February 5, 2008

Lo-fi and hi-tech are like, bff

There's one style that I think is totally cool but find extremely difficult to pull off--and that is the combination of the lo-fi and the hi-tech. Let me explain: lo-fi refers to traditional garments made of natural fibres such as silk and linen whereas high-tech refers to innovative sportswear made with synthetic fabrics. By adding a bit of lo-fi to sportswear, you can play around with that geeky-sporty trend that's been around for a while. You could try for example (and I'm really wishing I had a polyvore account right now):

-a vintage embroidered dress with nylon spandex leggings and Nike air rifts
-a crisp Gore-tex windbreaker with a linen Isabel Marant frock and suede moccasins
-a long Society for Rational Dress cashmere cardigan with Adidas track pants and hightop sneakers
-a denim APC frock and Merrel trekking boots
-a hooded jersey Norma Kamali tanktop with a floor-length Dries Van Noten silk skirt and birkenstocks
-a thick knitted Marc Le Bihan poncho with a Y-3 backpack
-a lacy gingham Tricot Comme des Garcons dress and padded North Face skii gloves

The possibilities are infinite, not to mention exciting. The only problem I have with it is that I feel the style isn't really me. And so the most I can do is a sort of Dries Van Noten SS07-ish girly take on sportwear--sporty anoraks as dresses, basic loose blouses and skirts with backpacks--that type of thing.
Then the other day I saw this guy on thesartorialist in what looked like a very Gore-Tex for Junya Watanabe get-up with flowers peeking out of his backpack. Flowers! You really don't get as lo-fi as that. It's such a simple (and most likely coincidental) idea, but I found the contrast between the flowers and the high-tech nylon of his wind-breaker and backpack striking.

So now when I look at Raf Simons' spring collection (which I loved, so fantastically jock-nerd!) I feel like there should be a couple of tulips peeking out from every backpack...

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