Pop goes the runway

 

There is no denying the massive influence of the 60s on this season’s fashion and so it is little surprise that there is a bit of unearthing of the most iconic artistic movements of the decade.

Pop art in all its explicit and inferred forms is exploding (as in “crash” “boom”!) across the fashion scene and designers are alluding to it from the daisies at Prada to the comic like florals at Holly Fulton to the tongue and cheek prints at Henry Holland.

Prada

Henry Holland

This association with the movement seems topical and timely as Lichtenstein’s work is currently being exhibited at the Tate.  He who made the comic strip iconic is on display at the most famous gallery, on the world’s runways, and even the high streets themselves.

Some of Lichtenstein's most famous works and the fashion derived from them

The high street giants like Topshop can't escape the craze and sporty ensembles are littered with slogan knits, comic speech bubbles prints and comic book-inspired graphics.

Topshop

This trend especially leans itself towards knits such as this season’s hottest micro top which bares the midriff completely and is typically cut-away at the armholes with a higher neckline.  This as well as printed jumpers seem the perfect canvas for the pop sensations strewn across them.

Andy Warhol, who’s signature pieces depict mundane, commodities such as soup cans as well as the icon, Marilyn Monroe (arguably another commodity of the time), also leaves his mark on this season’s fashion.  

Some of the most famouse pieces I spotted at my visit to MOMA last week notibly Warhol's depictions of  Marilyn and the Campbell soup cans

 

 

Val Garland, makeup artist at Henry Holland, said “Andy Warhol was my magic inspiration”.  Even the deep side parting on the platinum hair displayed at Marc Jacobs hinted at the typical style of Edie Sedgwick, Warhol’s muse.  The similarities too apparent to be coincidence don't you think?

Edie Sedgwick in the 60s

Model at Marc Jacobs SS13

The Japanese retailer, Uniqlo has incorporated some of Warhol's most famous works into its prints for the Summer collection.  I spotted the opening whilst on the streets of New York last week...

Ironic perhaps that now these artworks proclaiming the art of the mundane commodity, are merely being translated into a wearable commodity themselves...

The Pop art movement is being revisited in a big way and all prints associated with it.  So pull out your old, now vintage, Disney tees and suddenly you are pop on for one of this season's coolest looks...