 | “The Memphis Movement” is something I was not familiar with when Valentino announced it as a design inspiration for the 2017 Fall RTW collection. David Bowie collected it and an exhibition was held on the movement that started in Milan back in 1980. It was definitely a THING. Writer Lauren Schwartzberg summed up The Memphis Movement as “loud colors and zany patterns.” It's very 80s. It inspired the movie set to Bette Midler's black comedy Risky Business and the The Saved By The Bell set. |
The odd geometrical and color combinations were arguably in response to the cold austerity of the clean lines of metal and leather of the times. The group got it's name from the Bob Dylan song, “Stuck Inside of Mobile With the Memphis Blues Again”. How these nice Italians figured out the words to this song is beside the point. It's seen a reemergence into the sphere of commercial culture, since then. And, I may be remiss in saying this, but it seems like even the Hermes maison collection “A Walk In The City” borrows it's vibrant hues and right angles from a movement long thought dead.
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