From stage to street, the relationship between dance and fashion has long been intertwined. This season, the two art forms collide in new fangled ways—from the runways to the small screen.
From stage to street, the relationship between dance and fashion has long been intertwined. This season, the two art forms collide in new fangled ways—from the runways to the small screen.
The union between dance and fashion is nothing new. Ever since it was catapulted into the eyes of the public with Yves Saint Laurent’s now legendary Ballet Russes-inspired show in 1976,the collaborations between the two worlds have been as diverse as they are plentiful.
This fall/winter saw the two art forms come together once again on the runway: A trend led by Valentino’s Maria Grazia Chiuri and Pierpaolo Piccioli, whose breathtaking collection was inspired by the ballet, and took the form of diaphanous layers of chiffon and tulle, topped off with feathers, sequins and embellishments.
Over at Gucci and Saint Laurent, disco reigned supreme. Alessandro Michele dreamt up spangled suits that would fit right into Studio 54, while Hedi Slimane’s Robert Palmer girls celebrated excess in all senses of the word with OTT ruffles and sequinned mini dresses.
But as with any trend worth talking about this season, the siren song of the street was not to be ignored. Alexander Wang, eternal club kid of the fashion world, placed slogans on beanies and tights, along with pole dancer motifs on sweaters and pants.
In Paris, Vetements’ continued love affair with logo tees, oversized hoodies and tracksuits—echoed in the fall/winter 2016 collection of fellow Eastern European phenom, Gosha Rubchinskiy—produced a lustworthy line-up made for breakdancing in.
Only it’s not just B-boys who want to cop their clothing. For multiple seasons running, editors and cool kids alike have fallen over themselves trying to get into their shows and their clothes.
Like the young people in the Bronx, the post-Soviet Union tribe, led by the Gvasalia brothers, Rubchinskiy and stylist Lotta Volkova, creates by drawing upon their experiences as part of a distinct sub-culture.
Influenced by streetwear, skate culture and almost anti-fashion in its sensibilities, it’s a perspective unlike anything the industry has experienced before.
Their riffs on—and subsequent collaborations with—brands like Champion and Fila have resulted in the reintroduction of these brands into the fashion vernacular as cult, insidery labels. Beyond the rise of the It-Russians, street style has undeniably entered the hallowed halls of high style.
Whether it’s Hood by Air’s Shayne Oliver being awarded an LVMH Special Prize in 2014, Palace London being sold at Dover Street Market or Moncler tapping on Off-White’s Virgil Abloh to produce an ongoing series of collaborations, the lines between the street and the runway have been unequivocally blurred.
It’s a groundswell that echoes the rise of streetwear in ’70s New York. Helmed by Baz Luhrmann, The Get Down, a musical drama set in the South Bronx of the late ’70s, is a riotous whirlwind of teenage emotions, big-city ruin and splendour, pulsating beats and, of course, impeccable costumes.
Working alongside Academy Award winner Catherine Martin, costume designer Jeriana San Juan has ensured the clothes play as essential a role in the story as the music and movements.
Depicting the rise of hip-hop during the reign of disco, seen through the eyes of a group of youths, the show “tells the story of this movement, this ‘big bang’ that happened in the Bronx; without funding, without the rest of New York caring.
These were just kids creating their own new dance, their own music, their own fashion. For these kids, the late ’70s was the birth of street fashion as we know it, of hip-hop fashion,” San Juan tells BAZAAR.
“Fashion had always traditionally trickled down from the runways, but this was a different take because it took a lot of inspiration from street culture. All these elements from what was happening around the [hip-hop] community became iconic in a way. They had a visual stamp; there were cool things happening around it in culture like graffiti, the music. It became desirable for people who were not necessarily from that background or place, and therein happens the trickle up,” San Juan attests.
The visual stamps of the street are all on display in The Get Down. As with any Luhrmann production, authenticity is key. “What I really am is a vast collaborator, and a curator writing people’s narratives. That’s my little job,” the auteur quips, and it’s a job he and his team took very seriously.
Assembling a veritable army of legends, the series’ producers include hip-hop icons Grandmaster Flash and Nas, while collaborators include the likes of Lady Pink. Known as the First Lady of Graffiti in New York City, she created a custom denim jacket for Dizzee, a graffiti artist played by Jaden Smith.
San Juan also dug into the archives of disco icons Halston and Diane von Furstenberg, in search of patterns she then used to recreate some of the characters’ dresses.
“It was like walking through disco history. We really tried as much as we could to hold true to the authenticity of the look. What was Bianca Jagger wearing? What were the people around her wearing? What were the kids from the streets wearing?”
Well, then as now, the kids from the street were very particular about what they were wearing. “It started off with very simple elements; having the right kind of pants, or the right kind of flat cap, and your sneakers clean and fresh,” San Juan elaborates. On the streets, form and function go hand-in-hand.
“Part of the reason why guys loved to wear shell-toe Adidas sneakers, for example, was because they protect your toes when you’re breakdancing. And, they just look like really cool shoes,” she reveals.
On top of having Kurtis Blow and Grandmaster Flash on-hand, San Juan also had the help of brothers Rich and Tone Talauega, the show’s choreographers, who have worked with the likes of Michael Jackson, Madonna and David LaChapelle.
“Music and dance are two of the oldest forms of communication, ever. We’ve collaborated with some great artists in the music and fashion worlds, and dance has been something those people have been inspired by. It helps them create and hybridise styles that are going to resonate with pop culture,” Tone says.
His brother adds, “Madonna brought back the corset. Now, it is not only worn by the bourgeois but also in the street. Michael [was] wearing penny loafers, those socks and the fedora,” which were in turn inspired by “Fred Astaire; he was synonymous with fedoras when he did his musical numbers, and utilised them almost as weapons. Michael, in his era, donned it and took it to a whole other level.”
It is this ability to traverse art forms, both within and across one another, that ties the street to the stage to the runway. When something trickles up, you can project and interpret it as you will.
We might not have ever walked the streets of Tbilisi, Georgia, where the Gvasalia brothers are from, but the slouchy silhouettes and half-tucked blouses speak a language we all understand and can get behind.
“Fashion is like a coat of armour to us. When we go into a battle, where two people go against each other in dance, you have to look the flyest. We’re not only battling with dance moves, we’re battling with fashion as well.
You’re intimidating the next person just from the way you stand and the way you look; before you even bust a move,” Tone explains. It doesn’t matter if it’s a DJ, dance or fashion battle. Because as Tone puts it,“The three-headed beast—music, dance and fashion—they all go hand in hand, baby.”
