Well summer is a comin’ and in the UK we all know what that means (looks around awaiting the one and only answer), it’s most obviously FESTIVAL SEASON!
Ah, yes! festival season, where friends become family members and we separate the lightweights from the Tequila Troopers and the Sambuca Sergeants. Wireless Festival is the most sought-after open-air concert since Woodstock (bows down; I was there in spirit – no that’s not an intoxication innuendo, or is it … .)
What I love about Wireless Festival is the music and fashion collaboration. It’s a mash-up of music and aesthetic expression. One really gets a glimpse into the psyche of the artistic music lover and the artists that supposedly champion their manifesto, which finally has a patron/deity and holy ground to look up to and frequent on seasonal terms, in the form of Finsbury Park with artists, more often than not, clad in designers such as Yves Saint Laurent like A$AP Rocky for example – one of the incendiary acts preforming at the 2015 festival.
A$AP Rocky wears Razor Motif Jumper by Yves Saint Laurent
There will also be performances from musicians: Drake, David Guetta, Kendrick Lamar, Jessie J, Labrinth and new British Rap artists Krept & Konan and Stormzy.
With the likes of Krept (25) and Konan (25) and Stormzy (21) preforming at the event, I find it a somewhat radical step forward for the UK rap scene, making a fresh stamp on an impressive musical platform such as this. I watched Stormzy’s ‘Fire In The Booth’ set at BBC Radio 1Xtra‘s studio. It’s clear that the lyrical process of this rapper is quiet eloquent and well-thought-out to help the listener understand him as a person and artist through the use of archaic, whimsical structures such as puns, mixed in with modern colloquial turn of phrase like, ‘Bass in my whip, feel the force of my coupe/Base in my clique, feel the force in my crew’. But do fashion and music resonate or play a part with this new British artist’s image and other artists for that matter?
Stormzy was quoted whilst sporting a perforated Adidas bomber jacket, no doubt a statement of his roots in Thornton Heath, in fashion magazine i-D saying, ‘I make music because my love for music is indescribable. For me there is no other option … ‘. The dedication to the music is there, that’s clear to see, but, with contenders such as Jessie J and Labrinth incorporating their personal clothing style in their approach to music, can we find that for British music artists fashion image and music go hand in hand? Their music is an expression of themselves, but, should that trickle into their clothing also? Or should it be just about the music?
It’s been a rocky road for the festival scene and festival goers, with the government ‘regulating’ the fun and new Health and Safety restrictions popping up like metaphorical weeds in the garden of the expressive individual. But despite all that, the musical fashion-conscious Brits persevered to keep the beacon of free expression in fashion and music glowing (although some students have been campaigning for an age restriction of 18+ at festivals and EDM concerts).
Let’s not forget it was Britons who coined the punk music and fashion movement with one of the UK’s most renowned designers, Vivienne Westwood helping to advance the look by creating the clothing of Malcolm McLaren’s boutique in the iconic King’s Road, which was the attire armoire in the 1960s. The UK has a long history of fashion and music coming together as one to represent a movement or belief of some kind. It has come to be part of our collective raison d’être.
I would like to see if this ethos still rings true, are Britons as open-minded and adventurous with their clothing and music choices as they were in the 60s and 70s?
Here’s to the modern Woodstock; Wireless Festival, a refuge for the oldest form of British culture. I’ll be there, soaking up the fashion/music revolution.
By J.M.Burrowes
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