Has grunge fashion lost its gritty edge? Modern-day revival proves too ‘clean’ for diehards
A quarter of a century since Marc Jacobs’s grunge collection cost him his job at Perry Ellis, we take a look at how the subgenre has shaped fashion over the years – and how it’s making a comeback
It’s been 25 years since New York designer Marc Jacobs debuted his startling grunge collection for the menswear brand Perry Ellis. Outrageously, Jacobs paraded thrift shop gear – work boots, lumberjack shirts and granny dresses – in the belief that imperfection was stimulating.
“I always find beauty in things that are odd and imperfect; they are much more interesting,” Jacobs said then. His embrace of rough charm at the time cost him his job, but his legacy persists.
“The influence of grunge broadly has been monumental, and its relevance today – especially in the avant-garde world of fashion – is still very strong,” says Sam Fisher, the head designer for the Melbourne-based label Tanner+Teague, and formerly lead experimental patternmaker for punk pioneer Vivienne Westwood.
Risk taking in fashion back then [in the ’90s] was an extreme sport.
Fisher, who wears black grunge garb almost exclusively, says that now a clean style called “normcore” is trending. Grunge, he says, is normcore’s reverse. It’s like the pendulum has swung to the other extreme. “But, in the avant-garde space, grunge is prevalent, and it’s really important.”
