Season of The Witch - Fashion industry’s long affair with the occult
The 60s and 70s were a time of drastic change and the destruction of many taboos. Esotericism and Occult largely propagated by the hippie movement transgressed many different layers of society and most importantly, these darker and sort of religiously persecuted ideologies left the fashion world completely changed. The 60s and 70s were also a time of great political instability in most western societies, therefore we might argue that uncertain times lead to looking for meaning in often unorthodox ways. More than 50 years ago dark arts represented disillusionment with the government, religion, society, and authority. Fashion houses like Chanel with its homage to the esoteric cinema in Jean Cocteau and numerology-inspired SS 21/22 show or Dior with tarot sewed in their SS 17 collection are once again grabbing a lot of influences from the forbidden knowledge in the new age of disillusionment. A sign of the times if you will. This post will try to briefly analyse a few of the more important crossovers between fashion and the occult in recent years.
A Model during Dior’s SS 17 show, the dress depicts one of the unluckiest cards in Tarot - The Devil. Photo by Ambra Vernuccio sourced from: Flickr
One of the most influential fashion designers of the 21st century - Rick Owens has caused quite a stir two years ago by arranging two models for his Converse collaboration in the shape of a pentagram. To him, it was a representation of adolescent rebellion and an acceptance of ”an alternative system the one that also grants openness and empathy”. Obviously, Christians were quite furious and accused Owens of promoting blatant fascination with spiritual darkness, whether or not that’s true is open for debate. But a collaboration between the New York collective MSCHF and the rapper Lil Nas X that resulted in 666 Nike’s containing real human blood was a true symbol in many ways. Symbol of how much more vulgar and in-your-face the fashion’s old new fascination with the occult has become, especially in comparison to how tame these influences were in the 70s.
Screenshot of now deleted post from Converse instagram with Rick Owens explaining the reasoning behind the iconography used in campaign. Sourced from the website: www.christianheadlines.com
Both aforementioned campaigns were more divisive than not, despite selling out they caused a lot of unwanted backlashes. But throughout history, there were fashion designers addressing the topic with more grace. To some extent, Alexander McQueen is the single most important link between the older esoteric influences in fashion and this modern more shocking depiction. McQueen was fascinated by the Salem Witch Trials as he attempted to grasp the same disturbed and shocked emotions from his audience. On one hand, we had these dreamy almost vision-like images of innocence brutally contrasted with something macabre. The Witch Trials tragedy that took place around Europe in medieval times unintentionally cemented witchcraft as a symbol of modern feminism. Due to the current hyper-masculine political climate, the return of the occult in the fashion industry is the only possible reaction that could have ever been.
A finale of Alexander McQueen’s 1998 show during London Fashion Week, McQueen’s work truly was ahead of the trend. Sourced from: Flickr
Thus we made a full circle in terms of inspirations and interpretations. Maybe we really did enter the sort of new age, the facts are clear occult is back in fashion and it’s not going anywhere anytime soon.