired by the classic cult film "Holy Mountain" directed by Skye all shows that fashion's pursuit of dark and horrible things has a long history and is always new.
First of all I have to mention Alexander McQueen, the initiator of the dark aesthetics of Gothic fashion in the fashion industry. His tragic childhood experience left an indelible shadow in his heart. Drawing inspiration from the movie, he can illusion strange beauty from despair, and pour his fascination with horror into every show. Alexander McQueen's Spring/Summer 1995 series was inspired by Hitchcock's "Flock of Birds". In the film, the attack on humans by birds is the starting point, and it tells you an incredible ending with absurd and cold black humor. McQueen has always been willing to incorporate horror and indescribable conflict into his design. He re-understood the movie from his perspective, replacing the crow’s intention with the swallow, and transforming the human anger towards birds into With joy and freedom, it tells us that beautiful things are sometimes hidden in destruction.
Alexander McQueen's 1998 autumn and winter series can be said to be the highlight of his short life. The burning flame surrounds the model in red. Although the central theme is concentrated on the movie "Jan of Arc", the performance is so strange , Gothic, dramatic, and presumptuous firelight surrounds the model for the end still brings a deep shock to the people watching the show. Whether it is "The Birds" or "Jan of Arc", McQueen will use a new and unique entry point to think about the expression of Gothic horror aesthetics in clothing, sad and romantic, and can be uneasy inadvertently. , Fragile, desperate beauty impressed.
Gucci
Gucci, which is now in charge of Alessandro Michele, is also full of this terrorist aesthetic. Unlike McQueen, the horror element is more religious in AlessandroMichele's design. Remember the story of the masked murderer Jason in the autumn and winter 2019 series? Jason Worthys first appeared in the 1980 horror film "Friday the 13th." The hockey mask worn by the murderer Jason in the play has also become a classic image in the future.
On the show in the fall and winter of 2018, Alessandro Michele moved the show to the operating room, as if he could smell the strong potion through the screen. The models’ faces were pale and bloodless, and their eyes were empty and sad., The holding and simulation head and the iconic coral snake also create an extremely cautious effect.
Takahashi Dun’s fascination with horror themes has reached its extreme. In the 2018 spring and summer show, twin models inspired by "The Shining" appeared, and the 2019 autumn and winter men's show was full of tribute to "A Clockwork Orange" "(A Clockwork Orange) Feather Hat and Mask. In the 2019 autumn and winter series, women's clothing also extracted the horror elements in "Suspiria" (Yin Wind gusts). These prints played by Takahashi Dun have never disappointed, and perhaps even a kind of morbid beauty is at work. He can always clearly understand the essence of youth culture and continue to conquer the fashion show.
Comme des Garçons
As a descendant, Takahashi has a good relationship with Rei Kawakubo. Takahashi once bluntly said: "It was after seeing Kawakubo's show that I inspired my desire for women's design." Rei Kawakubo is also extremely skilled in the use of horror elements. In Comme des Garçons' 2019 autumn and winter series, "the gathering of shadows" has become the main concept. This series of dresses are made of black felt and rubber leather to form a visual effect of a twisted female body. When the models gathered in a spotlight circle in the center of the runway, it was as if teenage girls gathered in the woods to perform their pagan rituals.
For Raf Simons, who has a great understanding of youth culture, the tribute to horror movies in his design cannot be absent. The theme of the 2016 autumn and winter series is called "Nightmares And Dreams", and the day it was held, it happened to be David Lynch’s 70th birthday. Raf focused on David Lynch’s work and expressed his tribute to Lynch. He expresses people’s feelings of fear of horror movies through obscure methods. After watching the show carefully, it looks like young people’s understanding of fear, confusion, and horror. Every outfit can see Raf’s A tribute to horror movies, from "A Nightmare on Elm Street" to the movie "The Breakfast Club", and also interspersed with "Scream" and "Halloween". Finally, the show ends with the Black Lodge and White Lodge in Lynch’s classic suspense TV series "Twin Peaks". The so-called horror habitat is so cruel that there are no leftovers, and even the bones will be swallowed, fragmented, and darker. …
Freud believes that “in the depths of people’s hearts there are the instincts of attack and death, and the urge to destroy everything and gain real peace.” Therefore, we can get pleasure in horror movies. Horror movies provide a steady stream of creativity for fashion. They are undoubtedly an excellent companion. In such a bleak and gloomy aesthetic, they create more possibilities for the future.
Planning: Harper’s Fashion Group
