Teenagers and the desire to disappear. Alessandro Turci analyses the phenomenon of the fashion of anti-fashion Is the fashion of anti-fashion a fashion in itself? If we were to take Jacques Lacan at his word with his statement “The habit makes the monk”, according to which the aesthetic choice of how we dress inevitably carries the risk of unambiguously declaring who we are and what we think, then everything would be clear. The fusion between identity and clothing would be total. And yet something slips through. Often the choice is led astray by a current of common usage driven by price, practicality, and a desire to escape identification. Many young people, teenagers in high school, for example, want to blend in rather than stand out, at that moment in life when everyone’s eyes are on you and all you want is to disappear. The body takes on a sexual meaning, which provokes a kind of judgment that goes beyond aesthetic fashion transgression/elegance/conformity, becoming political and at times discriminatory. And so hoodies, tracksuits and trainers become undisputed symbols of precise codes of abstention. Following an alternative current means not wanting to take part in the game that fashion proposes, refusing to give in to the influencer illusion, and instead devoting oneself to something else, to the art of disappearing. A new (not so new) technique of new mimetism, analysed by creative professionals and repackaged as a trendy, cool, desirable product. But fashion mocks even its own deviations, transforming them into human expression with a definite meaning, codes and symbols, whatever form they take. The meaning of fashion as modus, a term of Latin origin, becomes more fitting when referring to a gesture, to a way of being, rather than to a garment. So one can disappear in a thousand ways, even by conforming, or by seeking absolute uniqueness. We might assert that Fashion is like Happiness: by the time you have it, you’ve already lost it. Adidas for Gucci The question of tracksuits -yes or no- looks rather different for people who are supposed to have already figured themselves out as adults. Valentino and Lagerfeld loathed them, identifying them as the slovenliness of those with no sense of fashion. Their prejudice, in fact, confirmed the sixth sense that this was not fashion at all, if anything, its opposite. Yet the tracksuit also becomes practical precisely by presenting itself as neutral ground: there is nothing particularly good or bad to say about it. Whether in a trendy version or stained, torn, branded or anonymous, it opens up a cross-cutting comfort zone on which any comment risks being out of place. Adidas for Gucci Worn under a fur coat or a classic men’s overcoat (Prada in pop colours), with loafers or trainers alike, it becomes a contrast that is familiar, acceptable and democratically accessible. The ordinary becoming extraordinary, lending weight to the banal everyday gesture. And so even the adult finds their own reason for it. Alessandro Turci speaking
