In pre-Internet times it would usually take a few months to make sure that a passing obsession turned into a fully-fledged mainstream global trend, but, nowadays, you can spread news, passions and fashion in just a few days' (or even in a few hours...). A perfect example of this theory is seapunk.
Inspired by oceanic elements and motifs including dolphins and palms (well, the name says it all...), characterised by a '90s aesthetic and based on values such as peace, love, unity and respect, the trend apparently originated last year when Brooklyn DJ Julian Foxworth (Lil Internet) tweeted a dreamy vision of a "seapunk leather jacket with barnacles where the studs used to be".
The tweet sparked a series of jokes and music tracks, but, rather than dying a horrible death like most Internet jokes, Seapunk turned into a benign aquatic monster that also spawned dedicated bands and record labels, influencing music videos like Azealia Banks's “Atlantis”.
Seapunk reappeared more recently in the background graphics that accompanied Rihanna's performance on Saturday Night Live.
Last week the trend was analysed once again by different publications including The Guardian.
Some of the articles also looked at how easy it is to detect seapunk inspirations in current fashion collections or in the aqua green/blue hairstyles of some models on the runways (see Chanel's Resort 2013 or Jeremy Scott's A/W 2012-13 shows).
At the moment young seapunk followers are quite upset by pop icons stealing their subculture from them to turn it into a maintream toy or incorporating in their allegedly seapunk inspired videos and works, imagery like mermaids that are not considered as representatives of the most genuine seapunk values.
Yet my dilemma is different from theirs: Schiaparelli did a tropical pennant coralfish top in 1928 and a sea anemone straw hat in 1938 in powder pink, lilac and violet shades; Cinzia Ruggeri included in her Spring/Summer 1984 collection the so-called “Dress with Octopus” (an early incarnation of Lil Internet's dream?) that turned the body into a surreal yet sensual sea creature (the collection also included a dress accompanied by a fishing net-like poncho and yellow bags that matched with the octopus dress – see video embedded at the end of this post).
Could they be considered as early exponents of seapunk or has fashion managed to co-opt an innocently funny joke and some nice sea inspirations from the 1900s and assimilate/revomit them in a new package? The doubt remains...
Image credits: Schiaparelli hat by Marco Garzia, 2012
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background graphics beautiful and different work
Posted by: screen printing services | December 17, 2012 at 03:29 PM
great minds think alike across the decades
Posted by: report from the heartland | December 19, 2012 at 07:12 PM