Has War-Core Replaced Normcore in Fashion?
War-Core Trend
“If bad times are a-coming, Helmut Lang is the man to outfit the brave.” That was how Vogue’s Sarah Mower opened her review of Lang’s Fall 2003 collection, a tactical take on ready-to-wear complete with sporty silhouettes, harness straps, and piled-on, functional layers. Mower argued that the purpose of Lang’s Langiness was “to help his army of followers stand tall in the face of geopolitical meltdown.”
It’s 2018 and those bad times—and that geopolitical meltdown—are here. Fashion has reacted with a Lang-aissance that began simmering in 2015 and has now begun to boil over. Look to the Spring 2019 men’s runways and you’ll see harness bags strapped to chests, tank tops mimicking the shape of bullet proof vests, and pants with enough pockets to double as storage units. It’s at Off-White and Louis Vuitton, both designed by Lang acolyte Virgil Abloh. It’s taken hold at British labels, A-Cold-Wall and Cottweiler, where models were secured with dozens of little puttees and hiking straps. It’s everywhere there’s a utility pocket, a hammer hook, or a stripe of 3M tape so you are safe at night.
The biggest proponent of this look is Alyx’s Matthew Williams. The American creative director based in Florence has swiftly become menswear’s most influential man, with everyone from Kanye West to Dior’s Kim Jones, who asked Williams to design a special CD logo clasp for his Dior Men debut, nodding in his direction. At Alyx, Williams has elevated push button clasps, the kind you find on trekking backpacks or fisherman vests, to a form of art. The signature style is a hulking buckle, heavy enough that it looks like it could secure raw steel, with aggressively curved lines and shiny metal swoops. In a Nike collaboration, he kitted out activewear with similarly functional details, mixing in balaclavas, flags with the Nike logo, and pants with zips, straps, and hooks.
The runway-to-real-way impact has been near-instant in our street style images from the recent shows in Europe. Showgoers are wearing balaclavas (a curious choice in summer) and riot-ready vests or utility trousers with functional clip fasten belts. In plain terms, these are clothes that came to fight.
Arguably, this strain of war-core clothing is reflective of the violence, chaos, and widespread anxiety in the world at large. Athleisure, gorpcore, workwear, and streetwear are all obvious antecedents, what’s new is the sense of survivalism. The buzzy streetwear brand Antisocial Social Club is producing actual riot shields.
The bad people of the world know their aesthetics are trending. In June, a photo of a Taliban training camp, with fighters in pushed up camouflage pants, graphics tees featuring a mirror gun graphic, and balaclavas, circulated on Twitter with the caption “Taliban went full rebrand.” One commenter wrote, “Taliban x Bape collab coming soon?” with the eyes emoji and the flame emoji.
That’s a pretty bleak thought. Or isn’t it? We can’t ignore what’s happening in the world nor can we pretend that a slogan t-shirt will save us. It’s a rare moment of fusion in which designers are responding to politics and activism with a pointed message. If fashion people are quick to adopt a trend or idea, the best we can hope is that this form of visual resistance lines up with actual resistance, actual political change. The clothes won’t protect us and our freedoms, but the people inside them might.
