Newstalgia. Not a typo – the latest approach to fashion, by St Andrew’s CATWALK Fashion Show. Imagine scuffed docs, grunge, flip phones, scattered cd’s, anything black goes. This was the CATWALK launch party.
The party was studded with incognito models and their friends, and it became a spot the faces of the catwalk. (They all look stunning by the way, I can’t wait to see them on the CATWALK). This was a different approach to the mini-shows of the past, and the committee tells me it was a conscious decision to create a party aesthetic – it definitely worked. The set up was fun and retro, reminding us of all the things we loved about the nineties and the noughties – even if we weren’t all there to experience them first hand.
When asked about the theme, Yasmin, Head of Logistics and Events, said “Newstalgia has a lovely open-endedness to it, so we really wanted to narrow in on how we were interpreting it this year”.
This “narrowing in” on what newstalgia means came through in the personal touch of the guests. The blank CD’s they had out for guests to decorate took me back to scrawling “Hilary Duff – Beat of My Heart – Track One” in permanent marker on the back of a CD I had burned at the local Sanity store (I believe the British alternative is HMV) at age nine.
The CD’s were not just fun gimmicks, but a contribution to the wider work of Catwalk, as Yasmin said the decorated CD’s will be used in the show. “I wanted people that came to the launch to be a part of the show”, creating that sense of community that CATWALK is best known for. It also echoes the patterns of fashion, as the cd’s will come back around in their events, just as trends come back around on the runway.
And how could we forget the media of the past – CATWALK certainly didn’t. The walls flickered with film projections, clips of grunge trends interspersed with fashion photography reminding us of how high fashion is constantly in conversation with street trends – there is no high fashion without the grunge. The media again gave the launch guests a sense of what the show would be – grungy, highly stylised, and trend-setting.
The theme was carefully curated throughout Sandy’s bar, with flickering pictures, CD’s hanging from the roof, and a retro soundtrack. It promises an equally curated show that emphasizes the “new” in newstalgia. Be prepared for the reimaginings of every trend you used to love. Fashions always come back around, and CATWALK is committed to being at the forefront of the revival.