YOUTH IN REVOLT

8:27 pm


"Just a bunch of bold print, gender bending, vintage wearing, zero caring, skate kids"


Featuring a few adults.

Ok, here it goes. I'm turning in my Full-Time-Engineering-Student/ Part-Time-Blogger-Girl badge in exchange for a Trend Analyst title. I'm switching sides of the the camera lens and enhancing my usual habit of open mouth toe-to-top outfit staring with some intermittent Canon clicks.

What are the Kids up to? What are we thinking? What are we wearing? Why?

Slightly more difficult to categorize that cool print or those dope sneaks into universal and rapidly pollinating dress habits. Especially at a time where the spectrum of fashion covers such a broad range of overlapping and contradictory silhouette, colour and pattern phenomena. Naturally and unashamed in its bias, my eye gravitates, more often than not, in the direction of the population under the age of 30...maybe even 25 (sorry not sorry).

But nevertheless I'll give it my best shot...

The Trends through the Eyes of Dafifz



Bold Prints+Architectural Shapes (Also known as the death of minimalism and normcore)


Plain white T's are cool and all, but at the end of the day they are just...well... plain. As per the pendulum swing of art and trend movements, characterized by an almost complete subversion of the the initial train of thought, we find ourselves at a stage where neutrals just don't cut it anymore (well unless they form a part of the Yeezy rainbow of beige and brown). The clean lines and structured shapes of yester-season are maintained. But, this time they're elevated by geometric African inspired prints.
Think Chulaap. Think Maxhosa. Think Selfi.

Their daring use of graphics and almost sculptural form have inspired a really and truly modern African sense of style. It's striking and fearless and has JOBURG written all over it. 




Skate Wear

The sub-culture previously known for its rebellious adolescent misfits, rolling around the suburbs in baggy jeans and dirty, chunky skate sneakers is experiencing some sort of a reawakening... and extreme modernization.

The Cape Town cool kids are all in Sol-Sol.
 Knowing how to skate is no longer a pre-requisite to wearing the uber good quality utility jackets, shirts and caps, paired with some vans and in matte, faded looking colours reminiscent of the 90's grunge kid hey days. It's slightly more chill and slightly more city. And a whole lot more clean.

Remember that trend contradiction thing I was talking about? Well here it is. While some are relishing in the splendor of mixed and matched hyper geometrics, others wallow in the haze of boyish basics and "don't care do care" chic.

Expect to see a whole lot more "Destroy Today".




Gender Fluidity

Less of a trend and more of a long overdue sartorial revolution. Skrew the notion that clothing must have a gender!

The lines are being blurred as typically masculine (boyish is a bit more accurate) shapes are seen on women who are switching heels for kicks and dad slides, and wearing looser 'man repelling' shapes like longer shorts, tailored trousers, billowing shirt dresses and badass boiler suits.

The more exciting bit is the other side of the coin. The fragile hyper-masculinity of man is being challenged. By my fave, Jaden Smith, who donned a skirt for a Louis V campaign and a growing number of others who've grown out their hair (evolution of the man bun and brush cut to luscious shoulder length locks and rich unkempt fros), done some contouring and added some pastel pink to their wardrobes.

What a time what a time!





Vintage Culture

Popularized by the penny-saving student cool cats who've recognized the ever turning wheel of recurring fashion and trend. Youngsters, me included, have ditched the exponentially rising prices of  the high street and started to build their closets with pieces that not only look like they're from the 80's and 90's, but actually are.

Vintage markets, parents' and grandparents' cupboards are increasingly being raided in the hopes of finding rad coats and sick multi-coloured anoraks and glorious grandpa jerseys that nobody else has.

It's an eclectic smorgasbord of cool granny, old school hip-hop and a whole lot of stiff denim.





There you have it.

First lecture tomorrow-wish me luck.


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