It's easy to fall into the trap of sentimentalizing the pop culture symbols from our youth but if London-based designer Katie Eary has any say, we'll never look at a major (and majorly resurgent) childhood icon the same way again. At the debut of her new clothing line, which she says is "designed to overthrow innocence," models rocked the London Men's Fashion Week runways wearing shirts and shorts printed with images of My Little Ponies sporting giant penises.
While Eary said that the main goal of her prints was to subvert childhood, perhaps there are larger reactionary implications to her collection -- namely a graphic and extremely visceral step away from the tie-dyed, pastiche-loving '90s-overload we've been inundated with for the past few seasons.
After all, the revival of infantilizing primary school trends of Millennials' collective yesteryear (i.e. tattoo chokers, jelly sandals and yin-yang symbols) have been the go-to look for Tumblr-bred teens and twentysomethings for a while, and is admittedly a tired fad that's lived long enough to even be extended to the very post-modern "kidcore" mess of overalls and pigtails. Perhaps this is Eary's very obvious protest against what many have called the fetishization of '90s kid culture, one that simultaneously protests our notions of typical "manly" fashion at that. After all, the Brony Movement has been noted for shifting traditional ideas of masculinity -- so maybe it's high time for fashion to follow suit by having men wear My Little Pony andfloral brocade? If so, no wonder Eary decided to emphasize the endowment of those equines...but at the same time it makes us think about the darker, ickier ideas explored re: things like brony sex toys etc. Was that the intent? To maybe also address the scarier side of Internet-driven nostalgia?
Whatever the case, it's definitely an eye-catching look for anyone daring enough to sport it down the street. Rick Owens, watch out.
[h/t Dazed and Confused]