The Internet Helped Turn Fashion Into One Big, Self-Aware Meme

Our collective obsession with all things archival was born, ostensibly, from a reverence for fashion’s great designers, which is what makes the current state of archive-referential fashion so curious. The appreciation for the clothing of yore was largely fostered in online communities where interested parties could discuss early-2000s Raf Simons, reminisce about John Galliano’s years at Dior or share their Japan-based proxies for rare Comme des Garçons. But, the internet — the very thing that helped democratize fashion and spread the gospel of revered designers in the first place — is also what’s at the root of the very odd moment we’re witnessing across the industry. What, exactly, is this “moment”? It’s the one when fashion incepts itself; when the snake becomes the ouroboros. Where there was once a line of demarcation between reverential references to fashion’s past and flat-out parody, there is now a grey zone where they’re one and the same — where new ideas are old. Read more at Fashionista.