Fashion and culture have always created cliques, gangs and squads. From the skinny leather-jacket and drainpipe-jean youths of 70s punk to the flamboyant underground club kids in the late 80s, clothing has often found its identity in the like-minded people that wear them. But 2015 has seen that mentality evolve, morphed now into the relentless rise of the “brand” squad. We’ve seen it in Riccardo Tisci’s latest Givenchy campaign, in Olivier Rousteing’s #BalmainArmy and most notably with Taylor Swift’s surprisingly diverse celeb squad.
Swift’s video for Bad Blood, amassed a staggering 670 million views and won her the best video award at the MTV VMAs. Its action-packed scenes feature fashionistas Cara Delevingne, Lily Aldridge, Cindy Crawford and many more. Crawford’s presence is a reminder of the parallels between these present-day posses and her own 90s supermodel group of Naomi Campbell, Linda Evangelista and Helena Christensen, who regularly featured together in editorial and shows, and who combined in another iconic music video – George Michael’s Freedom.
Taylor’s squad continued to be rolled out in her 1989 music tour, with women coming from all corners, be it Girls‘ Lena Dunham, the USA’s women’s World Cup winners or Halloween queen Heidi Klum. Swift’s #SquadGoals were splashed over Instagram and Twitter in celebration of her new bezzies. “I honestly think my lack of friendships in high school is why my female friendships are so important now”, she explained in a recent interview with GQ. “Because I always wanted them. It was hard for me to have friends.” Whilst Swift now sees this sort of clique-building as female empowerment, clearly it’s the flip side of that lonely feeling she experienced back in high school. That’s in part what feminist writer Camille Paglia criticised her for in an essay for The Hollywood Reporter, where she argued that the singer’s “twinkly persona is such a scary flashback to the fascist blondes who ruled the social scene during my youth”.
On the fashion circuit, fashion packs go way back. Karl Lagerfeld and Yves Saint Laurent and their glamorous gangs in Paris in the 1970s were brilliantly – if contentiously – described by Alicia Drake in The Beautiful Fall. In her book, she portrays the two designers not only as fashion rivals, but social ones too. According to Drake and the interviews, they vied to have the most desirable of crews, demanded intense loyalty from their fashion squads and even fought over crossover members. But it all sounded impossibly glamorous and fun.
It’s the same seduction of the group (and the significance they confer) that is behind the formation of Olivier Rousteing’s #BalmainArmy. The creative director of the Parisian label cast Kendall Jenner, Gigi Hadid and Jourdan Dunn in his Balmain shows and campaigns, then again for his highly publicised H&M collaboration. Rousteing is an open advocate of his friendship with the girls across social media and understands that the Kardashian-Jenner clan are jewels in any social media crown. When the Balmain x H&M collection was released in November, the masses were all desperate to be a part his gang – tearing into each other as they tried to get their hands on the collection.
Fashion is a business and clique mentality feeds into the idea of exclusivity and desire. Campaigns from brands as different as Prada and Dolce & Gabbana all understand the power of presenting a united group. Hedi Slimane’s Saint Laurent is currently boasting profits of almost double – undoubtedly down to the cool gang he’s formed (and did in his Dior days) – and Tom Ford knew that by getting Lady Gaga and Lucky Blue Smith to dance to Chic’s I Want Your Love in his spring/summer 16 campaign video was going make you want to be part of that party.
Arguably, some of the most relevant fashion tribes are now coming from the likes of Hood By Air and back to the underground scene where original gang mentality can be traced, and the spirit of identifying with others through DIY practice is placed at the fore. It’s part of that great feeling of association found with being part of a visually similar group. The Lo-Lifes – a New York gang founded in the 1980s did just that, choosing the vibrant colours and garish branding of Ralph Lauren, to form a pack that visually stood out from their peers, whilst cementing the label into the DNA of hip-hop culture. We saw it too in the Boombox Kid generation of New York, where the music played from the portable soundsytem was an aural signifier of the gang you associated with. Mark S Fleisher recalls this in his book Dead End Kids: Gang Girls and the Boys They Know – with the palpable tension on a humid afternoon with “a boombox thumping in the background” and two violent rival gangs clashing on the street corner. This mentality was to trickle out into more visual examples such as the red or black bandana, baggy jeans and exposed boxers, or the sportswear label that was on your sneakers.
In 2015, notions of the gang/group may rely more louchely on the label of a hashtag, rather than the one on the back of your shirt, but there’s no denying Taylor Swift’s #squad has cemented the age-old idea of the gang in pop culture, whilst Rousteing’s #BalmainArmy and Tisci’s #GGirls have done the same for fashion. And whilst the unattainable celebrity culture of Swift’s girl gang may get mocked by the likes of Amy Schumer, Tina Fey and Amy Poehler, Tisci confirmed through his latest campaign that his “gang” is all about “love” and “family” and who can argue with that?
Credits
Text Greg French
Image still Taylor Swift, Bad Blood