During the recent Paris Menswear Fashion Week, post-punk’ music’s historical influence on fashion was celebrated by many veteran designers, several of which booked live music acts to perform during their runway shows.
One such occurrence was during Belgian avant-garde fashion designer Raf Simons runway show. Simons, who has had post punk inspirations in his collections for years—notably his use of New Order and Joy Division prints (which even included a Substance Umbrella), made his love for Joy Division known once again by opening his show with Joy Division’s 1980 track “Atmosphere”, where the models did indeed walk in silence leading into the surprise recruitment his fellow countrymen Whispering Sons to perform live during his show.
Whispering Sons are one of the best new post-punk bands out right now, having recently released their critically acclaimed debut LP Image at the end of 2018, following several fantastic EP’s and singles.
Quite possibly the band’s tribute to David Lynch’s Twin Peaks, with their log lady quote: “They move so slowly when they’re not afraid…”, in the album track “Alone”, coupled with the song “Got a Light”, was a further kinship with Simons, for the designer’s AW19 show also featured a “damn fine tribute to David Lynch”.
(Whispering Sons are currently on a European tour, see dates at the bottom of this article).
Japanese fashion designer Rei Kawakubo during her label Comme Des Garçons’ Homme Plus show enlisted Dark Synth duo Vowws, to perform during for a collection whose theme was “finding beauty in the dark”.
As Vogue noted, the sentiment “I fucking hate genre descriptions.” stated by Rizz of Vowws, sync’s perfectly with the ethos of Rei Kawakubo Tokyo-based fashion label, whose work is also always very out there, and deconstructive and questioning of fashion.
Hedi Slimane for French ready to wear fashion label Celine augmented the designer Slimane had been releasing with Yves Saint Laurent two years ago when he was designer there, but with a post-punk flair inspired by dark new-wave fashion, and no-wave.
The intent to pay homage to No Wave could not have been any more clear, as James Chance himself was enlisted to play saxophone during the runway show.
One model cast for Hedi Slimane’s show, Ferdia Gallagher, clearly resembles Bauhaus’ own David J Haskins.
Another member of the Antwerp Six, along with Raf Simons, is Ann Demeulemeester, who played Siouxsie and the Banshee’s during her show, with designs reminiscent of the wardrobe of The Cult’s Ian Astbury during the Love era.
Whispering Sons Tour Dates:
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