Who Wears The Trousers?
Words by James Cooper
Music has always had an impact on fashion. All you have to do is look at all those post-Pete trilbies flying out of TopShop to realise people who sing and play instruments have a massive amount of influence on the clothes lots of people wear. Little Boots is doing photo shoots for Vogue and Lily Allen is a Chanel spokesperson for God’s sake. People in bands are cool after all and aren’t clothes just a way normal people try to look more interesting than they really are?
But sometimes, and it doesn’t happen very often, music and fashion collide at a far more profound level. These are the times when fashion designers end up picking musicians as muses or when a band’s look becomes so ubiquitous that it takes on a life of its own. It’s in these cases that the band ends up being more famous for their clothes than their tunes.
If you had to pick, the godfather of the whole fashion/music thing has to be Malcolm McLaren. Everyone knows the deal: how he owned a shop on the Kings Road with Vivian Westwood; how that store became the epicentre of the emerging UK punk scene; and how that scene spawned The Sex Pistol. There was a punk ‘look’ before there was a proper punk ‘sound’. Which is a bit backwards when you think about it.
Then again, McLaren’s punk movement always had a bit of an uneasy relationship with fashion. Despite its anti-pop credentials, musical talent was far less important than having the right look. Take Johnny Rotten. He supposedly only got himself into the Sex Pistols because he had funny-coloured hair and a customised t-shirt slagging off Pink Floyd.
That’s hardly sticking it to the man…
Rotten later claimed he thought McLaren and Westwood only created the whole punk aesthetic to make money. In John Robb’s very readable history of the scene - ‘Punk Rock: An Oral History’- Rotten called the shop owners “a pair of shysters” who “would sell anything to any trend that they could grab onto”.
As if he was trying to prove a point, McLaren returned just three years after the end of the Pistols as the manager of Bow Wow Wow – a group whose main purpose was basically to act as singing clothes horses for Westwood’s New Romantic fashion lines. ‘I Want Candy’ might be an absolute tune but it’s hard to escape the fact the band only really existed to promote some bits of fabric that Westwood had fashioned into some pretty garments.
McLaren and Westwood simply used music as a marketing vehicle for particular styles of clothing. And they were ridiculously good at it. Both Punk and New Romanticism are now looks designers cite as influences. The music’s not really what lots of people remember any more.
Until recently it seemed the McLaren/Westwood music/style synergy thing would never be matched. That was until record label Kitsune Maison released the ‘teaser’ for their next musical compilation.
For anyone not familiar with the record label, it’s the one that first broke people like The Klaxons to La Roux; it’s from France and basically has its finger on the pulse when it comes to trendy music.
The video teaser for their next mix tape made everything a bit more complex. It features a pair of very attractive models getting dressed and undressed to some music. The songs turn out to be by Kitsune’s latest signings, but interestingly, the clothes also turn out to be by Kitsune too. You see, Kitsune is both a record label and a clothing company. And, talking to owner Gildas Lokeoc, it seems that that’s all they ever wanted to be.
He told Disappear Here: “Kitsuné is a music label and a clothes label - music is our passion just as much as clothes are. We try to focus on both sides at the same time.”
Despite his claims, Kitsune Maison is only really famous in the UK for its music (which is not surprising considering its clothes are only sold in a couple of trendy London shops), Gildas remained adamant that it was not supposed to be like that; there was always meant to be a synergy between the two.
“We always developed both [the music and fashion sides of the business] together, ever since day one,” he explained. “In fact, one of the hardest things is getting people to give us credit for both. Having worked hard on the music side, I believe people now trust Kitsuné as a good record label.”
But the problem remains that the record label is much, much more famous that the clothing side of Kitsune. Which is why this new video is such a masterstroke – it manages subtly promote their fashion line by cashing in on the music. It’s like the spirit of Westwood and McLaren has risen again. Or as Gildas put it:
“Sometimes some of our music fans like our clothes line but it is never an obligation; everyone is free love only some bits of Kitsuné … Of course, it’s best if you love everything though!”
Even though Kitsune seems to be blatantly trying to use the kudos that its musicians have built up to sell some T-shirts, its owner claimed to think that bands need to stick to what they know best – making music.
“I think for a band the music should always come first,” he told us. But once they’re established, he suggested that there was a chance for a band to start exploiting their style. Just like Kitsune is doing now.
“If they have a look, who knows,” he explained with typically Gallic understatement.
The final question of our interview prompted perhaps the most revealing answer from Gildas. Asked what style was going to be big in the coming months, he answered:
“Chic and fresh - have a listen to Two Door Cinema Club or Classixx.”
For him and Kitsune, it really does seem that fashion and music are completely interchangeable, especially if one can be used to make money from the other.
Posted Fri, May 29, 2009
Comments on Who Wears The Trousers?
really well written
you avoided the pretentious use of garbage adjectives
it’s really a nice read
Posted by: yr girl | 29/05/2009 at 19:18