As I prepare for the first day of the fashion course tomorrow, I'm putting together some slides on the perpetual return to tramp chic (also known as homeless chic) to model a basic query: "What continuities and discontinuities --of classifying persons, for example, or of marking distinctions of status and taste-- link different spheres of clothing practices?"Although I could begin this sartorial genealogy at least a century earlier, to make it brief I start with John Galliano's Dior Couture Spring 2000 collection, "inspired" by the homeless persons he espied along the Seine, and then point to Zoolander's parody of Galliano with the imperious (and imperialist) designer Mugatu and his infamous collection "Derelicte." Of course, the words Will Ferrell utters as the evildoer Mugatu ("It is a fashion, a way of life inspired by the very homeless, the vagrants, the crack whores that make this wonderful city so unique") seem to pale in comparison to Galliano's: "'Some of these people are like impresarios, their coats worn over their shoulders and their hats worn at a certain angle. It's fantastic.''
Fast forwarding to 2008 (never mind for now Mary-Kate Olsen), I quote Alexander Wang's model-muse Erin Wasson tells NYLON.tv, "The people with the best style for me are the people that are the poorest. Like, when I go down to Venice beach and I see the homeless, like, I'm like, 'Oh my God, they're pulling out, like, crazy looks and they, like, pulled shit out of like garbage cans.'” And oh god, then there was Tyra's America's Next Top Model shoot in Cycle 10, the model contestants posing with homeless youth to "raise awareness:"
Next I turn to W's September 2009 issue and an editorial that Fashion Daily claims gives "new meaning to homeless chic" (though, as Jezebel asks, "What was the old meaning?") featuring models in Prada paper bags and, well, Prada.
In response to tramp chic, which seems to return every few years as a studied aesthetic of "irreverence" for the privileged fashion tribe, I also return to Judith Williamson to comment on how luxury is nonetheless signified through such an aesthetic: "It is currently 'in' for the young and well-fed to go around in torn rags, but not for tramps to do so. In other words, the appropriation of other people's dress is fashionable provided it is perfectly clear that you are, in fact, different from whoever would normally wear such clothes."
EDIT: Now I'll have to unpack the Sartorialist's recent photograph of an actual homeless person for his blog -- the discourse around which is problematic on a whole other register, and does not fundamentally disrupt the investment of an "authority" to designate who or what is fashionable (and more, who is allowed "dignity" at what moment) in certain persons and not others.
EDIT: My post on the Sartorialist's photograph and yet another on Vivienne Westwood's 2010 Milan menswear collection revisiting "tramp chic."
** Too see Sart's post, click here and scroll down to "Not Giving Up, NYC" on August 31, 2009.
