The term “hot mess” has been floating around for a fair old time. To be clear, non-Gen-Yers, this is a non-derogatory, non-specific term for someone who is both a babe and a state, an impressively unsuccessful, muddle of a person that somehow pulls off a shambolic look. The term has recently crossed over from colloquial to mainstream – it’s now also a clothing site, a play, a Shamir song and has appeared as a crossword clue in the New York Times.
Popular culture’s current ambassador is Greta Gerwig’s character, Brooke, in Mistress America, which opened last weekend. Brooke is a high-achieving and high-failing 30-year-old woman. She approaches life and its financial and emotional pitfalls with Dunkirk spirit because she doesn’t have the time to do anything else.
It also feels very now. See the forthcoming film Tangerine, in which a club bouncer describes its tragicomic lead, hopped up on crack cocaine, as a “trainwreck hot mess” and pit it against Gone Girl’s Amy, an exhaustingly well-cultivated, unattainable “cool girl”, and chances are you’re somewhere in the middle of the spectrum of hot messiness.
Naturally, fashion has its own take on this and which, inspired by Brooke, we’re calling haute mess: a mix of off-trend, uncool and anachronistic pieces, cobbled together carelessly and that somehow work. The giant, ugly cream mum coat. The kick-flare jeans. The creased Breton top.
It’s a look that also mirrors precisely what is happening on various autumn/winter catwalks: Vetements showed a collection with dishevelled models in odd-fitting giant macs, untucked shirts and excellent artery-red lipstick. Michael Kors meanwhile kept his a little more demure – various shades of mustard under a giant, oddly furry coat. Calvin Klein almost had the coat, dolled up with giant buttons, but made from crushed cream velvet.
The hair, too, takes on its own role. Forever lank, Brooke spends a good nine minutes of the film trying to smarten it up. There’s one scene in which she backcombs it in a garage forecourt before reappearing, her hair lanker than ever. It’s that “slept on side but moved about a bit”, anti-GHD style as seen on models, including Lily Donaldson, on the Chloé catwalk.
While Gerwig’s characters rarely deviate from this state (see LOL, Hannah Takes the Stairs and Frances Ha), as a character who juggles road trips and getting pissed with tutoring and investment meetings, in Mistress America her hot messness really excels. Luckily, she pulls it off.
