Help me correctly ID and label different fashion styles

April 13, 2007 5:43 PM

I need to extend my fashion vocabulary into the current decade.

I mostly wear pajamas, but I write about fashion every day. I desperately need a fashion style guide by type or look

I habitually refer to certain looks as, for example, retro. I know there is a much bigger and more exact vocabulary of fashion styles, but I have very little idea what contemporary terms like rockabilly, dirty, punk, or emo mean and more importantly, what they look like.

I would dearly love to find a resource that can define these looks for me, with pictures. Obviously I can Google emo, but there are looks with words I am sure I've never even heard, and therefore cannot Google.

Something like yourscenesucks.com would be ideal - the "choose a scenester" thing is great, but not extensive enough.

Thank you, hivesters.

posted by DarlingBri to clothing, beauty, & fashion (5 comments total)

This may be of limited use (or not?), but have you seen the Vice Dos and Don'ts? The book is hilarious.

According to the site you posted, it is "Williamsburg Hipster" to like "Viceland." Hmm.
posted by kmennie at 7:05 PM on April 13, 2007

The primary problem you're going to run into is the different in-group and out-group terminology. On one forum I read, what's called "streetwear" is what mainstream types would call "hipster" -- but "streetwear" is an industry term for hip-hop fashion.

On another forum which is a bit older in demographic, there's talk about "urban" (slim suits, grays and blacks, etc.) as one opposite of "trad" (New England gentry), but "urban" in other contexts is inner-city black styles, where slim suits is "downtown". Those same "trads" would probably be called "preppy" by a lot of other people, except for those for whom "preppy" is shopping at Abercrombie and Fitch and not Hot Topic.

(As a data point, it's interesting to note that unlike a few years ago, you can no longer search by "scene" at Hot Topic.)

Even your own example has the same problems -- depending on who you ask, what scene they're in, and when they learned about the term, "emo" can range from "hipster trucker hats" to "goth eyeshadow", nevermind that the music comes out of punk!

I think more than reading a guide you need to participate in conversations about fashion. You might find StyleForum and SuperFuture good for hipster-type streetwear and denim. I don't know where people talk about black urban style because it's not my thing, although Hypebeast is probably a good starting point.
posted by mendel at 8:08 PM on April 13, 2007

(And be careful with Vice Do's and Don'ts -- if you're not already used to what they're going on about, they can switch between sarcasm and sincerity before you notice anything's up.)
posted by mendel at 8:17 PM on April 13, 2007

For the major retro/subculture styles, googling the keywords (as you would emo) + "fashion" should yield some pretty illustrative examples to help you distinguish between them. For example, googling "rockabilly" + "fashion" or "psychobilly" + "fashion" yields much different results than "mod" + "fashion" or "new wave" + "fashion." As for "punk" + "fashion," its influence has become extraordinarily pervasive; numerous other styles/subcultures (as well as high fashion) have repurposed bits and pieces of punk style for decades now.
posted by scody at 10:41 PM on April 13, 2007

Okay, I favourited this and haven't had time to post, but I wanted to say I noticed the thread because as a writer (specifically, when writing about musicians or reviewing records or live shows) I find myself stuck with the same problem. The absolute best cure for this is to attempt to soak it all in. Experience all these subcultures to the greatest extent possible. Experience it first-hand. Listen to the music, browse the web, go to clubs/dance nights/shows. Visit the areas where those people congregate and check out what they're wearing. For fashion especially, do this all when you travel as well, since fashion migrates.

Read books -- yes, books! -- about the origins of various subcultures. For example, there are many books about the origins of punk in the late 70s. Once you get the foundation of that, you can read about ska/mod history, or you can read about indie/college rock. (This book is the absolute best resource for that.) Then you can read about emo -- there's a book for that too. And so on. Even read their blogs now and then. Expand your vocabulary and build your foundation of knowledge.

Also, listen and absorb silently -- make mental notes. Maybe this makes me a poseur, but in conversations day-to-day I notice common touchstones in musical influences or eras, and things of that nature. I will often go home and download a tonne of that band's music just to understand what that's about. It much better informs my writing than just taking their word for it. It can be a lot of work, but I think it pays off. In fact, since the subcultures you mention have a strong musical thread, this might help you as well. Look at what those bands were wearing and how their scene was dressing to see where trends start.

Check out a local university that offers a design/fashion design degree -- they may offer liberal-studies courses in fashion history, which would be really helpful for a fashion writer, I think. Understanding the broader historical context would really give you perspective -- which parts of the body were in vogue in various areas? How does fashion relate to class/race? That stuff sounds fascinating, and you could apply that information to put it into perspective for the readers, and be better able to predict what's coming.

That said, I've the approach that it's more helpful to describe (for example) what something sounds like, rather than (like many reviewers) compare it to other works, or come up with a genre or classification that will do the explaining I'm supposed to do. I think the latter approach is a bit elitist, in that it can assume a lot about the reader. When I started writing about music a lot of people told me that they often don't even understand the references certain writers make! So I try to make everything come alive using carefully-chosen words, rather than lazily straining to find comparisons or find a box to put a work in.

Not that I'm the best -- far from it! It's tough! I guess I'm saying that knowing these things is very important, but shouldn't necessarily become your vocabulary. If anything they can be a little something extra so that you can pass your knowledge on to the reader.

I love talking about writing!
posted by loiseau at 11:54 PM on April 20, 2007