An Examination on 2016's JEFFERY Fashion
Italian designer Alessandro Trincone's Annodami collection captured the attention of many at the 2016 FashionClash Festival in Maastricht, Netherlands, enough to earn him the winning award of the festival that year. If you aren't familiar with the collection, you may have seen snippets of the designer's work in recent American pop culture. One of Trincone's pieces elegantly takes the forefront on Young Thug's rap/hip-hop album cover, JEFFERY. The designer's vision for that year's festival toys with the idea of gender-bending in high fashion through the use of flowy and precisely-cut pieces. Additionally, all the garments are topped off with a dramatic headpiece to complete the outfit.
Image Courtesy: Snobette
The hip-hop artist has a rather free-spirited sense of style when it comes to fashion and dressing up. Often dressed out in statement pieces such as animal print coats, bedazzled robes, or flashy jewelry, Young Thug simply wears what he wants, when he wants. He claims he does not believe in the term "gender" when it comes to expressing oneself, so there are essentially no rules or norms he follows in hopes to impress. Despite some of the backlash Young Thug (eponymous for Jeffery Lamar Williams) knew he was going to receive, he went through with using a piece of Annodami in his album shoot. It first caught his eye when shopping with his stylists in SoHo, and through a few connections, the dress in the window became the basis for a discussion. Williams was heavily involved in the design process of the album shoot, carefully handpicking each piece of jewelry seen on the album cover, along with a pair of Balenciaga sandals that ended up getting covered by the length of the dress. Stylist Rob Brown notes that after purchasing it, Williams brought up the idea of wearing the Trincone dress to symbolize breaking down barriers of gender through style, and thus ridding the initial photoshoot idea for JEFFERY. Referring to the dress, he excitedly claims, "If I don't get this, I'm gonna die".
Both Alessandro Trincone and Young Thug have in common their beliefs on dressing however the individual pleases. In addition to JEFFERY's album shoot, a 2016 Calvin Klein campaign also brought to light some of Young Thug's views. Asked to make a short appearance in the campaign, the hip-hop artist was featured in women's clothing. Several comments from the rapper were caught on video at the launch, such as, "there is no such thing as gender" and "you can be a gangster in a dress," and many found this outlook on androgyny inspiring. Young Thug has also been featured on the cover of Dazed magazine photographed in a Gucci dress.
Image Courtesy: Complex
Similarly, Trincone explains in an interview with FASHIONCLASH that creating the pieces in Annodami reinforced his belief in there being no boundaries between men and women when it comes to clothing. As someone who once struggled with his issues of self-expression and fulfillment, the Annodami collection quickly became personal and close to Trincone. The pieces the male models wore feature quite obvious feminine touches, with hopes of creating a new meaning for masculinity. The unlikely combination of a household name in rap and a prestigious Italian designer couldn't make for a stranger duo to collaborate, but their similarities gave way to a step forward in pop culture. Trincone continues to defy gender norm expectations through his designs, just as Young Thug continues to urge the importance of expressing oneself to fans.
Strike Out,
Writer: Ellen Dominy
Editors: Giselle Parks and Savannah Tindall
Tallahassee