Trump is back in office, shame is seemingly out and greed is in – with conspicuous consumerism on the catwalks and beyond. Look around and you could be back in 1987 …
The first time I heard the phrase “boom boom” was at a fashion show in January: Prada in Milan. While I sat waiting for something incredibly tasteful to appear on the catwalk, out marched a bare-chested model with a pashmina-sized fur draped over his shoulders. Then came another, and another, and then one more in a huge fur hood. The fur was shearling – skin from a recently shorn sheep or lamb; usually, as in Prada’s case, a byproduct of the meat industry, so marginally less problematic – but still. You see some strange things on catwalks these days, but “fur” isn’t usually one of them.
Except it didn’t stop there. Later, there was “fur” at Emporio Armani and yeti coats at Dolce & Gabbana. By the time the womenswear shows had finished in March, “fur” (mostly fake, occasionally real) had appeared in about 70% of the shows. Along with that were exaggerated shoulders at Saint Laurent, Pretty Woman thigh-high boots at Stella McCartney and pointy bras at Miu Miu. These shows seemed to be saying that fashion wants us to look rich, gauche and glamorous. Or, to use a phrase coined by the trend forecaster Sean Monahan, who gave the world normcore (2014) and vibe shift (2022), fashion wants us to look boom boom.
