Anybody Hair?
Don't try to make sense of it—fashion's having fun with hair, and Launchpad is in on the joke.
Designers: Christian Dior, John Galliano, Commes des Garçons, Maison Martin Margiela, Alexander McQueen
If you’ve ever navigated one of the big four fashion weeks—New York, Paris, Milan, and (increasingly) London—you know that attendees take fashion quite seriously. But sometimes—though not nearly often enough—the stuffiness is sucked from the big to-do with a bit of good-natured ribbing. Such is the case at Martin Margiela’s spring showing: Though the clothing design is quite ingenious (We could discuss the otherworldly, circular-cut leather jacket endlessly!), the fashion house’s elusive designer reminds us to come back down to Earth with jaw-dropping crimped and shagadelic coats reminiscent of Cousin Itt. Models teeter to and fro, their faces covered in retro afros; girls sport spaghetti dreads flattened to their heads; shoulder pads erupt with envy-inducing strands—it’s all so…strange. Of course, Margiela isn’t the only one to push the tress envelope; the innovative bad boys (and one girl) of fashion—Alexander McQueen, Hussein Chalayan, John Galliano and Comme des Garçons’ Rei Kawakubo—also ask us to look outside of our pretty boxes with oddball coifs. Would we wear them? Probably not. Do we appreciate them? But, of course.
—Karie L. Frost
(Image credit: Martin Margiela for Sonia Rykiel, Spring 2009; shot by Andreea Angelescu)
