CLUB KIDS
Timothy Parent/Jana Melkumova-Reynolds
SPOT ON
As the world is showing a renewed interest in ‘Pose’, the TV series about New York’s 1980s club scene – all while in today’s New York the new exhibition, ‘Notes on Camp’, delves into fashion’s most outrageous and provocative styles – one thing is becoming apparent: we need to talk about club kids. This microculture, which first appeared in the US in the 80s and 90s, has seen an international resurgence in recent years. Visually, it is defined by bright neon colors, unisex designs and cross-dressing, theatricality and excess with a dash of silliness. Sounds like a niche phenomenon? Probably not for much longer.
Carol Song, buying director of Opening Ceremony, notes that the trend is catering to a small demographic, so OC treats it like a special category by buying into the style over a year or two – until the club kid aesthetic starts to influence more mainstream designers. And it certainly will do. In China, Alter, one of the country’s first multibrand stores, buys into brands like Charles Jeffrey Loverboy and Ambush because they balance cutting edge creativity with an ability to entice mainstream consumption, which, in Asia, is led by the younger generation.
So, if you want to attract Chinese customers, you should probably look into club kid aesthetics. And not only the Chinese: one of the key features of the microculture is its internationality. As artist and influencer Katy Roseland suggests, club kids have created a “virtual community that is without borders” – meaning that if you manage to tap into its (certainly challenging) aesthetic, you are likely to extend your customer base well beyond your local shoppers.