Skip to content

What is Avant Garde Fashion?

by XiaoBo 04 Sep 2024

The shows of avant-garde designers sometimes seem grotesque and slightly crazy. Some admire the flight of design thought, while others do not understand it. Let's look at avant-garde fashion trends together. Avant-gardism - a movement in art, which is characterized by innovative, experimental ideas and radical ways of their embodiment. The trend appeared in the early twentieth century and became a revolution in cinema, music, painting, literature, and, of course, fashion. Avant-gardism was designed to change traditional ideas about art, and it partially succeeded. Over time, avant-garde art lost its rebellious spirit and formed into a full-fledged popular movement with many directions.

Many fashion historians agree that the avant-garde style in clothing appeared in Japan in the early 1920s. Japanese designers' vision of European fashion was contained in unusual outfits. But avant-gardism began its formation on the world catwalks in the 60s, when a designer inspired by the success of mankind in the exploration of outer space, created the legendary collection “Space”. The clothes looked futuristic, had clear lines, and geometric necklines, and were presented in bright colors. The collection caused a furor and became one of the most famous in the couturier's career. After such a strong reaction to his collection, many famous designers turned to avant-garde. For example, another designer has been creating completely unusual outfits since the early 1970s, promoting the rebellious ideas of punk culture.
Add To Cart
"\n \n \n Off White\n \n \n Off White\n \n "
"\n \n \n Off White\n \n \n Off White\n \n "
Add To Cart
"\n \n \n White\n \n \n White\n \n "
"\n \n \n White\n \n \n White\n \n "
Add To Cart
"\n \n \n White\n \n \n White\n \n "
"\n \n \n White\n \n \n White\n \n "

Exploring the Origins of Avant-Garde Style

Avant-garde style first appeared in architecture and culture. As a style of clothing, it originated in the 1920s in Japan. The avant-garde style was a Japanese take on European clothing. This style is characterized by straight geometric silhouettes, or, on the contrary, shapeless. This is a play of forms, a demonstration of a very interesting silhouette and cut.

Avant-garde fashion - a concept that describes the advanced, unconventional, extravagant trends in fashion, not fit into conventional norms.

Nowadays it is rare to find a pure style, it has become fashionable to mix styles. And it is much more interesting because it gives room for creativity. There are some rules, on which styles can be mixed. For example, drama combines well with sports, romance with feminine, sports with feminine, and classics, on the contrary, is very difficult to combine with other styles. But each person can come up with their combinations. If you are dressed in all gray, it may mean that you do not pay attention to clothes, or, more likely, just strive to merge with the gray mass. Pay attention, creative people dress distinctively, interestingly, and creatively. After all, clothing is one of the means of self-expression, which should not be ignored.

The main color is black, an ascetic color, color as a background for the perception of the model. Thus, the expressiveness of models is achieved not through color, but through lines, shapes, and cuts. The avant-garde style uses technologically new fabrics , mesh, paper, and cardboard. This style is for bright and creative people who want to stand out from the crowd.

The first direction of avant-garde style is minimalism. Here only simple materials, simple uniform shapes, and monochrome are used. In minimalism, as a rule, no more than one color is used in a suit, mainly black, white, and gray. Minimalism is characterized by simple silhouettes, clean lines, monochrome, a minimum of details, and drawings.

The second direction is conceptualism. This is clothing for the sake of clothing, not to wear it, but for the sake of self-realization of the author, who embodies in his collection of any idea, or concept. Clothes can be made not only of fabric but also of any material, such as paper, cellophane, and metal plates.

And the third direction of the avant-garde style is deconstructivism. Deconstruction is a concept used in fashion since the mid-1980s and into the 1990s to describe the work of several designers who are intellectuals in the fashion world and have a significant influence on the processes taking place in it. As a movement in fashion, it was born in 1986. The ideologist of the movement was a famous Japanese designer, who was initially criticized for their collections. The term is borrowed from the philosophical movement of poststructuralism. The designers have shattered traditional notions of form, function, and boundaries of clothing. They tend to view clothing as a form of pure art, as an object of experimentation in form-making or material processing. Deconstructivism is the exposure of the construction, cutting of products, destruction of familiar forms, unconventional use of conventional materials, and the search for new technologies. Often used as motricity in the cut and composition of clothing, layering, raw edges, and indeterminate colors, emphasizing asexuality. Designers create usually in a unisex style.

The point is an exceptionally fresh look at European costume. Japanese designers treat cut clothes with great reverence and, when they take apart a classic dress, they always go to the very essence, the basis, the beginning, to the point where you can admire the very idea, for example, a seam. The simplest, mundane detail of a costume in the work of a Japanese designer can become the main, style-forming and vice versa, important, from our usual point of view, can be completely insignificant and even unnecessary. Clasps do not necessarily need to fasten the dress, they can simply decorate it. Fashion is becoming truly unpredictable.
Add To Cart
"\n \n \n White\n \n \n White\n \n "
"\n \n \n White\n \n \n White\n \n "

How Avant-Garde Style Has Evolved Over Time?

Avant-garde can not leave indifferent any fashionista. Today this style is rightfully recognized as one of the most extravagant and nontrivial. It finds its embodiment in unusual images. This style is made up of original accessories, saturated colors, interesting forms of clothing, and extraordinary hairstyles. The name of this fashion trend has French roots. It translates as “advanced detachment”. In the past, this word was used to refer to the troops going ahead, taking the blow.

Today, the exact date of the appearance of this style is unknown. Fashion historians assume that the avant-garde in clothing first appeared in the sixties of the twentieth century. Initially, it was believed that the avant-garde was acceptable only for outings to the podium or filming various movies. Not every fashionista dares to dress up in such shocking things. This non-trivial style will be to the taste of only those fashionistas who are tired of the grayness of everyday life and monotonous routine. Avant-garde does not know the limits and boundaries of reality. Let's consider in detail the features of this fashion trend.

· The style is distinguished by bold color ensembles. Creative things are presented in a very wide and rich range of colors. Very often you can meet clothes painted in poisonous and acidic colors. A saturated palette can be found not only in things, accessories, or shoes but also in the color of the hairstyle.

· Avant-garde does not obey any rules. This fashion trend is a true embodiment of the most daring and unconventional ideas that could only visit the bright heads of talented designers. Bold outfits combine several different styles at once. For example, avant-garde clothing can contain classical, glamorous, and gothic notes.

· Few people know, but this style is both expensive and quite affordable. It all depends only on the materials from which the clothes are made, and they can be quite different. It can be plastic containers, coins, and other improvised means. But do not think that all avant-garde things consist of available raw materials. There are also noble products made of fur, wool, silk, lace, and satin. This style has long gone beyond all the limits of permissible. There are no more exotic and extraordinary things than clothes in an avant-garde way.

· The silhouettes of the original outfits are very different from the traditional options. They can have a lot of sharp angles, roundings, or prominent details of large size. This applies to both unconventional clothing and women's hairstyles.

· The style combines notes of drama, and theatricality, as well as sinister and satirical moments. Looking at a lady in an avant-garde outfit, thoughts of a parallel reality come to mind. Very often designers realize in strange costumes their most daring fantasies. For example, it can be exaggerated elements: huge beads, giant square shoulders, or angular lines.

Minimalism
Minimalism is the most laconic and “calm” direction. He will quite be able to fit into the everyday image. Its name speaks for itself. Minimalist clothing is equipped with a small number of decorative elements and is characterized by restrained lines and a simple cut of fabric. A distinctive feature of this subtype is its simplicity of silhouettes in tandem with bold color palettes. At the moment, minimalist jackets with slouchy gingham, dresses with geometric-shaped cutouts, and skirts containing several types of different fabrics are at the peak of popularity.

Deconstructivism
This direction is a more vivid embodiment of the avant-garde. It contains many pronounced elements of this style. These include external seams, non-standard silhouettes, asymmetrical elements, and clasps placed in the most unexpected places. In this direction, you can meet the most unexpected things. For example, bathing suits in the form of a jacket or dress, which are actually classic pants.
Blog Left Arrow previous post
next post Blog Right Arrow
Blog Left Arrow Blog Left Arrow How to Wear Patchwork Dresses?
How to Wear Grey? Blog Right Arrow Blog Right Arrow

Thanks for subscribing!

This email has been registered!

Shop the look

Choose Options

Close
Edit Option
this is just a warning
Close
Size Chart

Color:
Size: XXS
Close
LOGIN OR CREATE ACCOUNT
Close
Shopping Cart
0 items
BLACK FRIDAY GIFT
All promotional items listed below are final sale*.
*Final sale: no returns or exchanges.

Shop Local, Get 10% Off!

  • Vietnam
  • Philippines
  • Malaysia
  • Thailand
  • Singapore
  • Myanmar
  • Brunei

Sign Up & Save 10%
Exclusive Local Styles