Survivor’s kilt: The rise of dystopia-core fashion

Survivor’s kilt: The rise of dystopia-core fashion
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How would you dress for the end of the world? In scenes ranging from Biblical paintings to modern-day cinema, people are usually taken by surprise, whether by the Rapture or an earthquake swallowing up their city. Even Don’t Look Up (2021), a climate-crisis allegory, sees the world end over the space of a few months, with the meteor finally striking while the key players are at dinner, with one about to serve the salad.

It’s different when you know what’s coming years in advance; or have survived the apocalypse and must now survive its aftermath.

Inspired by the dystopia of our times, amid a climate crisis, pandemic, unrest, war and economic collapses, fashion houses are launching collections that would fit in well on the sets of future-dystopia and post-apocalyptic films such as 2021’s Dune and The Matrix Resurrections. Dystopia-core fashion merges elements of punk, grunge and goth with utilitarian and protective fabrics and silhouettes. Think long leather coats, layers and patchwork, baggy silhouettes, hoods, multiple pockets and buckles, usually in shades of black and grey or metallic sheens.

Singer FKA Twigs in a shredded silver-and-blue skeletal-print minidress by Liza Keane. (Getty Images)
Singer FKA Twigs in a shredded silver-and-blue skeletal-print minidress by Liza Keane. (Getty Images)

Reality star Kim Kardashian embraced the look at the 2021 Met Gala, with an all-black head-to-toe shroud complete with a face-masking hood (the Gala’s theme for that year was In America: A Lexicon of Fashion). Kardashian’s former husband, rapper Kanye West, and actress Julia Fox, while dating earlier this year, sported similar all-black head-to-toe outfits by Balenciaga. British singer and trendsetter FKA Twigs reflected dystopia-core at the 2022 NME Awards in March, in a shredded silver-and-blue skeletal-print minidress by London-based designer Liza Keane.

In India, designer Kashish Gemini’s label Toffle launched a dystopia streetwear line in 2019 featuring overcoats, joggers and pants, patchy, layered and in shades of grey. It’s a style sought out by celebrities looking to stand out, says Gemini, who designed a set of dystopia-themed outfits for the rapper Raftaar, consisting of patchwork dark blue pants and jackets, accented with the kinds of buckles used on seatbelts and lifejackets.

“You won’t see outfits straight out of sci-fi, but you will see watered-down versions of them. People tend to adopt elements from the subculture and adapt them to their own style,” Gemini says.

Fashion statements often have an element of defiance, trend forecaster Geraldine Wharry told The Guardian in January. With dystopia-core, she added, the defiance stems from “the idea that optimism is not cool and doesn’t reflect our current times, similar to what punks stood for during the 70s”. Dystopia-core is, in that sense, also a reaction to “dopamine dressing”. Where this trend used bright colours and playful or flamboyant silhouettes to distract and lift one’s mood, dystopia-core seeks to do the opposite, acknowledging and addressing it.

Reptilian patterns in Alexander McQueen’s Spring/Summer 2010 collection. “Humankind is made up of creatures that evolved from the sea, and we may be heading back to an underwater future as the ice cap dissolves,” McQueen said in a statement at the time. (Getty Images)
Reptilian patterns in Alexander McQueen’s Spring/Summer 2010 collection. “Humankind is made up of creatures that evolved from the sea, and we may be heading back to an underwater future as the ice cap dissolves,” McQueen said in a statement at the time. (Getty Images)

Fashion houses have reflected dystopia-core themes, from time to time, over more than a decade. “Humankind is made up of creatures that evolved from the sea, and we may be heading back to an underwater future as the ice cap dissolves,” Alexander McQueen said in a press release for his Spring/Summer 2010 collection. The collection featured reptilian patterns imprinted on micro-dresses in aqua palettes, and fabrics that mimicked the skin of aquatic mammals.

Karl Lagerfeld’s Fall/Winter 2011 collection for Chanel featured untidily piled dark layers and shredded chiffon. “The world is a dark place,” he said, speaking after the Chanel showcase event.

Marc Jacobs’s Spring/Summer 2014 collection featured a scorched-earth theme, with outfits presented against a black-sand wasteland littered with trash.

“In fashion, dystopia has been romanticised and glamourised,” says Indian fashion designer Rocky S. “We see two distinct styles emerging within dystopia-core. One is more conservative, dark, utilitarian. The other is risk-taking, experimental, more hopeful of the future.” That latter take on dystopia-core circles all the way around to optimism. It can be seen on the streets of fashion-forward Japan, Rocky S says, where layers are used to play with a range of colours and metallic sheens, in “a sort of paradoxical take on the genre”.

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