While I was researching the recent history of
2-D fashions for
this post, I stumbled upon this spread of whimsical cartoon-inspired designs in
Vogue's February 2003 issue. I
fondly remember this trend: I had a vintage Minnie Mouse t-shirt that I wore non-stop. "Friends" teased me by saying that Minnie looked like Mickey in drag; little did they know that this only made me love her and the t-shirt more.
As
Helmut Lang remarked in the
Vogue article, cartoons were popular with punks, "who always used cartoon images for t-shirt prints," and in 2003, as the article's author
Lynn Yaeger astutely observed, were "a welcome antidote to troubled times." (Keep in mind, this article was written a year and a half after 9/11.) I don't feel times are less troubled today, and wholeheartedly welcome back this trend. While Minnie didn't survive the hiatus - she took one too many spins in the clothes dryer - I plan on taking myself and my style less seriously with these looney 'toons.