Anger Is An Energy: Simon Cracker, Punk, And A Tribute To Vivienne Westwood
It is a grey Sunday morning in Milan, with a slightly earlier start than what I’d typically expect for the day after Saturday night. But, after a few moments of queueing and observing the DYI-clad fashion amateurs and connoisseurs, I am inside a brightly lit space with a booming techno set. Almost like Saturday night never ended… There are traces of spray paint and leftover fabrics combined into a sort of Cracker mural. The somewhat clinical white showroom has been transformed into a venue of unexpected visual experimentation. And so began Simon Cracker’s show, marking the start of the final day of men’s fashion week in Milan.
As the venue’s set-up might have suggested, very few elements of Cracker’s show were conventional. Put in the brands own words: “‘Crack’ is the sound of something breaking and is also the main concept where all starts: break something giving it new life.”
At the designer’s first official fashion week slot allocation, there was undoubtedly the sense of beginning - again. The collection paid an overt tribute to punk, and its longest-enduring icon Vivienne Westwood, thus suggesting a new era of rebel fashion. And what does fashion rebellion look like in Italy? The first sign of rebellion was the designer’s choice to stray away from the notoriously rigid definitions of a model.
None of the models were signed, the runway walkers were primarily friends and entourage of the Cracker brand. The brand’s mission is to be ageless, genderless, and detached from social class – all of which transpired in both the models and the audience in attendance at the show. A far cry - and a refreshing one at that - from the typical elitist approach to fashion and fashion shows.
Somewhat unsurprisingly, the clothes themselves were the ultimate display of the unrest towards the fashion industry’s traditional structure. Concerned with the current overproduction of clothes, the pieces from this collection (and all prior), are upcycled by reworking pre-existing materials and garments. From layered prints, to spray paint, bright colours, and a flood of textures, there’s a sense of exaggeration and admiration for fabrics and clothing themselves, as opposed to the traditional methods through which they are produced. The playful nod to tradition could also be spotted from the Ralph-Lauren like cardigans on the runway, with a hint of argyle, almost reintroducing preppy, but this time it’s their less-stuck up younger sibling. The piece de resistance naturally came at the end, with a modern and genderless take on the finale bridal look; the marrier wore black, with the garment reading “demand the impossible”.
