Streetwear grows up
Streetwear has dominated the men’s collections over the past decade. Exciting new labels – think Heron Preston, Off-White and 1017 ALYX 9SM – reigned, raising the status of logo-stamped tees and hoodies. The genre also sliced through runway schedules: Vetements’s Demna Gvasalia shook up couture house Balenciaga; Virgil Abloh became Louis Vuitton’s Artistic Director only six years after launching Off-White. And who could have predicted Louis Vuitton co-signing a collection with Supreme or Off-White teaming up with Evian?
Now we’ve hit the ’20s, where does streetwear go next? Virgil Abloh himself told Dazed Digital recently, “it’s gonna die”, but we’re more optimistic: at the SS20 runways, there was a sense that streetwear is growing up, not disappearing completely. It’s showing signs of moving beyond the conveyor belt of constant drops and ever-changing aesthetics in favour of longevity – embracing tailoring, defying the decades and turning the noise down a few notches. It feels like exactly what we need right now.