As many of you are already aware, 2009 (and probably 2010, 2011 and so on) was dubbed the "Year of the Vampire," due to the outrageous popularity of the "Twilight" franchise and HBO's "True Blood." There appears to be something universal and fascinating about the desire for a blood−sucking, undead boyfriend. Even Tufts' curriculum has been affected by the trend: Vampires in Civilization is currently an Experimental College course. But what most people are probably not thinking about is how society's fascination with vampires affected the fashion industry during the 2009−10 season.
When most of us envision modern vampire clothing, we see leather jackets, Ray−Ban sunglasses and various other items that are reminiscent of James Dean circa "Rebel Without a Cause" (1955). Or, if you're feeling especially dirty, you might picture the recent Rolling Stone cover that features the "True Blood" cast naked and covered in artificial blood. This is the vampire that Hollywood has created for us. They're in a business where sex sells, and therefore, they make blood−sucking look sexy.
Fashion, however, is in the business of selling wearable contraceptives and so designers took on the daunting task of de−sexifying vampires. This meant that the 2009 and 2010 runways did not sport Edward Cullen and Bill Compton look−alikes but rather channeled a more classic look: Picture Bela Lugosi in "Dracula" (1931), widow's peak and all.
Alexander McQueen's menswear line was perhaps the most vampiric, featuring a series of black capes, chapeaus and extremely fancy walking sticks to accessorize the largely black and grey ensembles. Alexander Wang, in his Fall 2010 women's line, presented a deep red velvet dress with a black torn cape attached, worn by an extremely pale, gothic−looking model. Oddly enough, I think my mom has the same exact dress stored in our Halloween costume trunk at home.
Ignoring the fact that red velvet is only sexy when it is part of a Santa−themed lingerie set, I would like to focus mainly on the menswear. Some people say capes and chapeaus could still be sexy — Yves Saint Laurent and John Varvatos were among the other designer labels to sport these items as well — and you would only be half wrong. Jim "Jesus" Caviezel, in the 1800s period piece "The Count of Monte Cristo" (2002), wears all of these pieces and remains undeniably sexy. But in 2010, the context is just wrong. Imagine your boyfriend/crush/friend showing up to Winter Bash wearing a cape. It would seem like he was just stopping by on his way to play Dungeons & Dragons.
And if you needed any more convincing that cape−wearing would totally kill your ability to attract the opposite sex, there's always Ke$ha's response to the vampire−inspired trend. In an interview with MTV, the pop−singer discussed her plans for her upcoming clothing line and said, "There will be capes involved. I'm trying really hard to bring back capes. They've been out since, what? The 1800s? I think it's about time they came back." Sorry, Ke$ha, but you are simply wrong. Her other brilliant fashion idea addressed in this interview, by the way, was to scoop up roadkill off the highway and glue the decomposing remains to her clothing because … that's more humane than real fur or something.
Needless to say, I don't think Ke$ha is the person to go to for advice on how to attract the opposite sex and, sadly, neither is the fashion industry. On a side note, though, I will be asking my mom about that Halloween costume.
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Ashley Wood is a junior majoring in English. She can be reached at Ashley.Wood@tufts.edu.
