Anarchy at Fashion Week

Anarchy is a state of disorder and two fingers up to authority. What better time for this to be showcased than at Fashion Week, where designers break loose on creations that are bold, daring and sometimes rather un-politically correct.

Fashion Week
For London Fashion Week, Nasir Mazhar went all out on the anarchy scene and even stretched to using unconventionally perfect models. The majority of models had curvier body shapes. Their faces were painted in garish make-up with thick lip liner circling their bright lips, slits in their eyebrows; slick hair that was tied in plaits or worn free, styled in furious tumbling curls. They had long talons hanging from their fingers with a variety of ink art decorating their limbs.

Nasir Mazhar SS 14. Image source: Vogue

Street, rebellious and ghetto are the only ways to describe the funky outfits. Mazhar’s own identity was stamped over many pieces, his name featured as a slogan on the crop tops and knee high see-through socks. Phrases such as ‘Rodeo Rudegirl’, ‘Peace’ and ‘Love’ were emblazoned on the ‘ratchet’ collection. But make no mistake; Mazhar’s direction said Ri-Ri rather than Miley. The twerking stayed out of this at all cost.

Alexander Wang SS 14. Image source: style.com

Alexander Wang didn’t disappoint during New York Fashion Week creating yet another amazingly wearable collection, with a number of looks that cemented his uber cool status. Certainly his most ‘rule-breaking’ pieces consisted of t-shirts and translucent jumpers with the words, ‘Parental Advisory Explicit Content’ strewn across the chest, with ultimate party girl, Georgia May Jagger modelling the jumper in question. Profanity and shenanigans are definitely encouraged whilst donning Wang attire, it appears.

Street Style
Throughout London Fashion Week particularly there was some noticeably outlandish street style. The most attention-grabbing, were a threesome of Asian boys in a mash-up of traditional and Western clothing. Rocking pashminas with swag, these turban-topped trendsetters looked undeniably dapper.

Three Asian boys from Singh Street Style

Sure, pashminas are usually worn by the opposite sex. But for LFW anything goes if anarchy has something to do with it. And since the stylish triad consisting of Pardeep Singh (founder of fashion blog Singh Street Style) and his friends Harmeet Saini and Manpreet Dhand have been featured on the likes of Vogue India and The Guardian, it looks as if pashminas may be the next big thing since manbags! Time to work it, boys.

Latest Diesel Ad
In conjunction with the run-up to Fashion Week, Diesel released their latest poster ad campaign. It features a white woman in a denim burqa, topless, with an arm full of tattoos and her face covered, just her eyes peering out. The words, ‘I am not what I appear to be’ are placed directly next to the model.

Diesel ad. Image source: mtvdesi.com/

The provocative campaign has divided members of the public and fashion industry. Nicola Formichetti, Artistic Director of Diesel and creator of the ad said, “This is a woman owning her burqa. She’s transforming what some people see as a symbol of oppression, religion or tradition, into a symbol of empowerment.”

However complaints of the disrespect this has shown Muslim women has been reinforced on Twitter, ‘The burqa ad is distasteful. Those who designed it did not bother or care about the sensitivities of a large number of Muslims.’

Maybe Formichetti took the anarchy approach too far, losing restraint and overstepping the mark.

With fashion fever that brews around the September period, things can sometimes get out of control.