Fashion comes to the corral | Financial times

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A pigsty is a curious place to get inspiration, but that’s where designers have been looking lately. First came the mud (large mounds of peat bog at Balenciaga’s SS23 show) and then came the pig, duck and horse motifs for autumn. At Burberry, for their debut collection, Daniel Lee filled the runway with ducks, covering everything from jackets to dresses. Then there was Stella McCartney, whose latest collection features Appaloosa-themed jacquards in honor of his first horse, Harmony, while Christopher Kane’s fall collection used AI to create slit dresses in prints of piglets, chicks and rats, although its inspiration was somewhat less rural. “We had a rodent problem on the ceiling of our studio,” says the designer. “We never saw them, but we could hear them running around the pipes above our heads.”

There have been calls for a ‘royalty per species’

The more illustrious the animal, the stronger its influence on the fashion industry: leopards and zebras, of course, have long been hot commodities. But everyday creatures have appeal too. Daniel James Cole, an adjunct assistant professor at the Fashion Institute of Technology in New York, explains that the Surrealist movement made animals a popular material for designers, leading to a wave of clothing that imitated familiar shapes such as birds, insects and dogs. Perhaps the most famous are Elsa Schiaparelli’s horses, which adorned brooches and belts in her Circus collection of 1938. You can see the inspiration in Gilbert Adrian’s Roan Stallion dress from a few years later, where a galloping horse extends from the neckline to the knees. His other designs feature prancing lambs and pecking chickens; Adrian took the corral and turned it into Golden Age Hollywood.

Designers have often flirted with simpler times. As Cole notes, “a theme of country life ran throughout the 18th century,” expressed most notably by Marie Antoinette. The French queen popularized the queen shirta style of dress inspired by the payana life (peasant life). They were often made of toile de Jouy, fabric printed with hunting scenes, farm animals, and “people frolicking in the woods.” But this current trend could also simply be a new version of cottagecore, the modern aesthetic based on a fanciful vision of country life (posts tagged #cabin They have 14.3 billion views on TikTok). It’s no secret that nostalgia triumphs during periods of upheaval, and pigs and sheep offer a strange return to childhood. “It may bring the sense of whimsy we need,” says Cole, adding that the focus on the barnyard combines this feeling with “a sense of familiarity that’s comforting.”

For Rose Hudson, print and graphics strategist at WGSN, the barnyard theme is indicative of a trend the agency calls “Park Life.” “There continues to be a resurgence of pastoral animal motifs, underpinned by a rustic, artisanal feel,” she says. “Recycling of dead cloth has also been increasing and is strengthening the use of these rural motifs.” This homely comfort was particularly palpable at Bode: check out the whimsical embroidery horse cardigan – and on the orange legs that hang from Burberry Hand Knitted Duck Beanie.

However, the symbolism of the corral can also offer an unflattering view of fashion’s relationship with the animal kingdom. Recently there have been calls for a “royalty of a kind” for the use of motifs such as leopard print; the idea is to give back to the animal and close the mental gap between a species and its image. For Joshua Katcher, vegan menswear designer and author of Fashion Animals, this disconnect is particularly evident when it comes to designers who use leather, fur, or wool. “When we use animals in fashion as symbols, we tend to strip them of their individuality, their inner life and their complexity,” she says. “Animals are reduced to two-dimensional symbols that represent things that flatter our ego.”

That doesn’t mean that images of animals are prohibited: it’s all a matter of context. Stella McCartney’s horses are powerful because they represent a connection between animal and human. JW Anderson’s pigeon bag makes an overlooked bird beautiful (in a fun, silly way). However, the outline of a pheasant on a Rydale hunting sock is quite sinister: ideally, prey should not be a fashion motif.

italian label Collina Strada autumn/winter collection shed light on animals “commonly consumed for food” precisely for this reason. “I tried to bridge the gap between our everyday lives and the natural world, provoking reflection on the interconnectedness of all living things,” says founder Hillary Taymour of the pig ears and cattle tag piercings that accompanied her sweaters. thick and their baggy tartan pants.

As Katcher says: “We are fascinated by animals because we evolved alongside them. “Most humans have an innate, evolutionary desire to communicate with nature.” Fashion is just another way to show how we feel. And right now, it seems, the message is pig, cow and duck.

Model, Martina Bergamini in the direction of Oui. Cast, Tiago Martins in Ben Grimes. Hair, Rimi Ura at Calliste Agency. Makeup, Mayumi Oda at Bryant Artists. Photographer’s assistant, Christian Varas. Stylist assistants, Amelie Richard and Rémy Yombo. Makeup assistant, Laurine Maciejewski