Scene Queen Phemomena

Having a new philosophy for life: half-way between comic book characters and appearance obsession, skeletal teenagers with flamboyant looks, the scene queens.

They’re between 13 and 25 years old with an ostentatious appearance with long, teased, techni-colored hair. They are the scene queens, a youth phenomenona that has freshly arrived in Italy subsequent to first appearing in the US punk rock world in the 80s.

The basic ingredients for the scene queen style, aside from having the teased hair – which is dyed in every possible colour, “spectacularised” with enormously long extensions and adorned with clips and tiaras – the make-up is essential. The principal features are the eyes: these are exaggerated and given a vamp look with solid outlines of eyeliner that is blended into a “comma” shape at the sides of the eye. Lipstick and multi-colour nail polish, does the rest, and the look is paired with hot pants, tops, singlet, leggings and mini-skirts. There is Hello Kitty everywhere in the accessories, with stripes, spots and checks in the designs, laddered tights and incredibly extravagant footwear. 


The most popular shades take in vibrant, candy schemes – the palette runs from fuchsia and turquoise to brilliant violet mixed with black, a trace of a darker style and perhaps the only detail that connects the scene queens to the emo world. The over-all result is vampish, with a mix cartoons and doll-like all at the same time. The common denominators are the sunglasses with heart-shaped lenses and doll-mascot that every scene queen takes around with her. The mood is completely free of any kind of gloominess: in fact, it stresses eccentricity and inventiveness in achieving a unique look.

Via the web, they've been accused,of anorexia and of being shallow, but the scene queens hit back, asserting their right to their unrestrained look, a style free of ideology. It implies a strong streak of exhibitionism and stresses their unique doctrine, a doctrine of appearances and of putting themselves centre-stage. It’s the basic leitmotif of our generation.

Megalopolis She-Warriors

Eye popping lights, excited megalopolis to walk through like she-warriors dressed up in a provocative and cinematic period, with a desire for the unreal.

Blue Chanel

A metallic-hued pilgrim, luminescent, as envisioned by Chanel, in a blue also proposed – or better unsaddled – by Ann Demeulemeester’s cuts. Much digitalized like a screen concealing the secrets of a hacker, the blue haunted by thin stripes for a sportswear-style suit with jacket by Peter Pilotto.

Mary Katrantzou
 labyrinth-like print

Over-enhaced shoulders, shown at Fendi, like the power style of the Eighties, mixed in with the 40's elegance, like the long number by Mary Katrantzou, on which a labyrinth-like print complicate the already complicated retro-futuristic path of the new urban Avatars. A reinforced glamour, highly structured, with revisited and exaggerated neckline, shoulders, waist and hips, or otherwise fluid yet metallic, like in the tulle and pleats and obi-style dresses by Fendi, showing a liquid modernity.

10 years later, in 2007. Viktor&Rolf cage their models inside a device that make them glide,put into cages, with garments suspended just like their pace. Like Birds of Paradise of tomorrow, the women clad in Moncler Gamme Rouge and presented like living artwork – caged in showcases - at the Royal Palace, in Paris in February 2007.

Thierry Mugler's
"Les Insectes"

Thierry Mugler more than anyone else  exaggerates the already sexual aggressive mood of the Eighties and becomes iconic. Especially with the dress in tulle and patent leather, a boudoir-style corset including garter belts and long sleeves and gloves, with bare skin only on the thighs, between stockings and a corset. Or, back to the idea of the Bird of Paradise, his “Papillon” dress, plumage that explodes on the bare back with colored feathers, opened up forming a wide wing: summer 1997 Haute Couture, “Les Insectes” collection.

In collaboration with Swarovski,Hussein Chalayan, celebrates the 111 years of activity of the fashion house with a sequence of dresses that open up like flowers, thanks to mechanical internal devices, and also to summer 2008.