By: Joseph Gleasure [ Instagram ]
I’ve seen many casual observers commenting on the so called “ghillie” suit trend over the last few weeks with many citing the Post Archive Faction X Off White collaboration as some sort of indication that gorpcore and other aesthetically driven military and outdooring styles are going to see mass adoption in the near future. However, as with most streetwear trends, fashionable interpretations of ghillie suits are nothing new.
While rehashing 90s design has become expected in recent years not all designers fall into the same contrived pitfalls as Supreme, Dries Van Noten was able to create a fairly innovative version of this idea for Spring-Summer 2022 releasing a parka, blouson and pant set in a laser cut polyamide fabric. Dries would appear to be the current progenitor behind this trend however perhaps predictably Rei Kawakubo’s COMME des GARÇONS Homme Plus sent actual “Ghillie Suits” down the runway in 2018 as part of the Spring-Summer 2019 collection.
Supreme worked with British brand Griffin Studio to reinterpret the brand’s blade cut designs of the mid-90s into an anorak for Spring-Summer 2022. Acronym’s latest Nike collaboration featured a 3-D cut textural element that hinted at ghillie suits.
I am confident that the techwear/streetwear crowd that has gravitated to “gorpcore” over the last couple of years are going to lap this ghillie trend up and we’re going to see some imaginative interpretations.
As an aside, I found it funny that Dries opted to use Loaded by Primal Scream for his collection video. Primal Scream’s Bobby Gillespie featured prominently in Gucci’s ‘The Performers’ video series and long been a favourite in Anglosphere media for his fashionability, also appearing in campaigns for Acne Studios and Marc Jacobs. Bobby was also noted for his onetime appearance on Jesus and the Mary Chain’s Psychocandy in which the lead single Just Like Honey featured prominently in Sofia Coppola’s Lost In Translation (2003) and was the inspiration for Jun Takahashi’s Undercover Spring-Summer 2014 Men’s collection.
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