Mudd Club Moment - Freedom, Opportunity, Subversion

I was estatic to open my inbox this morning and see that Elizabeth and James had sent some big news! MK & A's Spring '10 collection is now available in stores and online. I decided to do some finder window shopping. Sad but true.

The collection is descibed as:

A gritty 80's vibe reminiscent of New York City's Mudd club era with pop embellishments, tonal tie-dye, leather panels and washed down fabrics.

The Mudd Club was a TriBeCa nightclub (1978-1982), a hub for underground music and counterculture scene in NYC. It was the anti-Studio 54 until downtown celebrities took over the scene and the club establised an elitist rep.

It had gender-neutral bathrooms and a rotating gallery curated by Keith Haring, live new wave and experiemental music performances - I'm thinking it was to NYC what CiRCA is to T.O., maybe in the later years?

Nearly a decade ago, Tim Blanks chronicled the Mudd Quake in The New York Times Magazine, in an colourful account of living in this fashionable, avant garde moment.

Mudd Quake: "The Mudd Club meant something: freedom, opportunity, subversion, all cosseted by the nurturing insularity of a genuine underground scene."

...

 And once you distill the elements of the look from Maripol's Polaroids, you see it everywhere for spring, from prom dresses, cocktail sheaths, pedal pushers and leather jackets over slips to fur stoles, rhinestones, red, red lips, black, black eyeliner and bad-girl hair.

The apotheosis of thrift-shop chic, Mudd fashion was embodied by Debbie Harry, Cyndi Lauper and early Maripol-styled Madonna, and eventually entered the fashion vocabulary of the wider world. Which makes the current revival inevitable, since what goes around comes around.

MARIPOL'S POLARIODS

And that's where the story would stop if all we were talking about was a renewed appetite for fingerless lace gloves and crinolined party frocks. But Mudd redux is much more than Mudd reduced to fashion nostalgia. After all, the Mudd Club meant something: freedom, opportunity, subversion, all cosseted by the nurturing insularity of a genuine underground scene, perhaps the last real one New York had. Après lui, le déluge: AIDS, MTV, recession, crack, Reagan's war on drugs, yuppie gentrification, celebrity culture, each in its own way restricting individuality and creativity. Is it any wonder that people should now be lending totemic significance to the Mudd moment? It has been more than 17 years -- a generation -- since Mass shut his club down. Nostalgia tends to run in cycles. Muddites were as attracted to the 50's and 60's as we are today to the 70's and 80's.

But the Mudd Club's studied rejection of disco culture has an even deeper resonance. When Maripol goes to clubs now, she sees a void. "The Mudd Club was not something that would leave you empty," she says. "It wasn't only about dancing. It was a merging of artists. There was a lot of intellectual exchange in art, literature, music, films.* "


In other words, the Mudd blazed trails. It created a liberating environment, most singularly and romantically in the way it exalted art as a way to set yourself free. The club was the first downtown venue to celebrate graffiti art and rap, to give significant exposure to artists like Basquiat, Keith Haring and Kenny Scharf. It was a magnet for free spirits from all over America. Even if you weren't an artist, musician or filmmaker, it offered the empowering possibility that you could be.

(This article is amazing... I want to include the entire thing, but you can just go read it yourself here if you want).

Nine years later, designers including MK & A are drawing inspiration from the Mudd moment one more time.

These two looks are my favourite. The tie-dye doesn't scream hippie - but hot grunge. The dress on the right is gorgeous - it is actually a deep rich blue. I like the full shoulder detailing, reminiscent of 80's but still very modern.

I liked most of the pieces except for the hideous beaded Dietrich Tunic and matching mini - normally I like embellished beadwork, at least on models, but this is just wrong. With red and green sporatic beads - I wouldn't even wear this at Christmas time. Take away the red and green top layer of beads and it would be a beautiful piece IMO. 

Kristen Stewart wore Elizabeth and James to the New Moon premier in Madrid - simple but an awesome piece. I like the model's shoes better though, sorry Kristen.

xxx