Today, the outfits seen on the street blend seamlessly with the eccentric textile creations of the major fashion shows. The trend is for pieces with controversial aesthetics, a cacophony of colors, questionable hybrid looks, and anti-style. Current fashion educates our eye for ugliness and challenges our sense of beauty. These ensembles, the very embodiment of bad taste, are jarring to our eyes, accustomed as they are to clean, minimalist looks. Yet, they garner praise.
Challenging fashion conventions
Fashion Week is every day. These highly conceptual runway outfits, which only those in the know can understand and appreciate, are slowly becoming the norm in the public sphere. While the trend was once towards visual restraint, muted colors, and harmonious fabrics, today, free will trumps fashion rules. And this results in looks that are almost caricatured, not to say outlandish.
Today, amateur stylists are deliberately sulking their clothes to add their "personal touch." They're slipping into platform shoes that even the Bratz don't carry and sporting visor sunglasses. They're fusing vintage tracksuits in pop colors with loafers worthy of Louis XIV and topping it all off with Labubu . A truly explosive mix of fashion references that would send poor Anna Wintour into a coma. Crocs are the new stilettos and are adorned with charms for added prestige. Uggs , shoes long criticized for their lack of elegance, are now adorning the feet of every fashionista.
In the past, crowds adhered to a strict dress code, but now they revel in creating abstract art, even surrealism, with their outfits. And this penchant for baggy jeans, ripped knits, distressed bags, and horseshoe-like shoes isn't just another fad among a few eccentrics. It reflects a deeper weariness, a quest for letting go. Besides, what some consider ugly is flattering to others. It's all a matter of perception. And fashion, paradoxical as it may be, makes us feel guilty about pairing black with navy blue but extols the virtues of radically "ugly" looks.
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A rebellion against the slick aesthetic of the “clean girl”
After spending years meticulously planning our outfits, imagining them in our heads until we lost sleep, we're finally giving ourselves permission to wear whatever we want. We want free rein in front of the wardrobe, not to follow a rigid set of rules. And this break from the sanitized "clean girl" style is reflected in the silhouettes.
Thus, skinny jeans, once considered a fashion faux pas after their heyday, are making a comeback, while oversized aviator sunglasses, associated with intellectuals, are now adorning the noses of all the it-girls. Leg warmers , relics of the fitness show era, are also appearing on many ankles, like a silent provocation.
In the fashion world, the adjective "ugly" doesn't always sound like a harsh criticism. It's often a compliment. It acknowledges the rebellious and sophisticated side of an outfit, its innovative spirit. Fashion uses this term positively, whereas other industries employ more convoluted phrases like "it's special" or "it's original." Behind this aesthetic choice lies a real message: fashion is an art, and like in museums, some works are not universally admired.
Blurring the line between ugly and beautiful
Grunge shoes that look like they survived the set of Mad Max, a handbag that's the epitome of kitsch, a garish scarf resembling a tapestry. Our eyes are so unaccustomed to creativity and bespoke looks that they interpret these fashion pieces as atrocities. It's easier to marvel at an incomprehensible Paul Klee painting or a contemporary sculpture whose front and back are incomprehensible than to applaud sartorial "risk-taking."
Yet, fashion works exactly like art: what disturbs often ends up fascinating. What shocks today becomes desirable tomorrow. Velcro sandals, chunky sneakers, shapeless sweaters, garish colors… all these items were initially mocked before becoming trendsetters. The “ugly” is often simply “new” that our brains haven’t yet processed.
Ultimately, when an "ugly" outfit becomes desirable, it's not the garment itself that changes. It's our perspective. And perhaps also our growing desire to dress to feel something, rather than to tick boxes. Fashion is meant to be fun, not boring.
