KARACHI: Hippie, punk, grunge, disco. These words nowadays have negative connotations of drugs, casual sex and bad dress sense. However, a fascinating presentation on these terms as counterculture movements and their influence on fashion, music, television and movies at the Alliance Francaise by Eric Touze on Tuesday dispelled all such notions.

Discussing the hippy movement of the 1960s in the United States, Touze said that the “anti-elegance movement” had a profound influence on fashion. Ethnic costumes rose to prominence. “The poncho from South America, the North African harem pants and the bolero jacket from Spain were a visible fashion trend in the ‘60s.” He added that those were incorporated by major fashion designers of the time and showed slides of such clothing. For instance YSL included bolero, fashion house Hermes the poncho, Clairbone the Afghan vest and Dior the harem pants.

And when a counterculture becomes dominant, it leads way to the rise of another subculture movement, said Touze. Thus the hippy movement led to the rise of the punk during the 1970s born in Britain. “There was massive unemployment and depression in the ‘70s and this was expressed in music and fashion. Thus one can observe darker colours, torn clothes and metallic accessories of chains, padlocks and safety pins.” Sex Pistols was a noted punk music band of the time.

Vivienne Westwood, the English designer, was the first one to channel punk into fashion and, according to Touze, she did so for a long time. Galliano, Versace, Gautlier, Givenchy and Lagerfeld were the major fashion designers who also channelled punk ethos. Square motifs and punk boots were some of the prominent punk elements in Lagerfeld’s collections of the time.

Disco was another subculture movement of the 1970s that had no well-defined ideology as such. It was mainly inspired by psychedelic rock, originating in New York. In terms of fashion, it returned to masculinity and femininity. Think Bee Gees and John Travolta. “Punk destroyed elegance but disco brought it back.”

Other prominent fashion trends of the ‘70s included unisex fashion, large-scale fashion shows, models such as Twiggy becoming stars and the beginning of media coverage of stylists.

Moving to the 1980s, which was marked by economic prosperity and decline in political engagement in the US, the United Kingdom and Germany, it was all about power dressing. This was inspired by Margaret Thatcher, a career woman, and particularly those women who knew how to impose themselves.

Television shows, particularly Charlie’s Angels and Miami Vice, were highly influential in the ‘80s for their fashion styles. “In fact, Versace who was going through a bad patch at the time and he got another lease of life when he designed for Miami Vice, which became hugely popular.” Touze showed photos of clothes designed by Lanvin who channelled Miami Vice expressed in an ad featuring the tennis superstar Rafael Nadal.

The 1990s were all about streetwear, grunge, piercings, tattoos that influenced mainstream designers such as Dries Van Noten and YSL.

“Streetwear maybe the really new trend of the 1990s.” It featured sneakers, hoodies, baggy pants represented by popular culture icons such as Will Smith and Kurt Cobain.

Mr Touze concluded his insightful lecture with displays of beautiful, deconstructed clothes by Hussein Chalayan and Viktor & Rolf that were certainly not wearable but were definitely works of art. “The gap between couture and ready-to-wear clothes continues to widen. Couture needs to be redefined as decorative art.”

The presentation was then followed by a television movie on the legendary French fashion designer Coco Chanel, starring Shirley Maclaine.

Published in Dawn, August 20th, 2014