THEEU FLAG: A QUIRK OF STYLE

It’s relatively conventional to put on a T-shirt with the Union J ack, worn as a slightly obvious tr ibute to the decades of ar tistic and cultural exuberance of Cool Britannia. In contrast, try wearing the blue flag with its cir cle of 12 stars. It’s hardly an icon of glamour. And yet, in a kind of sear ch for identity halfway between political commitment and the typical sense of ir ony of today’s digital generations, Europe’s blue banner is g radually becoming a cur ious symbol of resistance and, at the same time , a quirk of style . Indeed, in the latest season of men’s fashion alone, pro-European messages not only popped up in Milan at MSGM (with the words “Euro-Hope” deployed on coats, jackets, trousers and T-shirts), but also in Paris on the s weatpants worn by the adolescent punks of Vetements (“Made in Europe”). These two examples mir ror a shared concern about a very tangible social division.

This isn’t the fir st time Europe and its politics have featured among the references of Demna Gvasalia, the creative director of Vetements and Balenciaga. Having lived for his fir st 14 years in Georg ia – where the EU overlaps with Asia – he left the countr y when war broke out there in the 1990s. After a br ief stay in Russia, Gvasalia then moved to Dusseldorf , then studied in Antwerp, before taking his fir st steps as a designer in

Paris, making him a European by adoption. For the Autumn-Winter 2019 collection of Vetements, he blended the EU logo with all those contemporar y breakthroughs that, at some point, have begun to crack fr om the inside and stir up endless debates about their leg itimacy. Many a doubt has been raised about the revolution of smar tphones and social media, which in Gvasalia’s vision often morphs into dig ital surveillance. Similarly, the idea of abolishing bor ders in the most quar relsome of continents also invites plenty of uncer tainty: what will become of the European Union? “It’s basically collapsing all around us,” Gvasalia told Vogue.com when speaking of his collection-cum-w arning. In recent years, the fear of this collapse has e vidently inspired many projects with the shared aim of recovering a sense of transnational comm unity, moving from the grassroots to the f ashion runway. Not that long ago, in 2012, the European flag made a small for tune for the French collective Études, and it is now experiencing a second moment of glor y in the collections of Eur otic, the online store founded in 2017 by the photographer Lea Colombo and Valter Törsleff. Defining itself as “Europe’s unofficial souvenir store”, Eurotic sets out to make fun of simple nationalisms and pr omote an open, hybrid and futureoriented Europe. Interestingly, this renewed concern for the state of the EU has passed through streetwear, and it has immediately espoused an independent zine aesthetic. With an almost do-it-yourself approach, it flies in the face of the corporate-style reputation that sur rounds, and hinders, the g rand and fearsome European machine. In the case of Eur otic, the sweatshirts, T-shirts and caps are accompanied by lo-fi photos of the old continent’s young faces. As a manifesto, it is f anciful enough to convert into a consumer product, but with all the good intentions of Millennial activism.

The EU emblem also ador ns the “EUnify” hoodies by König Souvenir, a project launched by the homonymous contemporary art gallery in Berlin. Intended as an appeal to unity, in this case the EU flag is missing a star in reference to Brexit. The Polish label UEG has applied a b lack-and-white filter to their rendering of the European emblem. On top of this, almost all of British fashion has also spoken out in f avour of Europe, declar ing itself against Brexit from the star t for both economic and image-r elated reasons. But if the EU collapses, what are we going to do with all these s weatshirts and good intentions? At this point who can sa y, especially nowadays when ageold parts of the world are claiming their role in history, and little old Europe just wants to withdraw inside its walls? Maybe that flag can inspir e us with an answer. Since 1955 it has symbolised a unity and identity that – as w e’re finally realising – have still to be solidified. May the sweatshirts do their par t.