Ugly and Not So Chic
Being labeled as the creator of “ugly chic,” for the Italian fashion house Prada, designer Miuccia Prada has tirelessly put her distinctive mark on the fashion industry since the mid-90s. She managed to nail the mixing and matching of commonly “ugly” colours and materials. This suddenly skyrocketed the brand to the top of the fashion pack. Although womenswear had been introduced to the leather goods house in 1989 it wasn’t until Miuccia’s ideas came to stand next to the overtly sexy Tom-Ford-at-Gucci-esque aesthetic in the mid-90s that her signature style began. In an interview Miuccia said “Ugly is attractive, ugly is exciting. Maybe because it is newer,” continuing to explain that to her “the idea of ugly holds as much if not more potential than beauty, with the former, being accurately represented in art and cinema, just not in fashion”. In the Prada Spring/Summer 1996 collection called “Banal Eccentricity” Miuccia sent models down the runway in a variety of shades of brown, mid-length skirts, and clumpy sandals, making the collection not only stand out but also marking the beginning of (as it is known today) the “ugly chic” era. Many designers take inspiration from “ugly” such as Versace, Moschino, Gucci (to name a few) but they all reference a different type of “ugly”. Prada Showcases the kind of fashion that no one wants to wear until Prada does their thing with it. I find the idea of overly glamorous pieces incredibly inspiring and many see this as “ugly”. Versace does it PERFECTLY. Ornately silk fabric printed with golden Baroque motifs mixed with animal prints and styled with LASHINGS of gold jewellery. Now this is the ultimate in bad taste but they commit to it and have become the fashion house they are now because of it. Things that look like they should cost very little but in fact cost stupid amounts. In my eyes, if you do it properly and fully commit it then becomes “ugly-fashion”.
As soon as the shops reopened the one store I couldn’t wait to hit up was TK Maxx. To me, TK Maxx is the ultimate in tat. It is where bad taste goes to brighten up someone’s day, and this is exactly what I want in my life haha. Now, sometimes TK Maxx does stock things on the more questionable side but every now and again it can be like a treasure trove of bad taste. whilst browsing my local TK Maxx I came across this beautiful/awful Fila rain mac. You know that feeling when you find something in there and you cross everything as you search for the price tag? You turn it over and BAAAAM……….. only £29.99 (I was expecting to see £70). I don’t think I would have paid much more than £30 for this jacket EVEN though I loved it, just because I do have around 400 other jackets and very little space to store them haha. I knew I had to make this purchase as I would have regretted it if I didn’t. Luckily for me, the size was an XL as I would much rather wear this way oversized than tight-fitted. The colours on this jacket are a dream. I love a bold colour block even if I start looking like a children’s TV presenter. It has amazing little details such as the 4 large pockets on the front, fun lining, and this little cut out on the zip flap. I know for a fact that this jacket will be a bugger to wear during the spring/summer months as this fabric doesn’t do much for anyone, haha, it’s the kind of fabric that makes you sweat buckets even though it is incredibly lightweight……. I am happy to put it away until the colder months though.
In my eyes, the city of bad taste has to be Las Vegas. I don’t say this as a negative thing, Las Vegas has to be one of the best places I have EVER visited. It is a mecca for the lover of a gift shop and a themed hotel (which is me through and through). I bought this t-shirt way back in 2014 on my second visit to Sin City from the New York New York hotel and casino. Now as you’d expect the hotel gift stores are PRETTY pricey but that doesn’t put me off a tourist t-shirt……….. or anything else for that matter LOL. This t-shirt cost me around $40 and the metallic coating on the design didn’t even last one wash but I still love it. The fit of this tee is perfectly oversized and the neckline doesn’t gape or stretch when worn. There is something incredibly bad taste about tourist t-shirts and I LOVE them.
One of the most talked-about luxury good items over the past few years is the ‘dad trainer’. The clunky, chunky old-school style trainer has been either the most loved or hated fashion accessory. The Balenciaga Triple S, despite the price, has proven to be the most popular out of them all. I managed to find this pair on Vestiaire Collective for a meer £100. I have looked at these trainers for a looooong time now but just couldn’t bring myself to pay £600/£700 for a pair. I managed to get this pair for this amazing price only because they were pretty well-loved. After a few wipes and a good scrub down, they came up well. I am using these as a test drive-kinda-pair and if I like and use them enough I just may invest in a brand new pair. I don’t think I would have ever have gone for an all-white pair but I am more than happy with this pair and they are doing me well. I find them pretty uncomfortable to wear for a long time and also pretty heavy, so short walks it is LOL.
Now these trainers, just like everything else in my wardrobe, have a sense of bad taste-but nothing says bad taste more than my collection of sunglasses. I got these little beauties from New Look and I must say their offering of sunglasses this year is the best I have seen. Priced from £4.99 to £8.99 you really can’t grumble over the price. This pair is quite classy, simple but still bold and therefore still tick that “ugly fashion” box. I love to have a lower-priced pair of sunglasses just so I can leave them in my bag and not suffer from cardiac arrest every time I put something into my bag. I don’t reeeeally have many thin styles so I am buzzing having this pair in my collection.
If anyone can recall the Maison Martin Margiela H&M collaboration in 2012, they will remember that pretty much every single item from the collection played into the “ugly fashion” trend. Now back in the day, MMM was the place to go for avant-garde fashion. One of the pieces that really stood out to me was the jacket that was a giant ring box worn with a white bodysuit. Sadly this look was not recreated for the collaboration but for the high street, it really pushed buttons. I didn’t manage to buy this oversized fanny pack at the time but did manage to find one on eBay a few years later. This is probably one of the most simplistic bags I own but with it being an oversized fanny pack…… it still packs a punch haha. It is incredibly useful as you can fit so much into it and can comfortably work as a mono strap backpack or over the front, more like a crossbody bag.
Fashion is one of the things that you can really have fun with and not suffer any consequences from doing so. I love to play around with fashion and this look was one of them. You can look at any trend or era and pull what you like from each, mix them together and do them your own way. What some see as ugly others see the beauty in. If we all thought the same life would be more boring. I am a huge believer in wearing what you want or love, doing your own thing and if you want to throw on a certain something then do so!!!!