Archive’s Biggest Debate

item that covers one’s body, where do we draw the line where we treat it as art? Or is there a line to be drawn to begin with? Because at the end of the day, fashion is just clothing. But when we start to go back in time and take a look at archive clothing, what is considered the ‘biggest hits’ from a high-end designer’s past and most significant collections, suddenly questions are raised as to how certain garments should be treated. 

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Take the Raf Simons “Riot Riot Riot” Bomber Jacket from Fall/Winter 2001 for example. A holy grail in the archive space and currently fetching upwards of £30,000, but why? After all, it is just a faded MA-1 Camo Bomber made by a small European military company called Forstex (that is currently selling them for a mere 55€) with some added patches of Bowie, Richey Edwards from Manic Street Preachers and a Bauhaus poster. Well, there are two main reasons. Firstly, the all-important, celebrity co-sign which is, infact, a star-studded list that includes Kanye West, Rihanna and Drake. The influence that celebrities have on consumer spending is higher than ever, especially those that are known for their style and have a cult-like following such as Kanye. This is someone that made a regular, black Dickies work jacket sell out after wearing it at the Met Gala. Secondly, the contextual and cultural relevance of the piece; the “Riot Riot Riot!” collection is Simons’ first venture outside of the slim and sleek cuts that were starting to become popular at the time, pioneering a revolution of remixing luxury with streetwear, a standard style within high-end fashion today. 

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With all of the historical and cultural context (not to mention the price tag) of archive clothing, it’s hard not to treat it like an artefact. Especially with the relevancy and demand that archive clothing has today, it comes as no surprise that these garments are being displayed at museums. If we also take the preservation aspect into consideration, museums offer the optimal conditions for elongating the lifespan of the garment whilst still being appreciated. It would be a shame if people around the world were limited to only being able to see these coveted pieces online. Luckily, Tatsuyuki Suzuki tackled this problem at its core and created The Archive Store in Tokyo, tucked away in the undergrounds of Shibuya. The concept of the store is simple: source and stock the rarest and most lusted archive pieces for enthusiasts to interact with and educate themselves on the history of certain items. “I have a lot of respect for The Archive Store because they actually let people try stuff on,” says Polo Chen, an international contributing editor for GQ Taiwan and a writer for Sabukaru. “There are stores that display these rare clothes but don’t let anyone touch it or take photos and they want to keep it super exclusive and ‘gatekeepy’ - I have no respect for that.”

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However, if you can’t grasp the concept of looking at something so practical at its foundation in the same breath as fine art, don’t worry because you’re not alone as Chen says, “I feel like it’s so awkward to put clothes in museums.” To many people including myself, we fell in love with fashion and clothing because of the way it made us feel when we wore it, to express ourselves. It’s an extension of our personality and interests that shows any passerby a hint of who we are and the only way we can show our love back to the garments is to simply just wear it. “If you like the clothes, you might as well wear it on a daily basis instead of showing it off on Instagram and acting like you love the piece when you really don’t,” says Chen. “The archive game has become so oversaturated that people are starting to treat it like fine art and I just could never agree with that idea, it shouldn’t be in a museum [...] If all these clothes are in museums and no one’s wearing them, the clothes lose their meaning, like the fabric isn’t meant to be on display.”

 

With the growing popularity that archive fashion has enjoyed in the past couple years, pieces will continue to increase in price and demand as the quantity keeps on decreasing, only fueling this debate to get bigger and bigger. Not to risk extinction of coveted pieces, it would make sense for them to be put on display in order to preserve history but would doing so undermine the intention of wear that was entrusted into these revolutionary garments?