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Fashion is experiencing an ’80s renaissance, with labels such as Chanel and Isabel Marant reinterpreting the era with vintage-inspired runway shows and retro items like parachute silk pants. “Periods like the 1980s boasted bright, bold colors and oversized clothing, and feel somehow connected to clowns,” explains Lauren S. Cardon, historian and author of Fashion and Fiction: Self-Transformation in Twentieth-Century American Literature. “Specifically, Alexander McQueen drew inspiration from clown makeup and clothing for his Fall/Winter 2001 show, ‘What a Merry-Go-Round.’ But in many cases, designers tend to embrace the darker side of clowns, the ‘punk’ or ‘gothic’ clown that scares us a little. That’s not what the Clowncore trend seems to be about.” Indeed, fashion’s new love of clowns is playful and happy.