Style crush: Johnny and Kate (circa '94)

I'll let the pictures do the talking:

Corrine's Kate prints raise funds.

Premier models is auctioning 500 prints of this Corinne Day photograph of Kate Moss - shot in '91 - to raise funds for the photographer who has been battling brain cancer in a clinic in Arizona. Corinne Day is credited with discovering the teenage Kate Moss, and thus initiating the heroin-chic debate in the 90s which coincided with grunge. Day formed a long and close relationships with Kate Moss, resulting in many intimate portraits of the model over the years. Here are some of the earlier works which remind us why Kate Moss became the ultimate supermodel in the early '90s. 

Marc Jacobs in Sugar Kane.

I was just watching Sonic Youth video 'Sugar Kane' from 1992 and I couldn't believe my eyes when I saw that the catwalk themed video featured none other than a young Chloë Sevigny acting as a model AND Marc Jacobs! 

Turns out the young fashion impresario Chloë wasn't very well known at the time out-with the New York fashion scene and Kim Gordon knew someone who knew Jacobs so he volunteered to do the clothes for the video. 

Smells like Marc Jacobs.

OK so about the origins of Grunge and how it came into the fashion forefront... In the late 80s, a bunch of musicians started to form bands in the Washington state, escaping the gloomy weather in their garages.

The music tended to be influenced from punk and the hard rock of the 70s.  

It wasn't until Nirvana's second album "Nevermind" and in particular the first single from the album "Smells Like Teen Spirit", that the scene was catapulted into the mainstream. 

Of course grunge was extremely anti-fashion. The music reflected the unhappy mood of America and Europe's children ("Generation X") and the clothes were further validation of the "we don't care" youth attitude. The messy hair and clothes were intended to counteract the image of plasticity that MTV sold.

When Marc Jacobs designed a SS '93 collection for Perry Ellis, stylizing grunge, consumers were shocked and rejected it stating "you cannot charge $1200 for a dress that looks like it was bought in a second hand store". Subsequently, Jacobs was fired by the Perry Ellis Company despite tremendous editorial support from fashion critics who felt that the look was significant - it showed women they didn't have to dress in a certain style. They had choices. 

Perry Ellis SS '93, Marc Jacobs AW '06

Unfortunately, by embracing the look, the fashion critics killed the anti-fashion trend and with Jacobs' firing, grunge suffered a backlash. On the musical front, the bands that had started the movement rejected it's new associations with the fashion world and with the untimely death of Kurt Cobain in '94, grunge too was pronounced dead. 

I feel their has been a slight resurrection of late.

Grunge isn't dead...

I feel the need to discuss my recent return to all things grunge.

Whilst I rediscovered the looks and the music I so dearly loved when I was a teenager, coincidently NY and London were showing a return to the look which originated from a bunch of Seattle based bands in the late 80s/early 90s. 

It's all very exciting for me since I was too young to take any notice the first time round!

Though of course punky style (doc-marten boots and stone-wash denim in particular) is a non-mover, Grunge has a way of combining the toughest of garments with pretty floral dresses and cardigans that look like they've been taken right out your Granny's wardrobe.

Here's my favourite grunge looks from the Fall/Winter '09-'10 collections so far, both sides of the Atlantic:

Topshop Unique - very futuristic grunge.

Marc Jacobs - the King of Grunge fashion (not counting the likes of Kurt Cobain of course) had to be in here.

Luella - yet another triumphant collection which we will no doubt see all over the high street come Autumn.

Christopher Kane - only 6 collections in and getting stronger.

The power of Levi's music.

Today I went thrift shopping and bought a bunch of vinyl records including this 1982 Levi's Strauss compilation 'Fingers off!' for just 99p. 

Of course Levi's has been associated with musicians for a long time, with the likes of Bob Dylan, the Rolling Stones, the Strokes and even Massive Attack all sporting the jeans and their TV ads famously use music as a marketing tool to reach a specific audience.

My favourite one I remember being in awe of when I was just 8, was this advert featuring the song "Inside" by Stiltskin. At the time, Grunge was massive so this song and band were created specifically for the advert and went on to get a lot of airplay off the back of this advert alone. (Also good ones to watch are this Brad Pitt one and this fab one directed by Michel Gondry).

Recently, Levi's have taken it one step further with their Record Company label, Levity which has been signing up what they view as some of the best young acts around.

Courtney Love photoshoot

I get emails from Elle UK and I saw that Courtney Love is on their January cover and looks pretty damn good. She still looks like her usual rock star self as she is wearing this season's trends but this time it looks a bit more polished than the usual smeared red lipstick look. I used to have really mixed feelings towards her as I was a huge Nirvana fan growing up but I'm so glad to see her looking so good. Speaking of which, I got a Nirvana t-shirt in Urban Outfitters recently as it was reduced from £32 to £15. I used to have a vest-top like this when I was younger which I bought off another girl in school who was a whole lot bustier than me at the time. The Nirvana logo was therefore a bit stretched horizontally but I loved it anyway.