His name was Kurt Cobain, the tragic frontman of the iconic band Nirvana. Apart from their dirty, monstrous guitar riffs, sometimes unintelligible lyrics, and heavy drumming, they created a movement that had thousands of alienated and disenchanted kids listening and emulating not just their music but their I-don’t-give-a-damn style as well.
Once dubbed the bastard child of ’60s rock and ’70s punk, grunge abruptly exploded onto the mainstream scene. Suddenly, the boys and girls from the Seattle scene moved not only their musical genre, but encompassed fashion and pop culture as well.
Cameron Crowe’s Singles, a movie that chronicled the lives of 20-somethings in Seattle, had the characters in full-on grunge regalia: lived-in flannels, scruffy jeans, faded tees and even cameo appearances from members of Pearl Jam, while Marc Jacob’s immortal spring-summer collection for Perry Ellis featured vagabond-looking waifs in clothes that looked put together from thrift stores, garages and rock clubs. Although this look did not fare well in the high-fashion arena, it seismically changed the fashion landscape of the ’90s, paving way for the era’s simple aesthetic and rejection of the unrepentant decade before. What began as a counterculture and a protest against fashion suddenly became "it." From runway shows and magazines to the streets, women rocked baby doll dresses with work boots and men swathed themselves in plaid and clothes that looked rolled over by tractors.
This season, Marc Jacobs is at it again with chunky sweaters, knitted beanies that look like mushrooms, gloves, plaid, plaid and more plaid. As with any fashion vanguard, his collection is a glimpse of things to come, a more relaxed and loose silhouette maybe expected this season with more muted colors to take a break from the bling and structure.
Perhaps it’s also a reflection of how people are more somber with current world events. As we know, style often goes hand in hand with everything. We crave a more austere and serious aesthetic – something more disaffected from what is happening. It’s time to break out your Doc Martens from hibernation and stomp back to a time when hip was, as Neil Young put it, "Rockin’ in a free world."