Fashion taps into sublime primitive drives with this season's simian offerings.
Dana Thomas
July 17, 2008
I wanna be like you-oo-oo,” sings the king of the monkeys to Mowgli, the boy in Disney’s classic animated feature, The Jungle Book. In the fashion world this season, the opposite seems to be true. Designers such as British cyber-punk newcomer Gareth Pugh (a sample of his Fall 2008 offerings are shown at right) and Giles Deacon, who was named best British designer last year, are off ering simian-style looks including long gorilla tunics, short swingy shifts, and belted jackets with fringe sleeves and fur epaulets that recall the evil monkey soldiers in The Wizard of Oz -- menacing headgear included. Are the designers harking back to our pre-prehistoric ancestral roots or simply over-embracing the green movement? Either way, the primate look is howling its way into the pop zeitgeist. Indeed, our favorite avant-gardist Tilda Swinton has endorsed it by donning a splendid furry number for her role as the White Witch in The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian that resembles the endangered Golden Lion Tamarin of the Amazon. Perhaps Pugh fan Kylie Minogue might even go ape for her stage shows. Chiquita bananas optional.
Back in the early 1980s, when mullets were considered cool, Madonna was a fledgling pop singer, and everyone under 30 stopped what they were doing at 3 p.m. to catch the latest adventures of Luke and Laura on “G.H.”—or “General Hospital,” as it was officially known—a very unassuming bomber jacket in ice cream colors and with a discreet label on the upper pocket that read “Members Only” suddenly and inexplicably became the rage. The deal was sealed when Anthony Geary, “Luke,” with his gangly body and receding blonde ’fro, not only started wearing Members Only jackets but starred in a commercial hawking them.
