Last night, I was speaking to Dazed’s Zing Tsjeng at McQ as part of their collaborative #McQxDazed talks. The subject of the global shifting of trend patterns came up as a topic. We talked about how a trend can travel and be re-interpreted in ways that are specifically localised and placed in the context of that particular place. I used Tokyo leather work label Blackmeans as an example of how a genre like English punk can travel to Japan and be adapted and integrated so that it manifests itself as something unique to them.
The traffic is two-way as I was thinking about this idea of a very British and very female-driven form of what I’m calling “hyper kei”. “Kei” is Japanese for “style” but is usually preceded by other words that denote extreme forms of Japanese street style tribes – dolly kei, visual kei, fairy kei etc. At a dinner to celebrate WAH Nails‘ Ultimate Nail Art Kit on Wednesday night, seeing shoe designer Sophia Webster wearing a Phiney Pet top made me think about the way a group of young female British designers are very much in tune with each other in their love of a “hyper” amped up aesthetic that definitely borrows from Japanese street style’s more overt and extreme sub strands.
I salute this wave of British “hyper kei”. It’s fun, in yer’ face and in the case of people like Webster, who is building a brand with legs (excuse the pun…), it’s proving a winning formula to be unapologetic about pink-hued fluffiness and a more-is-more-more-more approach. For S/S 15, Webster showed that she had more to say than all things sugar-coated and girly. Interpreting the word “Jungle” both in reference to the 90s music genre and the physical place as depicted in Henri Rousseau paintings, she took us on a UV-lit up rave where camouflage, fruitiness and graffiti motifs tripped out side by side. The models looked like a combo of the many ‘keis’ you might find in Fruits magazine but with an extra smack of attitude. She who wears Aztec printed lace-up thigh high boots with knee pads is obviously a fantastical warrior to be reckoned with. The thing with Webster that has contributed to her fast ascent in the shoe world is her full and utter commitment to a theme. Her presentations and the shoes don’t do things by halves and it has earned her a committed fan base. For next season they can literally go “bananas” over an ever-expanding collection.
Where Webster leads the way in “hyper kei”, a pair of young designers are definitely designing ready to wear with a similar spirit. I know I always group up Clio Peppiatt and Phiney Pettman. It’s hard not to with their common background as recent textiles graduates from Ravensbourne. If you look closely it’s plain to see that their graphic styles and inspiration points are different but looked at as a whole, it’s cool to see a concurrent style emerging from the pair. There’s safety in numbers and all the better to support my theory about British hyper kei.
Phiney Pet’s S/S 15 collection “For Your Amusement” takes us to Blackpool, Margate (they’re redoing Dreamland – EXCITED!) and the like. She paints a rose-tinted vision of the British fairground as well as taking a humorous look at modern day theme parks and the characters you might find there. Within a few outfits, she concentrates on surface decoration to illustrate her emoji-esque characters. With cartoonish googly eyes aplenty on every outfit and an infinite amount of detailing and handiwork, it’s a collection that engrosses you as well as being friendly with the visuals. Kitsch sells or at least, it does to the digitally-aged eyes that have a short attention span and have a propensity for the instantly “cool” or “rad”. That’s not to diminish what Phiney does. Like Webster, she too commits to her theme and runs with it to extremes. Here’s hoping she can continue to build on that.
Weirdly Clio Peppiatt also looked at seaside fun for inspiration. Her collection “Happy Honeymoon Elton John” goes to an exotic seaside location to present her twisted trousseau for a fantasy honeymoon, inspired by – you guessed it – Elton John’s marriage to David Furnish. Peppiatt’s stylistic commentary on the hot topic of same sex marriage is a tongue-in-cheek one. She doesn’t shy away from the glitz and and glam, inspired by modern mermaids and 1970s air hostesses. Her lookbook, which was shot in LA takes on a surreal David Lynch slash John Waters collective vibe. There’s an intentional sleaziness to the pictures that means there’s more to Peppiatt’s type of kitsch than meets the eye.
What really defines this trio though is the extreme taste level. Is it everyone’s cup of tea? Not likely. But do they communicate their ideas and influences with conviction? They sure do. It’s hyper kei that definitely deserves the hype.