ThrowbackThursday: fashion lessons from yesteryear

It’s Thursday! That means your Instagram feed will be full of #tbt pictures – giving you an excuse to show your followers how cute you were as a kid in the seventies while also soaking up some retro fashion inspiration. Here’s how
 Damon Albarn in the 1990s.

Flares

Back then, you wore them with brand-free plimsolls and dimples in your cheeks. Charming, but very difficult for a grown-up with a job to pull off. If you own some flares now (and are never sure what to do with them), a good January look is wear them with a silky pussy-bow blouse tucked in and some ankle boots with a heel you can walk in. One-part throwback, two-parts In Charge for 2016.

Stylist’s choice: Struggling with baggy legs or trailing hems? Buy MIH’s Marrakesh jeans – they have the perfect proportion of fitted leg to flare.

1990s Britpopper

An excellent throwback look that works for now. Then, you wore it like Damon Albarn, with an elfin feather cut and Puma States. Now, the look has been given a reboot courtesy of the Chloé catwalk. So hunt down a retro tracksuit top and wear with a long, printed skirt, which you may well already own. From throwback to Catwalk in one wardrobe manoeuvre.

Stylist’s choice: This look needs that vintage element – visit Beyond Retro, which has a treasure trove of tracksuit styles.

1980’s party girl

Lol. Look at you and your mates with the ageing make-up, diagonal-flapped tops, the perms and the red eye! Did you keep one of your lurex tops in your wardrobe for nostalgia? Good. Because now you can wear it with posh tracksuit bottoms and heels for a smart drinks look. JW Anderson has said you can. As has Lenora Rauch from Deutschland 83. #hautethrowback

Stylist’s choice: Take yourself off to H&M, which has nailed this look with this burnt orange blouse.

Victoriana ruffles

Giant throwback look, this one. But one that fashion people have been known to caption on social media as #throwbackthursday to indicate that they go to art galleries and have noticed that some looks – whether on a Spanish infanta, or on Queen Victoria or in the Gucci catwalk – just won’t go away. In any case, it’s good January styling inspiration, whether you dig out the one you’ve not worn for three years or buy one from Topshop.

Stylist’s choice: If you think ruffled blouses are a bit uptight, then this cream jumper from Topshop is the perfect (and more unexpected) slouchier antidote.

School uniform chic

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Perhaps you hated yours at the time, or perhaps you were one of the lucky ones. In any case, posting a picture of your chubby-cheeked childhood self in school uniform will guarantee you dozens of Insta-likes – and can provide plenty of sartorial inspiration in 2016 as well. It’s all about rethinking basics you already own. Layering a pinafore, or a V-necked jumper, over a shirt, or tucking a cashmere jumper into a double PE-meets-Mrs Prada kilt. And don’t forget how crucial colour combinations were at school – we’re thinking pair navy blue with burgundy for the full Hogwarts effect. 

Stylist’s choice: A cardigan will maximise your layering potential (over a shirt and a thin jumper = perfection) This J Crew version also has a great go-faster stripe.

Grindr, the Gay Dating App, Hooks Up With Fashion

When the monthlong marathon of men’s fashion shows kicks off this week, so will the scrimmage to cover it: the race by newspapers, magazines, television networks, social media platforms and blogs to get a piece of the action for themselves and their viewers.

Joining the melee for the first time will be Grindr, the famous (or infamous, depending on your point of view) social-networking app primarily for gay men. On Sunday, the app will live-stream the fall 2016 men’s wear show of J. W. Anderson as it hits the runway at London Collections: Men, the city’s biannual men’s fashion week.

Grindr’s purview has admittedly been narrow. The app introduces users to others in the surrounding area who are looking to make a connection — as often as not, a sexual one. Its buffet of thumbnail-size photos is, by design, bare-bones (and, not infrequently, bare-chested).

Joel Simkhai, the founder of Grindr, takes it easy at home in Los Angeles. The app was born of an idea made possible by technology and a $2,000 grubstake.The Sex Education of Grindr’s Joel SimkhaiDEC. 12, 2014
“Grindr is a very, very visual experience,” the app’s founder and chief executive, Joel Simkhai, said in an interview in 2014.



The J.W Anderson show on Sunday will be live-streamed by the app Grindr.
So, of course, is fashion — even if Grindr is more traditionally thought of as being for those dispensing with clothing than acquiring it.

“I think fashion is a sexy platform as well, ultimately,” said Jonathan Anderson, 31, the British designer behind J. W. Anderson, during a break from fittings in London. “We’re all humans, so we all have to be somewhat sexually attractive to someone. That’s the name of the game, with clothing.”

The designer, who won British Fashion Awards for both women’s and men’s wear designer of the year in 2015, called Grindr “incredibly modern as a platform,” and his decision to put his show on it “a no-brainer.”

Grindr will be the only place to live-stream the show. Users of the app will receive a link and a code to stream the video, which will not actually play in the app itself, but in phone and tablet browsers.

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The show is the first time Grindr is experimenting with fashion content, and most likely not the last. According to the company, it now has one million active users on the platform worldwide every minute, and is aiming to broaden its offerings and its appeal.

In the fall, Grindr hired Landis Smithers, a veteran of Ogilvy & Mather and Old Navy, to spearhead its marketing and collaboration. It made waves in the fashion industry when it signed the powerful publicity agency PR Consulting shortly after. (Not by coincidence, PR Consulting also represents J. W. Anderson.)

Fashion is “a very big topic of interest for a certain segment of our consumer,” Mr. Smithers said, adding that he did not rule out future projects involving music or night life.

He envisions a future for Grindr well beyond the scope of its grabby classifieds, and wants to shed the stigma attached in some corners to using the app.

“There’s a generation out there that doesn’t seem to care if people know that Grindr is on their phone, and there’s a generation that does,” Mr. Smithers said.

“The app is free to download,” he added. “You don’t have to use it for what its prime function is.”