- The Observer, Sunday October 8 2006
Whenever the opportunity allows, fashion types like to lay claim to 'an influence that comes straight from the streets'. They think such pronouncements make them sound gritty and real, as opposed to poncey and cosseted and divorced from the world which the rest of us are forced to inhabit while simultaneously attempting to wear their clothes.
However, on the occasion of this particular season, the various designers du jour might actually be able to substantiate their very favourite pronouncement. Many of their latest offerings do appear to be channelling the sartorial spirit of the street - or at least, the sartorial spirit of your average 14-year-old renegade habitué of a slightly grubby shopping precinct. Hoodies are everywhere - or they will be, just as soon as temperatures drop and the high street unleashes its cheaper copies on the fash-hungry public. Parkas (perennial fave of every pseudo-threatening teen who ever loitered on the concrete walkway adjoining their local Superdrug) reach previously uncharted heights of fashionability for winter 06. Prada did them in bronze, Belstaff did them in a trad (ish) khaki with a metallic sheen, Zac Posen did them crop style, with a batwing sleeve. Cashmere snoods and hooded jumpers made it onto the runway at D&G in cream, with a matching knitted all-in-one body suit, at MaxMara, in a grey and black stripe, and at Hermès with a fur trim.
And then there were sort of free-form hood/hat attachments, at McQueen, at Dior and at Philosophy. And so the fashion hoodies were conceived ... Whether or not they'll adopt the shifty, Middle England-baiting, Asbo-happy attitude associated with actual urban teenage hoodies, in the name of added authenticity, remains to be seen. Although it should be said that both tribes have been mastering the art of intimidation via distribution of Identikit superior sneers for as long as we can remember.
