the map village street editors

Via Associated Press: Pop culture has long been used as a means for social commentary, from Bob Dylan’s haunting protest ballads of the sixties, to films like Thank You for Smoking and Bowling for Columbine, which provide us with cynical mirrors of our current society. Now, on the catwalks of Paris at the recent showings of the Spring/Summer collections 2008, some of the world’s most-revered fashion designers are making their statements. Models in army fatigues, gas masks and camouflage patterns swarmed the catwalk as the designers reflected on troubled times in their menswear collections for next summer. British designer John Galliano staged his display in a church in a suburb of Paris, in what seemed like a calculated ploy to provoke. Models emerged from behind two giant propeller blades in outfits that borrowed from urban conflicts ranging from the Palestinian Intifada to the Black Panther movement of the 1960s. Some had flowing black locks tucked under keffiyehs, the cloth headdress usually worn by Arab men, and strutted in black suits with crinkled lapels while puffing on thick cigars. Others were caked in mud and wore lifejackets with helmets and gas masks. But while we live in a world where fashion trends catch on in the blink of an eye, will these political statements be strong enough to make their way down the sartorial hierarchy from the runway to the streets?