September 03, 2004
make me barf
Shame on you, Fairfax media for resorting yet again to the sorry journalistic cliche of mining youth culture in order to sell expensive products we can't afford. This time it's through a fashion/culture piece which discusses trends in 'cult fashion' i.e that which refuses to conform to mainstream trends like the revolting faux-rock tees being knocked off my everyone from Valley Girl to General Pants to Dangerfield.
Apparently those of us who don't shell out a hundred bucks for a sweat shop tee adorned with some pop-appopriation of a cult figure (Che, Siouxsie, Thurston etc) will just as willingly fork out a thousand dollars for a Comme des Garcons blazer that looks like your grandad's. Thank christ we don't fall for it, or we'd be the chumps.
Right?
Comments
So long as she doesn't spend a fortune on her 'look' which is designed to appear eclectic and impulsive then she can retain her crown ;)
That's the question though. How does one pick the authenticity in someone's look? You can hardly tell the OP shop sweater from the $1000 one anymore.
Bands like Jet and The Vines spend a lot of money on a look that makes them appear as though they are not trying too hard to dress themselves.
Meh. I likes what I likes. I don't specifically hunt down something from a particular store. I like to look everywhere.
Probably why I don't have a lot of money. Heh.
I think the very idea of 'authenticity' is flawed which is why I have a problem with the pop cultural studies approach to 'teen tribes' and subcultures. They're all ways of performing subjectivity based on a configuration of others that we consume (on the street, at uni, in the media etc).
It's the idea of categorisation which really gets me. As though dissecting someone's way of dressing will give insight into their social affiliations or something. I've noticed in my own life and those around me that it's such a tenuous connection that it's hard to argue at all. Do goths only hang with goths? Indie kids only with indie kids? That has never been my experience and I would hate to think that it is true for most people. What a boring world that would be.
Cross pollination all the way! Death to studies of subculture!
Right! Perhaps another reason for looking to Chanel as a style goddess?