English Version | Training day

In wartime you don't clean weapons. Nor do you waste time wearing impractical clothes, hence the (meteoric) rise of the so-called utilitarian fashion. 

The last time it was really in was in the early 2000s, when every celebrity from Destiny's Child to TLC to the All Saints to the goddess Aaliyah were dressed as if they were going to a battlefield - well, they were, after all, they were the ones who paved the way for other women to have a “real” status in pop music. In those days, cargo pants were the uniform du jour, and multifunctional overalls, along with 73-pocket jackets, were the most sought-after pieces all over the world. The new millennium was scary and unknown, so one had to be prepared for everything, including war, which could happen at any moment, as seen after September 11, 2001. Fast forward to 2023, and lo and behold, that feeling of ambiguity returns, with the planet hanging on by a thread to everything that took for granted until half a dozen years ago. First it was the pandemic, then it was the effects of the pandemic, then it was the post-pandemic, and when we hadn't even recovered from it all the war started in Ukraine and inflation skyrocketed. And now what? Now we are all in a limbo, waiting for “something to happen”, and afraid of what that something might be. Does it make sense that at this point utilitarian fashion would return in force? It totally does.

The easiest example (and probably a bad one, let's face it) will be Volodymyr Zelensky, Ukrainian President, who for more than a year has been appearing on our screens in army green, as if he were just another soldier of his country. We don't need to mess with serious topics. This trend started long before that horrible conflict erupted on February 24 last year. After almost a decade of athleisure, the time has come to pull rank and wear a uniform that represents, above all, the victory of the feminist struggle and gender equality - and freedom of movement, the ultimate symbol of this utility trend. It was in the 1970s, when the US Senate ratified the Gender Equality Act, that this style exploded and would eventually return, time and time again, since everything in fashion is cyclical. But the cargo pants and the overalls that we now wear with pride and vanity originated way back in the trenches, as part of the closet of those fighting the enemy. Their purpose was simple: to be practical, comfortable, uncomplicated, and, you guessed it, useful; with their multiplicity of pockets, they allowed soldiers to store ammunition and thus free them (especially their hands, which needed to be uncluttered) from unnecessary weight. Of course, no one in their right mind is going to carry weaponry in the pockets of a beige boiler suit these days (at least we hope so). Nevertheless, its practicality remains intact.

In terms of street style, it has been such an overuse that by now it is even obscene how many images gather the keywords “green”, “pockets”, “jumpsuit”, “vest”, “cargo pants” or “boiler suits.” Fashionistas attending Fashion Weeks picked up the trend before the common mortal, and paraded it from Paris to Stockholm, over and over again, as if the fear of the apocalypse was just around the corner. It took no time at all to catch on. This season no one wanted to be left out of the bandwagon, and almost all the designers went for utilitarian looks: Fendi, Stella McCartney, Isabel Marant, Miu Miu, Versace, Louis Vuitton, Givenchy, Blumarine...

Everyone shouted “present”, with proposals as diverse as Miuccia Prada's microskirts, which despite their small size manage to be functional (long live the pockets!) or the silk cargo pants, in unexpected colors, that Kim Jones designed for the Italian Fendi. Donatella Versace, on the other hand, gave them a grunge touch, and Isabel Marant painted the famous military pattern in unexpected, almost feminine colors. Twenty years after the first wave, it is now Hailey Bieber, Rosalia, Dua Lipa, and Jennifez Lopez who bring this trend to life, proving that utility clothing can also be glamorous.

Originally translated from The Revolution Issue, published April 2023.Full stories and credits on the print issue.