When Rock Becomes Fashion: It’s Smashing Pumpkins’ Turn with Marc Jacobs
Ever since rock began to be codified as a musical genre, its history has been a continuous intertwining of music and fashioninfluencing each other. It turns out it is difficult to separate the musical entity typical of rock from the visual elementswhere gestures, mimicry, dramaturgy and scenography have been crucial to the performative dimension since the very beginning, while clothes play a fundamental role in shaping the image and visible essence of rock stars. Although often understood as equivalent to conformism, deep down the world knows how to embrace the same idea of experimentation and originality of rock, meeting in the common attention for the relevance of the image and stylistic evolution. In both cases, in fact, we are dealing with complex and dynamic worlds, which are codified as
expressive means of cultural changes and continuous generational changes. Between rock and fashion I am therefore long-lasting and fruitful connections which see them develop within popular culture, carrying forward a common intent to break with traditional visual normsthus ennobling social marginality and experimenting with ever-changing identities. From Bill Haley’s complete suits to Elvis Presley’s slicked-back hair, from the Beatles’ Apple Boutique to the Rolling Stones’ Swinging London style and Jim Morrison’s leather garments, from the punk aesthetics spawned by Malcom McLaren and Vivienne Westwood to the lamé dresses of glam rock, up to the shabby and sloppy clothing of grunge style, and so on: fashion has contributed and continues to contribute significantly to define a divine aura around rock stars. It is not surprising that over the years, on many occasions and projects, with different intentions and languages, rock and fashion have directly dialogued thanks to targeted collaborations between musicians and stylists or brands. The history of the last seventy years is full of examplesand there are many cases from the most recent months. One of the latest, in chronological order, is the one that sees the Smashing Pumpkins collaborate with Marc Jacobs for a new collection from Heaven, the brand’s more affordable line led by Ava Nirui.
The capsule collection made with the contribution of Billy Corgan himselfconsists of a series of clothing items inspired by the band’s album covers, such as – among other things – a printed t-shirt featuring the image of “Siamese Dream” and a matching shoulder bag, as well as a T-shirt with graphics that recall those of the “Infinite Sadness” tour. Many other items are available on the official Marc Jacobs website.
The one with the Smashing Pumpkins This is not the first collection of Heaven by Marc Jacobs inspired by the world of rockfollowing in the wake of tributes to Cocteau Twins and Deftones.
In the last few weeks alone, many other fashion brands have asked musicians and bands to create exclusive and limited collections together. Recent collaborations include those between Green Day and Dickies for the thirtieth anniversary of “Dookie” and the twentieth anniversary of “American Idiot”, between the Red Hot Chili Peppers and Parks Project for the twenty-fifth anniversary of “Californication”, between the Melvins and Supreme, between Korn and Adidas and between Turnstile and Converse. In recent years, many of these cases have even become iconic, with – for example – Metallica signing a collection for Billabong, Post Malone with Crocs, Guns N’ Roses with the Italian luxury fashion house Off-White founded by Virgil Abloh, but also Beyoncé designing a couture collection for Balmain with Olivier Rousteing and Elton John working closely with the Florentine fashion house Gucci to create stage clothes.
