Irony - The New Black?

Something strange has happened in fashion-land lately. It seems that wherever I look, I'm being bombarded with t-shirts and sweaters with ironic slogans plastered on the front. At first, I thought it was a fad that would pass, but it seems that the trend is continuing into A/W. Well, if you can't beat them join them, so here's my round up of fashion irony.



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It all started with the Ashish S/S 2013 show, which was scattered with number print blouses, sequined hair scrunchies and (of course) the ironic print sweatshirts. Funnily enough, I don't think the sequined hair scrunchies took off in the same way as the sweatshirts did. The whole show had a sports-luxe theme, so a t-shirt with "Very Tired" written on it in French (the language of fashion) fitted the irony bill to a t (pun not intended, lol).



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 The "GEEK" t-shirts were everywhere this summer, although "DORK" and "NERD" were both perfectly acceptable too. The secret to wearing these are that you have to be insanely cool. Seriously, you have to be the kind of person that the word 'geek' would never apply to, like ever. You cannot be the kind of person who knows most of the words to their favourite episode of Doctor Who (ah, but that weeping angel episode was so good, right?).

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When festival season hit it's peak, band t-shirts were available pretty much anywhere, but Guns N Roses seemed to be the choice du jour. Rather than seeing these worn with skinny jeans and biker boots, I saw a lot of young girls wearing them with denim cut-offs. I am a bit of a music snob, and have to admit that I'd never wear a t-shirt of a band I didn't listen to, but I guess with fashion irony, pretty much anything goes.




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When buying a knock-off designer t-shirt, it used to be the case that it was supposed to look exactly like the real deal. But recently, a crop of t-shirts have been made with humorous differences to the original designer logos. I actually really like these, and I think it's probably fairer on the original designers too, as these are obviously fake. Being a cat-lady in the making, I particularly like the Celine knock-off above.


For Autumn/Winter, I think the slogans are going to move across onto jumpers and sweatshirts. This would be so easy to DIY though. Choose an ironic slogan that applies to you - maybe "ZZZ" if you're an energetic, sporty person, or "Hard As Nails" if you're a girly girl. then make a stencil (you can buy alphabet stencils cheaply from stationary shops), paint your slogan onto a t-shirt or sweatshirt. Acrylic paint works just as well as fabric paint, trust me. You could even try embroidery onto a t-shirt or jumper. I think chain stitch would look the best for this.

I'm going to rewear my "Rock and Roll" jumper dress in a new light - with a preppy shirt collar underneath and chunky brogues on my feet.

Who knew fashion had a sense of humour, huh? Are you liking fashion's new funny trend?