Imperfection Is The New Perfection

From artfully déshevelled, onthe-run looks to everyday-core, the rising runway aesthetic is one of considered widoneness. How will it translate in real life?

- KEVIN LEBLANC

In high school, when I wanted to purchase a T-shirt with holes intentionally perforated throughout, my mother was appalled. I garnered the same reaction when I bought a pair of jeans pre-shredded within an inch of their life, my mother in disbelief: "Why spend money on something that's so destroyed?"

The allure of imperfection in fashion has been around for decades now, one of the main proponents being Miuccia Prada, who's been proudly making "ugly-chic" clothes since the '90s. For spring 2024, it seems that more designers are getting on the same page. The pushback against perfection in fashion, and on social media especially, is giving way to something less refined, with intentionally tousled and even dishevelled looks. Miu Miu, styled by Lotta Volkova, featured shirts layered haphazardly over one another, and handbags stuffed to the brim with random shoes and trinkets. Or consider Bottega Veneta's gaping tote bags, filled with papers and other random ephemera, and Maison Margiela's deconstructed, almost tattered tops, skirts, and dresses, accessorised with hats made out of ... cardboard. But why is fashion reverting back to the undone look now?

It generally never bodes well to look back in fashion, but the 2010s could be seen as our decade of decadence. We saw the rise and ubiquity of the Instagram aesthetic-that is, perfectly primped looks to run errands, lest a paparazzo catch you unmade-up.