I know people look at us

[Benny Holiday]

I was so different as a Rockabilly kid with the Stray Cats five-inch pompadour hair that I enjoy seeing people, especially teenagers, doing their own thing and finding their own style.

One funny incident I remember from a few years back involves a pub crawl myself and about twenty friends did through Sydney. I came up with the wild idea that we should all get dressed as 70's Elvises (plural should be Elvi?lol ), what a laugh! The costume shops were happy, too!

 

[Novella]

I dunno, in my mind dressing vintage is a leeeeetle different than wearing a cat costume or a black-painted surgical mask out in public.

Black painted surgical masks and cat costumes were never mainstream fashion, but vintage clothes were once popular styles so I agree that dressing vintage isn't quite the same. Although there's a similarity in the sense that the clothing deviates from the mainstream fashion norm, there are different extremities (an animal tail is going to attract more attention than a pair of shoes from the 30s). Like others who've posted already, I don't condemn anyone's fashion choices - to everyone their own.

 

[Naama]

I go to the art school at UCLA in Los Angeles, so I see some semi-weird attire on a daily basis. Pretty much your usual "hipster" stuff, super tight pants on guys with pointy boots, paired with an ironic t-shirt, suspenders and a crazy hairdo. So there's always fun fashion going on.

But the weirdest thing I've ever seen was this goth kid who went to the same arts summer program I went to. It was in Valencia, CA where its BOILING in the summer, and everyday he would wear a long black leather trench coat, a black button down shirt with this bondage-type metal chainlink-esque stuff draped over it, black pants, black boots, gigantic black feathered angel wings (the Halloween kind), black eye makeup and, the best part, a surgical mask that was painted black. It was totally over the top! I can't believe he didnt die from heat stroke either!

I have a picture of it if you wanna see the madness for yourselves!!

You know, I go to artschool as well, but somehow, I feel like I'm causing the most attention...... At least in my class (maybe the photographers are just boring?)...... But I'm not the only vintage one, there's an 80's guy in my class lol

I used to be into gothic as well, so I actually know exactly what this guy was going through But, wait a minute, did you wrote ANGEL WINGS?????? Show the picture to proof it!

Naama

 

[pigeon toe]

Here ya go!

There was a Halloween-theme party going on that night, so the other 2 girls were dressed up, but the dude in the middle dressed like that everyday! I'm at work right now so thats the only pic I can find, but I have even better ones at home.

 

[Elaina]

Yea. Little extreme there. Kids in my art program look like they need to see a designer, not be one. I'm usually better dressed then the teacher. I'm also one of the few that doesn't have rainbows on my clothes, backpack or car, but that's something else.

I'm also the only one that carries a laptop bag, with coordinating pencil bags, spiral bags, and art supplies bags. I'm more organized then anyone I've met yet. Maybe I need to wear my Lulu costume from Final Fantasy into class, or my Belle costume. Hmm...

 

[John in Covina]

Hellraiser costumes mixed with a little punk and goth?

It is weird sometimes to find that there are subcultures frozen in time. Here in So. Cal. the punk culture remains with ties to the 80's, there is a Ramones look re-emerging.

 

[Miss Neecerie]

Hellraiser costumes mixed with a little punk and goth?

It is weird sometimes to find that there are subcultures frozen in time. Here in So. Cal. the punk culture remains with ties to the 80's, there is a Ramones look re-emerging.

Subcultures frozen in time?! Pot Kettle Black folks?

 

[John in Covina]

Subcultures frozen in time?! Pot Kettle Black folks?

Well if you consider the value system of the chosen subculture, based on your personal knowledge of the time, would you want to emulate the late 60's or the 70's or the 80's?

 

[BegintheBeguine]

I went out a couple of weeks ago and two guys were wearing outlandish costumes and makeup and one angel wings, the other butterfly wings. It looked like the clothes and makeup were thrown on haphazardly, along with some glitter (and one ratty Cat in the Hat hat). A guy across the room was got up as a pirate, or a knight or something. Why are people dressed weird? I asked. No occasion other than going out. Maybe this really means they don't get out much. Hmm. They were supposedly over 21. [huh]

 

[Miss Neecerie]

My point here is that it is 'no different' fundamentally from picking any other era and going with that as a lifestyle. 40's, 60's 80's, the rennaisance...

Quit assigning values to -fashion-.

Immorality and cruddy values happened in every single era known to mankind. They are traits of humanity, not an specific era.


So if those living in the 80's modernised and then started dressing in today's fashions, we would all sit here picking them apart for that too. So basically this boils down to...

"be like us, dress like us, and share all values with us and we -might- then respect you as people and not post pictures and mock you on the internet"

Great...

 

[Lauren]

I find it kind of amusing that this thread pops up around halloween [huh]

While in school I was friends with goths, punks, ravers... heck just cause they're dressed differently doesn't make them "wierd". There's really nice people under there if you get to know them even if you don't personally have a taste for their clothing. I think the coolest thing is when people from different "subcultures" become friends because it really proves it's not all about appearances.

 

[RedShoesGirl]

I find it kind of amusing that this thread pops up around halloween [huh]

While in school I was friends with goths, punks, ravers... heck just cause they're dressed differently doesn't make them "wierd". There's really nice people under there if you get to know them even if you don't personally have a taste for their clothing. I think the coolest thing is when people from different "subcultures" become friends because it really proves it's not all about appearances.

you said it lauren!

 

[LizzieMaine]

I try not to read too much into the fashions of youth culture -- because at that age, everyone's trying on identities, trying to figure out what fits. My fifteen-year-old niece has a whole closet full of these identities -- some days she'll dress like an 80s mallrat, other times she'll put on a black leather raincoat and too much eyeliner, other times she'll do the emo-kid thing, and still others she'll really mess with peoples' heads and go to school in a vintage wool suit and heels.

Some of her outfits display a -- um -- unique notion of what goes with what, but I try not to roll my eyes too much. I'm not so old I can't remember how people looked at me when I went to school at the height of the disco era wearing vintage skirts and saddle shoes...

 

[Harp]

Mad Monk

Yesterday, though, I saw a fellow who really took the cake -- he was standing on the sidewalk in front of one of our more popular watering holes dressed, as near as I can tell, as Rasputin. Wild hair and whiskers, monk's robe, and some kind of wide belt thing. And he was carrying a sword.

He was pacing back and forth in front of the bar, evidently waiting for it to
open. Even a mad Russian monk needs a nip now and then.

As an alumnus of a Christian Brothers of Ireland preparatory school,
I might hazard a guess that he's Irish....lol

 

[Marc Chevalier]

It is weird sometimes to find that there are subcultures frozen in time.

That certainly wouldn't be any of us! lol

.

 

[Marc Chevalier]

Subcultures frozen in time?! Pot Kettle Black folks?

You said it! (And you said it first!) :eusa_clap

.

 

[Marc Chevalier]

Why are people dressed weird? [huh]

Yeah ... why do guys walk around with old-fashioned fedoras on their heads, when 99% of the male population doesn't? Weirdos!

.

 

[carebear]

Yeah ... why do guys walk around with old-fashioned fedoras on their heads, when 99% of the male population doesn't? Weirdos!

.

There is a utilitarian difference.

In one sense a fedora is not "outre". It is, in the end, just a kind of hat. A thing you wear on your head to keep it warm dry and sun-shaded. Seattle sombreros and the ubiquitous ballcaps aren't "odd" so men wearing hats (of any kind) is still an acceptable thing to do. A sportcoat with peaked lapels and a slightly vintage cut is still conventional business attire and suitable for wear anywhere similar business attire is worn.

They are, despite their age, just utilitarian garments.

A painter's dust mask worn in a non-dusty environment, or non-flight capable wings worn anywhere, can't appeal to any sort of utilitarian or functionality argument.

 

[TopHatCat]

It is, in the end, just a kind of hat.

Judging by that thread about what sort of comments does your hat/outfit engender, I'd say a fedora tends to be viewed by the general populace as just as much a costume as your average goth gear.

 

[carebear]

Judging by that thread about what sort of comments does your hat/outfit engender, I'd say a fedora tends to be viewed by the general populace as just as much a costume as your average goth gear.

True, but it does actually keep off the rain. Wire-frame wings will never fly.