Ray Petri is considered one of the first stylists to ever exist in the fashion industry. Petri was best known for his amazing work in the 80s, and is still remembered for it today. He was the inventor and founder of the Buffalo Boy style that changed the way we see mens clothing in the world today in the context of fashion. As well as this Buffalo styling of clothing, he is also responsible for influencing a rebellious way of dressing in fashion. The best example of this is Vivienne Westwood. Westwood’s punk style which she emulated into her work, perfectly captured this way of styling. In fact Vivienne Westwood showed a collection of Buffalo inspired clothing in the early 80s in Paris. This collection made waves as it completely contrasted the sleek and minimal way of fashion in Paris. Ray Petri was extremely influential in his career and designers and stylists are still inspired to him today.
Buffalo style was the invention of low and high styling. It revolved around putting pieces of sleek and perfectly crafted pieces with messy and rebellious styles of clothing. Petri perfectly blended these two styles together in his styling. His styles were always put in front of basic and boring backgrounds, to highlight how smart this revolutionary way of styling was. He term Buffalo was a reference to a Bob Marley song called “Buffalo Soldiers” this song is about resistance and rebellion which, matches perfectly with what Ray Petri did in his styling. Petri’s work celebrated and supported outsiders, and people who don’t conform to societies norms. Petri’s first debut of this revolutionary way of styling was when he was shown in The Face magazine. After this took off and made waves he had more of his work shown in many famous magazines like ID magazine and Arena magazine.
Ray Petri created a whole new era of styling for mens wear and still influences creators in the industry today.
Bibliography
crfashionbook (n.d.). CR Fashion Book. [online] Tumblr. Available at: https://crfashionbook.tumblr.com/post/33657956857/a-tribute-to-ray-petri-photographer-jamie-morgan.
AnOther (2016). Vivienne Westwood’s Radically Chic Nostalgia of Mud. [online] AnOther. Available at: https://www.anothermag.com/fashion-beauty/8480/vivienne-westwoods-radically-chic-nostalgia-of-mud.
Lorenz, M. (2019). How Ray Petri changed the face of British menswear. [online] British GQ. Available at: https://www.gq-magazine.co.uk/fashion/article/ray-petri.
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