My friend and colleague Kate Dries asked me yesterday why seemingly every piece of denim currently in stores is fringed and frayed (hopefully NOT to this extreme degree). In case you happened to be wondering, too, I will tell you!
Marques’Almeida is a relatively new and now extremely beloved fashion label based in London; comprised of Marta Marques and Paulo Almeida, two Portuguese designers who met in fashion school at Central Saint Martins, they began making womenswear in 2011, establishing frayed edges and exposed selvages part of their signature denim.
It was all slightly avant-garde for the first few years, aligned with their home city’s famous individualist personal style to boot. But in 2014, Marques’Almeida hit on a chic, streamlined, super-cool silhouette that made fashion folks lose their shit:
That was the same year they won a NEWGEN scholarship from the British Fashion Council, which brought them wider acclaim from more mainstream fashion magazines, and therefore their clients; in 2015 they won an LVMH prize and designed costumes for the New York City ballet.
After that, it was a done deal: fast fashion shops like Zara, H&M, your mom and your mom rushed in jeans, tops and dresses mimicking Marques’Almeida’s signature fray, and that is why now everyone is walking around looking like they’ve spent the last year on Gilligan’s Island. (For what it’s worth, the designers have since done away with the fray and gone on to bigger and better things.)
Isn’t that so fun and exciting!
Images via AP