As designers debuted their autumn 2008 collections on the runway earlier this year, a trend towards conservatism and the use of sober colours - including an overwhelming predilection for black - rapidly emerged. Now, as the season approaches and clothes land on showroom floors, a new undercurrent is welling up: echoes of the energy crisis are rippling through the fashion world, resulting in a raft of oily-finish fabrics from shiny-treated silk to liquid latex, glossy vinyl and other synthetics.
Nicolas Ghesquiére's sculptural latex dresses for Balenciaga are perhaps the most strikingly slick example of the trend. With narrow shoulders and cropped sleeves, the futuristic, high-gloss cocoons hover around the body, simultaneously calling to mind the protective insulation of armour and wetsuits. At the other end of the spectrum, Versace's body-hugging frocks sport an oily black finish with just a glint of sinister sparkle. Evocative details appeared throughout Camilla Staerk's autumn collection, with one particularly alluring gown featuring a sleek matte leather top that spilt over onto a sheer, floor-length underskirt. Elsewhere, designers from Alexander Wang to Roksanda Ilincic to Calvin Klein are working with silks and sleek synthetics that hint at the crude beauty of petrol.
This upwelling of oil-finished fabrics isn't limited to frocks, either. Alexander McQueen is trotting out a pair of deep, dark navy blue sequined leggings that look like a future-disco take on oil-slick chic. The hip Brazilian shoe brand Melissa - which has collaborated with Vivienne Westwood, Alexandre Herchcovitch and even starchitect Zaha Hadid - has a black line for autumn that features flats, oxfords, clogs and heels in a shiny black vinyl so liquid-looking it's hard to imagine they wouldn't ooze right off your feet.
Similarly, the luxury luggage brand Tumi recently came out with a T-Tech Polycarbonate packing case in a high-gloss black finish that practically glistens. Bottega Veneta and Lanvin both have a number of subtly slick black handbags on tap for autumn, and Raf Simons designed an oily-looking duffel backpack as part of his 2008 collaboration with Eastpak. The casual observer might be inclined to dismiss such couture as surface-orientated posturing, but fashion, like its aesthetic sisters art and design, has always been a key arbiter of the zeitgeist. The return of shiny, patent leather has been in effect for a number of seasons already, and it now seems to be pooling into a larger trend. Like it or not - oil is on everyone's mind these days. With record-breaking international petrol prices sparking fear of energy crises in Europe and the US, it's no surprise that fashion designers are starting to convey a heightened awareness of the value of "black gold," fetishising the most precious of our fossil fuels.
The San Francisco-based art and design collective Citizen:Citizen was one of the first to foretell the rise of fashion-forward fuel. In 2006, the group collaborated with the New York artist Cory Ingram to produce a limited-edition fragrance called Crude, which featured "50ml of crude oil exquisitely packaged and branded". Sold for $280 (Dh1,030), the product essentially imagined a world where petrol cost $900,000 a barrel. On a more conceptual note, the Swedish design outfit Save Our Souls created the "Drops" lamp, which is a set of three droplets of black glass encasing a light bulb each. The lamp, explicitly meant to reference oil, spreads, in the designers' own words, "light and darkness".
Last year, the emerging New York design studio Design Glut, a company devoted to creating "socially relevant products", launched their Crude jewellery collection of "satirical bling". The line, which is manufactured in monthly batches, includes brass and gold necklaces, bracelets and rings accented with a miniature oil barrel pendant, each of which is stamped with the price of oil on the day it was made.
The co-founder of Design Glut Kegan Fisher explains the studio's approach when the collection was first launched in 2007: "Oil was a little over $65 a gallon. At that time it seemed like a lot, and it was a recurring theme in the media. We were looking to make a statement about luxury, with jewellery as our medium. The oil barrels were the idea with the most impact. An oil barrel is not particularly glamorous as an object, but as an economic commodity, it is indeed the new luxury. We believe it should be treated as such, a valuable finite resource like gold and diamonds."
At the time, Design Glut said they would release a limited-edition line if oil prices ever topped $100 a barrel. So, when that very thing happened in the US on Jan 2 2008, they created a commemorative edition of necklaces powder-coated in black for their "Black Crude" line. Since then, crude prices have peaked as high as $145 in the US and Europe in July, making $100 barrels now seem like a quaint memory.
Putting the oil trend in context, Jason Campbell the editor-in-chief of JCReport, an online fashion and style publication, notes, "Fashion often reflects the moods of a culture - especially in times of war. With the economic downturn, fashion in America is more conservative than ever - people are responding to the times by toning it down. In particular, I've noticed a profusion of shiny, oily fabric shift dresses. Essentially, it's the most easily received shape - one that works on any woman - jazzed up with a shiny fabric expressive of a topical issue. It should have a big sell-through. At the same time, in areas where business is better, like Russia and the Middle East, you're seeing a lot more ornate and decorative designs."
Elizabeth Charles, owner of the eponymous cutting-edge boutique with locations in San Francisco and New York (and online at www.elizabeth-charles.com), shares Campbell's view that the trend is a deeper investigation of the possibilities of black, commenting, "People love black, but they want it to be more interesting ie, a texture, coating, sequins." Charles, who focuses exclusively on Australian and Kiwi designers, sees the theme popping up with "dark, moody" New Zealand labels like Zambesi.
Sarah Easley, a co-owner of the similarly fashion-forward Soho boutique Kirna Zabête, which recently launched its online shop at @email:www.kirnazabete.com, acknowledges that the oil trend is trickling down into her stock as well, saying, "We are picking up on high-sheen fabrics for Fall". Meanwhile, the German designer Ella Haberlach, whose new Seelenkleid line debuted at Berlin Fashion Week last month in an exhibition at projektGalerie Showrooms, has taken the oily look to a new level. For her spring/summer 09 collection, Aura, Haberlach experimented with materials like silicone to create ominous fabric details that look, quite literally, fluid. On an elegant and ethereal sleeveless, pleated white cocktail dress, pitch-black silicone wells up from the shoulder seams and begins to trickle down over the pristine fabric, while a simply cut black mini-dress gets topped off with a liquid-looking black collar that encircles the throat and drips down across the neckline. As the store owner Easley says, "I love it when fashion trends play 'art imitating life.'"
Haberlach says she was aiming to create contrast, "Basically I was looking for a material that I could use to reflect both sides of real life - the light and the dark parts. So I needed something that would look ugly/gross and clean/beautiful." However, by creating glossy black embellishments that resemble jewellery, Haberlach admits that, consciously or not, she's underlining "the preciousness of oil".