LONDON • British clothing brand Topman Design revived the country's 1990s rave culture for its London Fashion Week show last Friday, dazzling the catwalk with fluorescent colours, psychedelic prints and underground attitude.
Celebrating the anarchic house music scene that spontaneously swept the country and shocked the authorities, the High Street giant transformed the stately Selfridges department store in the heart of London into a warehouse party.
The establishment bastion shook to the booming soundtrack of United States artist Trevor Jackson, as models - sporting greasy hair, oily skin and various piercings - paraded between concrete columns and imposing metal sculptures.
The winter 2017 collection was "heavily influenced by the pubbing and clubbing scene", according to the label, featuring pub paraphernalia, hand-drawn prints and 1990s "rave graphics and neons".
"This gives the look of working in the outdoors all day and clubbing all night," said Topman.
Garments on display included oversized sweatshirts, hoodies, quilted nylon tracksuits, PVC trenchcoats, loud knitwear and neon trainers.
For comfort at work and on the dance floor, expansive was the order of the day, with exaggerated baggy jogging trousers and ultra- flared jeans, recalling the look of the dance floor-inspired guitar bands of the era, such as The Stone Roses and Happy Mondays.
"With this super fun, youthful and stylishly scruffed-up collection, Topman Design has proven once again why it is a firm favourite for so many millennials," - children born between the early 1980s and early 2000s - said the GQ review, calling the collection "explosive".
Last Saturday, British rapper Tinie Tempah lined the catwalk with a minimalistic, casualwear collection inspired by architecture and "the everyday man".
The 28-year-old, known for hits such as Written In The Stars and Not Letting Go, opted for a simple palette of navy blue, grey, white and black to present his first creations of mainly loose tops, trousers and shorts for his menswear brand, What We Wear.
AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE
