The dystopian Netflix hit from South Korea is proving an unexpected style influence. Here’s why.
Netflix
Squid Game,” the dystopian South Korean drama that is poised to become Netflix’s most-watched show, is, at first glance, an unlikely new entrant into the fashion-tainment complex.
Unlike previous hits for the streaming giant, such as “Bridgerton” and “The Queen’s Gambit,” it is not full of characters wearing glamorous and ever-changing wardrobes steeped in romance and historicism, the kind that inspire in viewers a deep, pining yen for an empire waist frock or a checkerboard shift.
And unlike other survivor-take-all films such as “The Hunger Games” (which is often cited as a point of comparison for “Squid Game”), it is not full of characters wearing cool, futuristic bodysuits as they duck and weave their way through life-threatening situations.
Rather, “Squid Game” is full of players wearing banal teal-green tracksuits, generally speckled with blood and dirt, as they are forced to play children’s games to the death in a drive to pay off their debts. Referees in hot pink boiler suits and black masks watch the spectacle (and shoot anyone who breaks the rules of the game). Sometimes the players take off their zip-up sweatshirts to reveal white baseball shirts bearing matching teal sleeves and the identifying number they have been given instead of a name. It’s the normcore-ization of dystopia.
According to a spokeswoman for Lyst, the shopping platform, “global searches for retro-inspired tracksuits, white slip-on sneakers, red boiler suits and white numbered T-shirts have all spiked.” Interest in tracksuits has nearly doubled since the series debuted in mid-September, she said, and searches for white sneakers are up by 145 percent, with Vans getting a special boost in the last week.
Netflix itself has a dedicated “Squid Game” collection in its online store offering hoodies and T-shirts in the show’s trademark colors and shapes. And Grazia US, inspired by the show, recently published a roundup of items titled “the ‘Squid Game’ Tracksuit … but Make It Fashion.” Perhaps to that end, Louis Vuitton signed HoYeon Jung, the female star of “Squid Game,” as a brand ambassador almost as soon as the show was released. (Though she is also a model, the Vuitton contract vaults her into the international big leagues.)
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