GRUNGE GETAWAYS

A self-aware, ironically sequined snarl on a magic (red) carpet ride, grunge galvanizes the high-octane aesthetics of subcultural irreverence into futuristic fantasy. It’s the spirit of the female punk, grown up, new yet familiar. It’s the Beal sisters, carefree in their signature bed head and oversized Ts, Claire Danes circa My So-Called Life –the trend that defined what it meant to be subversive for a certain set of youthful, playfully rebellious women in the early ‘90s.

Now, twenty years later, grunge is back in a big way—on the runways of Dries Van Noten, Phillip Lim, and Theyskens Theory, and on the streets with global, grown-up influences. Its less about ‘90s nostalgia than a sophisticated re-interpretation of that era’s styling and post-punk ethos. Think Frances Bean Cobain at the Mumbai Film Festival; modernity to the Mad Maxine on hippie holiday; a subversive blend of Kat Bjelland and a feral remix of diverse styles.

Dries Van Noten perhaps best encapsulates the trend with his Spring/Summer 2013 collection. Here he took classic grunge concepts – slouchy flannel, layered plaid, and floral patterns printed on traditionally masculine silhouettes – and dressed them up with high-end material (organza, silk chiffon) and couture touches (decorative, highly embroidered sleeves on loose sweaters). Dries’ grunge is as elegant as she is gritty, a modern-day warrior, vagabond, bohemian, what have you. She embodies an attitude of fearless layering. Irreverence and awe collapsed in a shiny heap.

Off the runway, we see her mixing camo , plaids and florals over oversized, handmade knits and faux-fur jackets; they do quite well over silk pajama pants or baby-doll style chiffon LGDs (little grunge dresses). Otherworldly, sorbet-dipped pastel hair, gilded spikes, combat boots, and bindi accouterments top off the look. It’s the anime version of One Million Years B.C., a soft serve cone with metallic sprinkles in Mallorca for the 21^st century, neo-riot grrl. Kathleen Hanna, full beehive and wry miniskirt intact, draped in Dries’ checkered Spring 2013 lounge coat on her way to dance all night in Ibiza.

The minimalist needs a rouge lip and the sexiest strappy underwear under a suit to inhabit the trend. She’s Zoe Kravitz in original Helmut Lang, elbows slashed and arms tethered to the rocks of the Newfoundland shore with Hermes cuffs as Hedi Slimane snaps her image in the sea spray. The Lanvin clad Danes accepting an Emmy award for Homeland.

In the new season, grunge is urbane and urban, and the region that gave birth to it, the Northwest, is a state- of mind.

November 2012