Heroin Chic

Heroin chic has been a questionable and controversial trend for the last thirty years. It was made famous in the 1990's by Calvin Klein campaigns and Corrine Day shoots as well as 'waif' models like Kate Moss, Jodie Kidd and Jaime King and this grunge inspired generation caused outrage. Women are shown as being languid and angular and glorified drug use, one source even claimed "Fashion photos in the last few years have made heroin addiction seem glamourous and sexy and cool."

Calvin Klein advert 2011

Heroin chic was coined as a term that was all about the rebellion of asthetics, it intentionally turned away from the glossy excess of the 80's and derived inspiration from something more raw and real and was in a sense poking fun at fashion. The fear of this trend was further spurred on by the deaths of River Phoenix ans Kurt Cobain in 1993 and 1994. The death of the photographer Davide Sorrenti in 1997 was seen as the end of heroin chic.

Some of the main charicteristics of heroin chic are...

• Pale skin
• Dark circles under eyes
• Angular bone structure
• Emaciated features
• Androgyny 
• Signs of drug abuse.
• Badly lit locations.
• Blank expressions.

Calvin Klein

Calvin Klein during the 1990's has been knocked for being some of the most provocative campaigns around, it has been criticised for depicting gang rape, violence, child pornography and drug use.

This is one of Calvin Klein's adverts for the brands perfume, this was condemned by Bill Clinton the president of the time as he believed it was reflective of the 'heroin chic' movement. However some of the heroin chic ideals are still present in ads from 2010 and 2011 (see image at top of post and below). The image below has been banned.

Calvin Klein ad 2009

Davide Sorrenti

Some of Sorrenti's most cntroversial photographs are of the strung out and super thin Jamie King. One of my favourite images is this one that was took by Sorrenti was of King when she was only 16 years old, she is ultra thin wearing torn clothes and is surrounded with images of famous drug casualties Kurt Cobain & Sid Viscious. 

I have researched this trend because it is a relevant real life epedemic which was present in the 90's, I really like this for my character Claudia as it gives me more of an idea how to photograph my character (like Nan Goldin's Ballad of Sexual Dependency) and also links the theme of addiction to fashion which is more relevant to what I wan't for this unit as I still want to give my characters a fashion edge whist still keeping the character raw and real.

Strang, F. (2014). Reformed addict Jaime King posts controversial 'heroin chic' image of herself taken by the late fashion photographer Davide Sorrenti . Available: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-2694076/Jaime-King-posts-controversial-heroin-chic-image-taken-late-fashion-photographer-Davide-Sorrenti.html. Last accessed 9th April 2016.

Sanchez, K. (2013). The Most Controversial Calvin Klein Ads. Available: http://uk.complex.com/style/2013/09/controversial-calvin-klein-ads/group-ad-banned. Last accessed 9th April 2016.

Allwood, E. (2016). Revisiting the 90s moral panic over heroin chic.Available: http://www.dazeddigital.com/fashion/article/28630/1/revisiting-the-90s-moral-panic-over-heroin-chic. Last accessed 9th April 2016.

90's Fashion (2015) Heroin Chic 1997, Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gJc6qpjm-go. Last accessed 9th April 2016.

Devlin Pix (2011), "Obsession" from Calvin Klein, Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sCqZp43vRpA. Last acessed 9th April 2016.