Goodbye Las Vegas

Remember the band Dragpipe?

Anyway, fashion has been changing for quite some time now. Instead of wearing mammoth-skin togas complimented by a sabretooth necklace; we have dissected dresswear and accessorized ourselves into an amalgam of colors, looks and materials. As much as we need the food that goes inside of us to satisfy our appetite, so we need what goes on the outside of us to be tailored to our id.

Of the latest craze, was the not-so-popular-then-somewhat-socially-acceptable emo look. Everything went dark. People dressed as if they were going outside during a World War II air raid (too obscure?). Let's just say there was an abundance of black clothes.

Now, we are in the presence of a fashion reaction.

What does this mean? Well, let me take you back to the '80s for a relatively esoteric parallel, where bands like Stryper and cock-rock heroes Tesla experimented with lugubrious guitar shredding and effeminate stage presence (see:Ratt). Then fast forward to the grunge scene. Surly guitars that required distorting, non-hedonistic lyric writing. Those who were considered “rock stars” became so not because of the noodly appendages located in the center of their midsection, but to their brainy insecurities.

The popular dresswear today is chronos inversion of the cock-rock/grunge binary. Emo-style, the predecessor, is akin to grunge. Whereas, the scene look duplicates the flash of cock-rockery. So, scene becomes the rejection of emo, which was the rejection of whatever came before, which (if memory serves me correctly) was the inexplicable vogue of American Eagle, Gap and Abercrombie and Fitch.

The scene look is an explosion of loud colors covering every shade of the neon rainbow. It's popularity came to the forefront through the omnipresent, ever-growing experimentalism of Threadless.com, American Apparel and Urban Outfitters, and became embedded into the mainstream through bands such as MGMT, Schwayze and anyone who sports Nike kicks.

My question is, what's next? Usually, within mainstream fashion there is a push/pull relationship of colors. Much like many other historical developments, fashion has a tendency to return to simplicity, to the emotastic nature of being withdrawn. Currently, we are in the cock-rock of color stage, and if my self-proclaimed fashion model is true, we will soon be back in black, or whatever other color that represents are desire to not stand out, to be carelessly ineffectual, while at the same time extremely particular about our look.

I'm not entirely sure what it will be, but I guarantee you the change is coming. I just hope that the new look will still be available on flannel.

An easy way to determine up and coming looks is to examine the styles of up-and-coming bands. I see a unisexual styled future . . .

-Mozart