Oscillating Wildly: The Time-Traveling Fashions of the Spring 2020 Shows

Fashion operates a bit along the lines of Newton’s Third Law, which states that “for every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction.” So the midi followed the miniskirt, grunge superseded the ladylike aesthetic, etc. The difference between such interactions in a lab and in fashion is that the response is not spontaneous. It takes a while for things that go around to come around, in other words. But resurface they do, because fashion’s progress is like a spiral in which past and present are indelibly linked. This connection will be examined in About Time: Fashion and Duration, the Costume Institute’s spring 2020 exhibition, and it was also on display at the recent round of shows.

On the runways this season, some designers looked to an uncertain future, but still more looked back at what had come before. This retrospective view of fashion was in effect on the eve of Y2K, as it was in the collections shown before the Second World War. The nostalgic point of view is perhaps summed up most concisely in Horst P. Horst’s famous photograph of Mainbocher’s corset, which appeared in the September 15, 1939, issue of Vogue, just before he left Europe as it unraveled.

Horst P. Horst, Corset by Detolle for Mainbocher, 1939

Photo: © Conde Nast/Horst Estate

The past few years have been marked by a tidal wave of nostalgia for the 1990s, trailed by the 1980s. For spring 2020 designers reached even further back, paying homage to classics like Elsa Schiaparelli and Salvador Dalí’s 1938 Tears dress (Yohji Yamamoto); Chanel’s cardigan suit (Sacai); and the Norman Norell sequined mermaid dresses that were much favored by Marilyn Monroe (Marc Jacobs). A note to callout culture: An homage is different from a line-to-line copy. It’s important to look at fashion in context and keep in mind that not all references are conscious but speak to deeper truths and needs. Take the bold, broad shoulders that have made a giant comeback. Whether they reference those of the 1980s or of the 1940s, they more generally stand as a symbol of strength and (women’s) empowerment.

Some designers chose to century-hop, reveling in the Rococo flourishes of the 18th century or the curved silhouette of the 1910s, both of which were created with body-controlling underpinnings: corsets, hoops, and boning. At Balenciaga Demna Gvasalia managed to bridge future and present. Models’ faces were rearranged via prosthetic augmentation, and the archive was mined, resulting in a series of what looked like hoop-skirted gowns without the rigid cage beneath. Thom Browne’s latter-day Marie Antoinettes romped down the runway in panniers, perhaps suggesting that in 2020 women can (finally) have their cake and eat it too.

Here, 18 examples of spring 2020 fashion’s wild oscillations.