From blah to "oh my gosh... look at him/her!"

[Matt Deckard]

So what do you think it is? I know several people on the swing dance scene who were part of the hole messed up lookin' dirty clothes and messed up hair and just plain bummed out I can't stand the world scene who made a 360 all around the same time...

It was an extreme change from Homeless to Lucy. I think it's a style that they took on to break the boring "I'm looking like everyone else monotony"... though now some are reverting back just a bit to find their own style. I myself went from... hmmm well I've always liked wearing the hat and tie, I just like being a rebel.

How about you? what were you like before the style bug hit?

 

[Marc Chevalier]

Matt, you and I both know a person who went from drugs and prison to becoming a Lindy Hop MASTER. For this person, it was a change of LIFE -- and swing had a lot to do with that turnaround.

:eusa_clap

 

[Matt Deckard]

Just had a conversation about him last night... If it weren't for the activation of that gater I think... well we can always take guesses, though I truly believe it gave him a focus to make himself who he is today!

 

[Rosie]

I was always a bit of a dabbler. When I was a younger teenager, I was very much a hip hop kid which people never believe until they see pictures. I wore big baggy jeans, huge gold earrings. Then I kind of went through this artsy/ethnic/gothic stage. I wore this huge afro but I wore a lot of black and dark makeup. Then my style started changing, I was watching I Love Lucy but for the first time REALLY looked at Lucille Ball's clothes, WOW! So, then I started watching I Love Lucy almost everyday after school for the clothes (since I had seen most of the episodes already) and started dabbling in recreating that style. For a bit of time, I guess feeling uncomfortable about dressing that/this way, I started doing the dressy jeans/heels/nice blouse blazer thing but, wasn't me.

 

[Matt Deckard]

I guess I was never part of a scene myself... I am a true X gener and missed the new-wave, punk, grunge, goth, new mod (how can they be mod wearing vintage clothes... that just seems backwards)... whatever trend. I was always the one who didn't fit in, though could always hang out with them all, even with the ones who didn't fit in, and said they didn't... I just didn't fit in with them. I'd take GQ and Esquire to school. It was just my thing. Between classes I would draw the uniforms on my paper bag covered books just for the aesthetic of the fitted look the ladies carried off (yes, they were my pinups... Nothing like a gal in uniform drawn by me on brown paper). I didn;t dress up much at school, My parents were sort of anti style and... well sort of like an E.M. pulse that takes away all energy... they had that with style. So I went to school and literally had to sneak the dressing up into my lifestyle. I bought and checkefd out book after book with photos from the golden era, drawings, style books and tailoring history... though I never found my clique. I'd watch people and see how they tried to fit into their specific groups though I couldn't fake it even when at times it was required. So now, Now I have grown into the suits and ties and hats and still like the look.

Maybe I'll go emo next month... though I doubt it (what the heck is emo anyway? Is it like goth lite though more depressed? And if so... Wasn't that Depeche Mode?

 

[Paisley]

I wore mostly jeans, t-shirts, sweaters ... pretty regular clothes. I didn't go in for fads. A few things brought about a change in my style:

• I got into better shape. I wasn't overweight, but I toned up. I wanted to look as good as I felt.
• The dress code at the office changed. They wouldn't have sent me home wearing what I wore, but I didn't want to skate by.
• I turned 37 a few months ago and wanted a more elegant look. I retired the miniskirts while I still had the legs for them. I feel much more comfortable and less exposed in knee-length skirts. I didn't want to turn into a middle-aged woman who looks like she's looking for her lost youth, or desperate to get a man. Besides, "young" clothes on a woman of a certain age just tend to make her look older.

I don't wear vintage clothes, although I like the styles. It would attract more attention than I want. A classic style suits me better.

 

[Briscoeteque]

I've always liked suits alot, I remember in 6th grade that I wanted there to be uniforms, so I can wear a tie and have an excuse. After that, I'd sometimes bust out a tweed cap, which got alot of stares in the 7th grade. I usually wore sweaters and khakis at this point. Then in high school, I got two presents that I would wear every (cold) day outside: a massive black English overcoat and a black faux-fur Belarussian Ushanka (red star logo included). During the summer, it was less Soviet-chic and more old man in Boca with mismatched plaid shirts and pants. Senior year I wore a sportcoat (all from Syms) and tie (all 50's-60's vintage) everyday, and it wasn't until freshman year that I put my love of all things formal and all things old together and started buying vintage suits on eBay. I've been addicted ever since, and now have two forties suits, one fifties suit (too small) three (early) sixties suits, a sixties tuxedo, and one modern light cotton one (vintage summer is too expensive for me) and one vintage (40's-60's) number on its way.

 

[SWTroopers]

Maybe I'll go emo next month... though I doubt it (what the heck is emo anyway? Is it like goth lite though more depressed? And if so... Wasn't that Depeche Mode?

If you figure that out let us know. I keep hearing that term every once in a while but have no real clue what it really means [huh]

 

[Matt Deckard]

If you figure that out let us know. I keep hearing that term every once in a while but have no real clue what it really means [huh]

Well if I don't cut my hair for a while and go for that Harry Potter in the third movie look I think I'll have it nailed.

 

[mysterygal]

For the most part I was a big time tomboy..there was no way you could get a dress or skirt on me (except when going to restraunts)...80's I had the baggy pants, tight shirts, bangs that would go as high with my can of aqua net. What changed was I met my husband who was very much into posh.
Now, I have a MUCH better look, though I really do wish I had some pictures of me especially in the 80's..would be a real hoot to look at now

 

[Marc Chevalier]

If you figure that out let us know. I keep hearing that term every once in a while but have no real clue what it really means [huh]

"Emo" is short for "emotional". It's sort of a soft Mod revival, post-post-Punk. (Whatever that means.)

.

 

[Tony in Tarzana]

The only Emo I know is comedian Emo Phillips. I thought he was pretty funny back in the 80s, no idea what he's doing now.

 

[Marc Chevalier]

I remember him. But this "emo" has nothing to do with Emo the comedian.

 

[Matt Deckard]

So it's "I can't believe it's not punk"?

 

[Mojave Jack]

Emo as a music form is sort of gone now. Think Fugazi. As a fashion it's still around. I always sort of thought of Emo as somewhere between punk and grunge. Not as, well, grungy, as grunge, but not as far out as punk. No mohawks or lots of chains, just black t-shirts, Vans or Chuck Taylors, black jeans, etc.

For me, I never gave style much conscious thought. I wore jeans and t-shirts because everyone else did, then when chinos began to get popular I realized how much I hated jeans all along! I ditched them and that's when I actually started to think about what I wanted to wear. Given how little I thought about things in the past, I sometimes wonder how I fundtioned at all!

 

["Doc" Devereux]

I remember him. But this "emo" has nothing to do with Emo the comedian.

Except, at times, for the look.

So it's "I can't believe it's not punk"?

A friend recently described the music as "Easy listening for goths."

 

[Tony in Tarzana]

I'm officially an old coot! And it feels great! Except for eBay ads for "vintage" trucker caps (is there an eBay bozo filter?) I have no clue what Emo or Fugazi are.

 

[Rosie]

ha ha, when I see vintage gloves or some dresses on ebay they are sometimes listed as rockabilly/emo/vintage, I'm like [huh]. Rockabilly I understand, vintage I understand, but emo? When in comes to the music, I think easy listening for goths is correct.

 

[LizzieMaine]

My fifteen-year old niece is an Emo Kid, and as far as I can tell it means someone who falls into a deep, bottomless depression because her phone card has run out of minutes. OHHHHHHH Life is Unfair!

 

[Matt Deckard]

Okay... so emo is Elmo's sister... lets gat back to the thread at hand.