No one’s too old for a teddy in times like these. With the world looking as bleak as it currently does, the appeal of embracing the cuddly, cute or fantastic is obvious. It offers a much-needed balm. Snuggling up with your furry friends, watching your favourite (queer) cartoons, living out your hot-girl fantasy as a real-life Barbie… whatever it is that gets you through trying times, you’ll find it referenced on the SS23 runways, where across fashion month designers have been dusting off their favourite toys and embracing their inner child.
“I hate boxes and I hate labels and I hate being labelled and placed in a box,” Demna announced in his Balenciaga show notes. “I’ve decided to no longer explain my collections and verbalise my designs, but to express a state of mind.” True to his word, Demna’s collection defied typical binaries – couture versus streetwear, luxury versus democratic, consumerism versus art – and instead amalgamated various characters into one rugged vision. As strong as his professed revulsion for boxed-in thinking may have been, there were hints that the designer still harbours a soft-spot for the toybox. Dressed in neon go-go shorts, MA-1 bombers and mosher jeans, models crossed a mud pit with punky plushies in toe. Rocking neon mohawks soon to be caked in dirt, the adorable fluffballs looked almost like Berghain regulars, decorated with studded harnesses and barbell nose rings to boot. Remember when Woody meets the toys under Sid’s bed in Toy Story? That vibe. Less creepy, though, were the baby dolls slung models wore slung across their bodies, an uncanny addition to the runway that even the sternest editors fawned over.
At Gucci’s twinfest, Gizmo, the iconic 80s furball of Gremlins fame, was the new face of the brand; splashed across dresses, sat inside snap-closure bags and found on pool slides. Given that the cursed creature is known for multiplying if fed after midnight, his appearance in Alessandro Michele’s seeing-double collection felt especially fitting. But while Gizmo’s endless replication spelt doom for protagonist Billy Peltzer, here, it was a heart-warming celebration of the differences that make every twin, fashion follower and human being unique, however similar they may look. (Sneaky as ever, this was not Gizmo’s first fashion moment: Supreme’s AW22 collaboration had already brought the bat-eared gremlin to hoodies and skate decks alike.)
Of course, to talk of toys without touching on the Koonsian wonders of Jeremy Scott’s Moschino would be sacrilege. Typically tongue-in-cheek, Scott channelled the dark reality of economic inflation into a blow-up fantasia of beachside delights. Think rubber-ring hemmed dresses, crab armbands that doubled up as clutches and miniature lilo purses. On foot? Patent pink heels complete with inflation valves. Of course, this bounty of childish kitsch hardly came as a surprise. After all, we’re talking about a designer known for Moschino Happy Meal bags and My Little Pony lunchboxes. Even before Scott, it was a house code, cemented by Franco Moschino with his teddy-bear millinery of AW89.
Toying with the ongoing trend (sorry), Nicolas Ghesquière paid homage to Mr Vuitton’s halcyon days at the Maison’s historic home in Asnières, where its original trunks were made. Rendering the Art Nouveau cottage as a handbag-cum-dollhouse, Ghesquière presented it alongside giant-size zippers, belts and luggage tags. Shown in artist Philippe Parreno’s monster-flower set, this was Vuitton’s monogram flower, scaled up and celebrated. Of course, keen eyes will know that Louis Vuitton has a penchant for this Mickey Mouse worldbuilding, as exemplified in the late Virgil Abloh’s ‘Louis Dreamhouse’ of AW22 and the Mike Kelley-esque jackets of SS21.
Back in London, Halpern celebrated the Barbie Dreamhouse’s 60th anniversary with a catwalk of real-life Barbies whose fuchsia updos, sequinned bodysuits and trailing velvet gowns felt closer to cosplay than Barbiecore. Meanwhile, Noki rummaged a piling toy box of junk, upcycling capitalist debris – a discarded Marge Simpson balaclava, a Little Mermaid t-shirt, a lightsabre – à la Judy Blame, with each piece singing the wonders of child’s play before the ills and bills of adult life. Freudian regression in the face of adversity, nostalgia or sheer fantasy? Whatever you call it, the turn to toys is here for the foreseeable, so don’t throw yours out the pram.
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Images via Spotlight