Music and clothing have always been intrinsically connected. From the creative marriage of these two elements, a myriad of subcultures and communities have been born.
In the wake of FKA Twigs long awaited 2024 album, Eusexua, the artists’ collaborative campaign with Swiss running brand On can be seen plastered across billboards throughout central London.
The campaign features the singer contorting her body into various displays of athleticism- highlighting the value of body-mind connection and the elegance of the human form in all its strength.
Titled The Body Is Art, Part II, the company states that the intention of the project is to create ‘a living, breathing art form where the body becomes a canvas for creative movement’.
Just like in the training line produced by On, there are many senses in which fashion acts as a medium to merge creativity and artistry with the experience of living within a human body- and where better to witness this phenomenon than amidst the eccentric, underground nightlife of London?
Prior to her most recent album release on January 24th, Spotify hosted FKA Twigs and fellow singer and songwriter Imogen Heap, to discuss the intent of the tracks on her album, Eusexua. During the conversation, she revealed the nature of the at the time upcoming album: “a psychedelic, childlike, playful exploration of what it means to be human mixed with this raw, dirty, hard, sexual grit as an undertone, which also represents what it means to be human.”
The striking contrast that is present within Twigs’ description of the art she has created undeniably held influence over the crowd at the album’s promotional event: an Eusexua rave, which took place at London’s notorious rave venue, The Cause.
Amidst the hard grit of thumping techno and contorting bodies emerged a subtle elegance. In the darkened room, packed wall-to-wall, floor-length gowns draped on erratically moving bodies suggest one thing: there is a special place held for elegance and aesthetics amidst the seemingly disorganised chaos.
For undergraduate fashion designer Wyatt Lemay, styling DJs and audience members alike at the Eusexua rave was an intimidating prospect. Used to focusing his attention on the elegant beauty of womenswear, the rave was a new and unusual backdrop for his work to be displayed before- and yet the idea came to fruition seamlessly.
“My favourite of the bunch was definitely the look that Seba [a DJ performing at the event] was wearing. I love it because it is inspired by the style of a 1920s apron and I made it so you can wear it in so many different little ways, but I like it in the way that they had it on that night.’He describes a handmade gown worn by one of the performers that evening.
“It’s not in the general colour palette that I see a lot of people wearing for this kind of event,” he continues. “It’s just a colour that I think is so vintage in a way and it looks so elegant in that darkened light and that unusual context.”
The grungy yet alluring setting provided for a rave creates a whole new context for garments that they may not otherwise be seen in.
“I would say that’s my favourite because it goes with the pink gloves as well, which were made from pants. So it’s like pants and an apron reworked and worn as a gown.”
Lemay’s description of the outfit alludes to the idea that the beauty of contrast is a running theme in rave fashion. Rather than submitting to the limitation of “dressing for the occasion,” party-goers use events as an opportunity to experiment and draw outside of the lines with their demonstration of self-expression.
“This is all like a reflection of my design ideals: bringing elegance into spaces where it’s not as ubiquitous,” Lemay told us.
“I would say the first thing I consider is wearability,” he tells me of his design process. “I always value that because in every place that I look, in like schools that I’ve been at, it’s always been about like restricting the wearer and I understand how one can do that, but I always value like quality material and actually being able to move, but yet still like hugging the body in the way that people want garments to.”
The human form and movement of the human body play a massive role in the appeal of raving – whether it manifests in your dance moves or your dress sense.
However, like in the sense of the Eusexua rave, the visual aesthetics of a rave are by no means required to align with the genre of music being played: “I love everyday elegance, as cliche as that sounds, but it is kind of what I go for.”
“What does elegance mean to me? Of course, I can say old Hollywood, like Marlena Dietrich, Jean Harlow- all of that, which is a huge inspiration,” Lemay acknowledges the influence of feminine Hollywood stars.
“But I feel like nowadays it can mean something totally different. It just means being minimal almost. So to me, it’s almost trying to bring back a bit of comfortable maximalism and that’s elegance, I feel.”
When asked what is the connection between music and fashion? He replies: “I feel like to me I can’t design anything if I don’t have at least some selection of songs that I’m listening to at the time on repeat.”
At this point, he stands and pulls a sheer brown shirt from the clothing rail beside him: “So Julie London was my inspiration for this particular garment. Her music was all I would listen to when I was designing this particular look because it’s just a full kind of 1920s slack, yet it retains that little bit of ’40s influence, you know. It is generally very reminiscent of the vibe of those eras.”
But despite drawing inspiration from past decades, the garments designed by Lemay fit just as seamlessly into the current one: “I want everything to kind of fall in a way that’s tailored, but yet still totally loose,” he describes a garment perfectly suited for a night of dancing: beautifully made yet considerate of the human form and the comfort it demands.
“Before I sew anything, like with the toils, I’d like to move the mannequin really fast down a hallway to see how the skirt will flow. And I always do like a first mock-up just to see exactly how it will flow. And I love all kinds of vintage draping methods because they really have the techniques down, movement-wise.”
So what is the perfect outfit for a night out? Wyatt believes it to be “a nonchalant gown and a pair of wedge boots.” The continuous evolution of rave outfits since the conception of mainstream raving in the 1980’s is evidence enough that anything is possible.
We’ve seen it all – from the bright and bold shades of the ’80s to the more recent Berlin-inspired all-black outfits- so why not the glamorous ballroom gowns of 19th-century Hollywood?
Featured image courtesy of Wyatt Lemay.