Belltown Messenger - Documenting Belltown Since 2003

Just back from London, UK, the first city on the planet to reach a population of one million and arguably the epicenter of the western world (Greenwich Mean Time). So with that, and being just a Chunnel ride away from Paris, one would presume it a fashion capital as well.

It defiantly has been. And still is, maybe, well in a sense.

But the current state of street wear is (in a word) scary, scary, scary. There are good elements and ideas, but the over all, general dismantled barrage of it is near abominable. And fashion is everywhere in British culture it infiltrated so far the Mr. Men and Little Miss book series is being resurrected to do one about none other than Miss Stella McCartney. (There was some interesting speculation on other pop culture points of interest may have books about them i.e. Little Miss Hangover and Mr. Scandal, etc.)

The good points of note (most of which would be findable over here in Bonnie Belltown, if one puts their mind to it) include the fact that they've taken accessories from a mere notion to new heights. Patches are on literally everything; jewelry's everywhere with lots of opaque, plastic monotone beads. There are also bulbous but sleek neo-crocheted bead necklaces (long of course), plus loads of "band action" (i.e. wrist bands from the traditional, terry-cloth sweatbands to sporty yet sleeker Lacoste models, made to be worn with literally anything, anywhere, anytime, and head/hair bands with a new take on the '60s/'80s pullback classic).

Oversized, exaggerated collars are on everything from short cropped jackets to dress shirts.

There's interesting silkscreen action on unexpected textiles and in unexpected places images printed right onto denim, corduroy, linen and ribbed fabrics, creating a uncommon, though sometimes uncomfortably disheveled, seemingly dismantled look. British men tend more toward pink than guys around here: From Pepto-Bismol pink striped dress shirts, to fuchsia Ts, to white guys in purple pimp gear looking good. Stripes don't make UK men cower; one sees loads of striped shirts with striped jackets with striped ties, as well as stripes paired with plaids. From TV to the street to the High Street, it's like the controlled chaos of a clashing revolution. There is also a stagnating sea of the uncoiffured. Like here, there are those who do do's and those who just don't. In the UK though, it seems those who do tend toward the more extreme grannies with intentional washes of purple or blue hair, looking good, to the other extreme of TCH (Tragic Clown Hair). The SPP (Skunk Patch Posse) look is popular on both sides of the Atlantic. Music and entertainment have heavy effects trends surface and sink quickly the intrepid resurfacing of the punk/SKA movement continues its influence. Trying to ramshackle the street madness from the sea of sameness creates another, sometimes more hideous one. Remember the Star-Bellied Sneetches?

After journeying trough the ascertainable areas like Camden Town, Knightsbridge, Richmond, Sloane Square, Brixton and beyond, it was time for this fashion-minded female to explore "Fashion DNA," an event organized by the Rijksmuseum of Amsterdam. Riddled with fashion and design students, the tiny tribute to fashion through the years was squeezed like a corset into De Nieuwe Kerk (a.k.a. the new church in Dam Square, Nieuwe Zijde, a holy building built circa 1350). The first piece in view was a wide hoped wedding dress and hoop frame nearly nine feet wide, worn Helena Slicher on the night of Sept. 4, 1759, when she married Baron Aelbrecht van Slingelandt.

Highlights included the homage to inner wear through the years. Much attention paid to the evolutions and similarities of corsets, born of the "back straight, chest out and chin-up" image, and the idea that young females should hide their developing bodies and suppress the feminine form. Never mind the health risks, they remained popular from the 1700s to present. The biggest change occurred in the 1980s with the onset of the bustier.

The display included ornate children's corsets of the 1740s (aka the "kinder corset"), less than ten inches in diameter, to jewel encrusted and ornately embroidered works of art from 1840s until now, interestingly parallel designs just with new fabrics. The display of bras, from the 1920s to present, included an homage to enhancement: Reusable concealers, stay-put fashion tape, push-up bras and an array of insertables. Men weren't to be left out; on display were the 2006 models of "push-up pants" and the "front padded boxer short."

Evidence of fashion and sport melding over the years piqued interest. Tennis dresses from 1900 to present (complete with the 2004 Chanel racquet and case, balls included), to the evolution of ladies' walking sticks, to the fist ladies' ski equipment, to equestrian accessories, to the all-important parasol.

Parasols, devised to protect fashionable pale skin from the sun in the 1920s, become "the thing" for riding in coaches. This is when the hinge was introduced, developed from the parasol stick, enabling it to be bent behind the user's head. This meant the fashionable could be seen from the road, allowing persons to give proper greeting whilst in their coaches or on their porches and still not have to sit in the sun. This flamboyance eventually led to the 1980s advent of self-tanning cr�me. (Did anyone notice the parasol pallid Madonna carried when she went down to Africa to collect her new son?)

The half shirt a 17th century invention of a shirt (or ruche, or jabot) using less fabric was invented for blokes who couldn't afford the whole shirt but still wanted to have the fashionable frill of a shirt spilling out of their jackets was a sort of early dickie.

The recurring questions are: Does fashion make sense? Could we live without it? The answer is yes and no. It makes sense in that it doesn't make sense. It used to mean looking good, but "good" is so subjective. Perception changes, as do agenda and culture. It's a cyclical fun beast, and makes no sense. But it's still one of the biggest businesses on the planet, and an all-encompassing art.