Fashion - On the Right Track

IMAGINE sliding behind the wheel of a Dodge, turning the ignition key, and kicking up a dust trail as you accelerate off down Route 66. Although you might have Nirvana blasting from the radio (and I'll explain why in a moment), you're following the route of the dustbowl pilgrims who headed west across America's vast plains and deserts to escape the Great Depression of the 1930s. History could be repeating itself.

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Perhaps your 2,500-mile drive is inspired by the magic of the movies. Maybe you're imagining yourself as Thelma or Louise, 1991's triumphantly alternative big screen heroines. Or you might be recollecting moody photographs of James Dean back in the 1950s, hanging out at a roadside pit-stop while on location for Giant. All vintage stuff, of course. Yet there's something bang on-trend about any such reverie of a drive on America's most iconic highway because right now, "road-trip" is emerging as one of the season's hottest fashion themes.

It won't dress you for Ladies' Day at Royal Ascot, and it might not go down a storm at any family wedding. This is a trend that specifically recalls the gritty, beaten-up, can't-believe-it's-fashion look of early 1990s grunge – hence the Nirvana soundtrack. Your mind may be wandering back to the films of the 1930s or 1950s, but your rugged plaid shirt, mannish waistcoat, neo-vintage floral-print shorts and studded cowboy boots will be saying 1991. Quite a trip, huh?

Of course, Route 66 isn't quite what it used to be. Although long since smothered by the US interstate road network, it's romance remains in "America's Main Street" and its celebration by John Steinbeck's as the "Mother Road". Running from Chicago down through Kansas, Oklahoma and Texas, then across New Mexico and Arizona to the Pacific coast at Los Angeles, it was originally lined with diners and townships, so many of which now seem as neglected as the carriageway's broken-up asphalt surface. This is one bumpy ride that reads rather better through the rose-tinted filter of nostalgia.

Likewise, the grunge era benefits from a similar degree of soft focus recollection. Even Nirvana's era-defining album Smells Like Teen Spirit has become a classic that no longer signifies a generational divide. For, as Generation X edges into middle age, this grunge rock standard lingers as a bittersweet reminder of past times – a memento, rather than a rallying cry.

Many of today's most energetic designers are considering the early 1990s a fashion era ripe for picking. There's renewed fascination with its minimalism – we're seeing its pared-down fuss-free urban style rekindled in Phoebe Philo's first collections for Celine. But other tastemakers clearly have Nirvana on their minds and their iPods, resulting in this summer's grunge revival. Grunge's curious mash-up of pretty and gritty reflected an anarchic, nihilistic mood of a generation blighted by the effects of economic recession. It shouldn't be especially surprising that fashion is revisiting this theme again at this moment.

Last time around, it was a look pulled together from second-hand shops and general stores – most certainly not fashion boutiques. As such, it was possibly one of the last true manifestations of a major street style – an identifiable tribal look that had nothing to do with consumer culture or the marketing strategies of youth-focused superbrands.

The young Marc Jacobs elevated grunge to high fashion, using it as inspiration for his landmark collection for Perry Ellis. But it turned out very few Park Avenue debutantes craved $1,000 versions of an anti-fashion look and Jacobs was promptly fired.

But now Jacobs is revered as a fashion superstar; his own collections and those he devises for Louis Vuitton are hot tickets on the international fashion calendar. Yet, although Jacobs has certainly toyed with aspects of grunge in recent shows, it has been the young turks at Balmain and Balenciaga who've made rather more of it in their endeavours to give those venerated couture houses an edgy vibe.

The good news is that it's possible to fashion-up in this season's gritty road-trip chic, even if budgetary limitations rule out anything from those two mighty Bs and you don't have the time or ingenuity required for a successful charity shop rummage. But whether you find your wardrobe thrills at Dorothy Perkins or D&G, grunge's influence on fashion will be hard to miss.

You'll find high-street fashion stores awash with the grungy plaid, floral, denim and drill elements that flesh out the grunge revival. Kurt Cobain has been spirited back to life at Topman, River Island and Next. Every womenswear chain seems to have bought into the sour prettiness espoused by his young princess, Courtney Love, long before her Versace makeover, let alone her near-annual faltering comebacks.

You may marvel at this season's plethora of retro floral-print playsuits (short all-in-ones) and cute dresses, all worn under dirty denim shirts or jackets. You may find yourself engulfed by the tidal wave of bleached denim miniskirts worn with over-the-knee socks and layers of vests or plaid shirts. And you will certainly have to acknowledge the return of the cowboy boot, footwear's shorthand for all that's rugged and quintessentially American.

Fashion is toughening up for the road ahead. And so, dear reader, must you.