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

[flat-top]

Most people I run into always comment on how I HAVEN'T changed since, for I'd say the past 15 years or so, I've looked like this. My style has morphed however. I went from a severe "Stray Cats" ish Rockabilly look: high pomp, earrings, think soled creepers and anything leopard print, to a 100% authentic 40's-50's look. Of course, to those folks who I only run into on occassion, it's all the same!

 

[Naama]

When I was in my early teens I tried to be as inconspicuous as possible, I don't know, I had low selfesteem, and was afraid of all the stupid guys who where bullying everyone who was different in the slightest way.... I mean, I was different anyway, so, I hadn't had a chance anyway . But then, when I turned 15 I changed school, and somehow, I changed myself. Have to admit, I was pretty goth.... I was very classic (think Morticia Addams). Then I had my goth-punk phase, then I had my Victorian phase and then I had my "Flapper from Hell" phase lol I had a short flirt with punk and an even shorter flirt with Mod as well, but that's all nothing worth mentioning...... I think some part of me will always stay a bit goth, I don't know, can't really shake it off [huh]

Naama

 

[herringbonekid]

there is a lot of shared territory between vintage wearers and goth... the rejection of modern values, the outsider status, the love of antiquated buildings and objects. indeed there is a goth/40s hybrid look. and a large number of vintage wearers started out as goth/alternative.

 

[flat-top]

there is a lot of shared territory between vintage wearers and goth... the rejection of modern values, the outsider status, the love of antiquated buildings and objects. indeed there is a goth/40s hybrid look. and a large number of vintage wearers started out as goth/alternative.

Totally true. When I go to a "retro" event such as Viva Las Vegas, 50% of the gals there are what most would consider Goth.

 

[Jack Scorpion]

I went from:

1. (age 14-17) Black Vans/Chucks, Jeans, Baseball Jerseys or Tees, long hair (+ baseball caps): Skater-punk/Jock.
2. (age 18-19) Khakis, sandals, patterned button-ups, long hair (+ green fedora): Vegetarian/Eccentric.
3. (age 20-21) Khakis, Brown Shoes, dressy button-ups, vests/ties/sportcoats, short hair (+ fedoras): Nostalgic/Rebel.
4. Now: Jeans, White Loafers, Hawaiian Shirts. (+ fedoras or baseball caps):...

...I think #4 is not so much a progression or improvement from 1, 2 & 3, but just a combination of all three--Rebellious, eccentric punk who likes oldie-styles and sports. (+ I grew up in a beach town.)

 

[Mike in Seattle]

Although, I did wear a white "Miami Vice" style suit with a turquoise t-shirt underneath back in the 80s!

I'll admit it - mine was sort of a "national safety orange" t-shirt. Thank goodness there are no pictures of THAT outfit. I think I wore the outfit mayb e three times - the last being the night Castaways in Burbank burned down. A friend said the fire was because God tried to smote us for wearing such awful outfits but we got out just in time. <grin>

 

[ITG]

Growing up in junior high, I had an asemetrical hairstyle (short on one side and longer on the other). A few of the kids would call me a poser (back then it was meant for someone trying to be pose as a skater). ONly thing was I wasn't trying to be a skater, I just liked the hairstyle from when I saw a tour guide at the San Diego Zoo that had the same haircut. I also went through a short all black wearing phase when I had a crush on a punk kid that wore all black that had the face of Elvis. Other than that, I was pretty straight laced.

 

[Lady Day]

Emo 101, the 'look' anyway

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]

http://www.dobi.nu/emo/


LD

 

[RedPop4]

I was style conscious in college, working retail selling shoes in the late 1980s.
I started working in libraries and realized that they were dirty places to work, so I shelved the good clothes, for t-shirts and jeans when I wasn't working with the public.

Then in schools, each job brought about a new round of wearing ties, and then getting wise to the dirt. But once in school libraries, I could only go as far as polo-style shirts and khaki/cotton pants. That's de riguer for me now, although you all are having a small influence...I'm starting to wear long sleeve shirts, more. I've ALWAYS liked oxford shirts with button down collars, that's a simple, dressy look.

I'm also more comfortable wearing a fedora in a long sleeve dress shirt with button down collars than I am in a short sleeve polo shirt.

 

[Lady Day]

Progression of the Lady

My Mama sewed a lot of my stuff when I was younger.

When I was in middle school, and listneing to Smokey Robinson instead of TLC, I was wearing whatever fit. I had biig nappy hair, a penny round face, and big lips.

In High School, more of the same. I just wanted to be 'normal' like popular kid, date the track star normal, but I was SOOOOOOO clueless.

In college I listened to mostly Billie Holiday, 50s Doo Wop, and British indie rock, AND was in art school, so didnt care how I looked. Also that was the insurgence of the low rise jean phenomenon so Id by my clothes two sizes too big to yank em up to my real waste.

When I moved to SF, I began to throw out all my 'comfy' clothes, and make the 'special' gear my only gear. I started wearing a lot more flowers in my hair and dress shirts etc. Id always had designs for vintage stuff, so when I began sewing my own clothes, it just clicked.


LD

 

[Matt Deckard]

bump

 

[Rooster]

It was bib overalls and flannel shirts for me. You guys and gals have made a remarkable change in me. One that my wife approves of!lol

 

[TheKitschGoth]

I was a Goth, still am. Just with a little more colour variety.

The only thing that's swayed me more towards vintage than punk influenced goth is a changing figure. The punky look suited me when I was younger, but doesn't know, so I've adapted. Also the real world still doesn't look kindly on piercings and ripped fishnet (no matter how good I may be at my job)

Given half a chance though.. those ripped fishnets are still waiting in my wardrobe.

 

[Starius]

Okay, I'm the first to admit that I'm a little... "offbeat."

I didn't wear blue jeans until I was 18 years old, a senior in high school.

Yeah, thats right. A kid in rural Iowa who didn't wear blue jeans. What did I wear? Cotton pants (the late 80s early 90s wild color things), jogging pants, corduroy pants (the sound they make when the legs rub against each other drives me nuts now), parachute pants, pretty much anything else BUT denim jeans. All usually with brightly colored t-shirts.

Why? I honestly don't remember now. I just remember once making a vow that I'd never wear jeans and sticking to it until I just suddenly changed my mind one day at the age of 18. I spent a great deal of time trying to be left alone yet I obviously always stood out with my odd clothes, growing up. I still must have enjoyed my individuality in spite of all the suffering it caused.
I wouldn't have called it a style though, just "whatever the hell I felt like wearing."

I actually find myself, right now, in a ongoing transitional stage of clothing style. I find myself rather interested in different suit looks and plan to expand my wardrobe with that sort of thing soon. Ironically, at the moment, I'm just a t-shirt and jeans kind of guy. I don't know what my pre-teen self would think of me.

 

[Edward]

Given half a chance though.. those ripped fishnets are still waiting in my wardrobe.

You should come up into London sometime when we have a Rocky horror screening on - ripped fishnets de rigeur there!

Like most little boys, I wasn't much fussy with clothes growing up. The first I can think of really becoming all that aware was round and about 12 or so I definitely knew that there were some things I didn't like and wouldn't wear. I got very picky about jeans fits from then on - always had to be the drainpipes. By 14/15 The Metal Years were upon me, and I was defiantly anti-fashion. I wore a lot of army surplus gear - the German shirts (still got those), jackets, you name it.... I remember, many years later, my early 20s self being furious when combat trousers came into fashion "cargo trousers" I think they called them when they were made for the fashion market - we'd been wearing them for years, how dare they steal our clothes? lol My look from then on was partly punk, partly grunge. Had longish hair for a bit, especially when I first went to university, then went shorter and shorter for a more authentic 70s punk style. My casual look for years on end has been very much 70s punk. By that I mean real 70s punk, what the kids actually wore back then. Sure, I've got a few Westwood style bondage pieces, though those are really clubwear, not something I generally ever wore out casually. Most of what people would have you believe was "what all the punks wore in 1977" is the equivalent of those people who think every man in the 1920s wore a zoot suit and a 4" brimmed fedora with a peacock feather in it..... Grr, that's a real pet hate of mine.

Anyhow.... over the year my jeans got a little wider (by force of availability, not choice), but certain constants remained - long sleeved shirts, army surplus gear, plenty of two-button blazers.... I was no stranger to a collar and tie where appropriate - here in the UK school uniforms are the norm, and in our home a collar and tie (and from the age of 15, a suit) was expected wear for church. My basic style not acounting for colder weather - several sweaters involved there (for the last ten years I have preferred traditional style sweaters over 'sweat shirt' types - a couple of very practical hoodies excepted) - didn't change much for casual wear for a long time - jacket, whether biker-style leather of some sort or blazer, jeans, T shirt (I have probably about thirty t shirts in my wardrobe, many of them music related, though some plain ones which I would wear with certain outfits or to the office in the warmer months). I've always had a preference for retro-style footwear - at one time, all my trainers were Converse (pre-Nike ownership), and in wet / cold weather, it'd be boots or heavier shoes.

About two years ago, I decided a lot of my wardrobe was tired. I work in an environment where it would be de riguer to suit up for some occasions, but often as not, "tidy casual" is the norm. A lot of my clothes had moved away from the alternative looks I preferred and into "dual purpose, work and home" mode. Bland, bland, bland. I bought some decent casual slacks for the office (away from the jeans), picked up more of the cravats I'd enjoyed wearing on occasions (any given day in the office now I'm quite likely to be sporting a cravat), started wearing blazers more... Casually I returned for a year or two to wearing drainpipes, though there my style is evolving too. I became more interested in the rockabilly elements of the punk look I've always loved, and that about a year ago led me to being interested in going for a more fifties inspired look. It's still very much more psychobilly than rockabilly, if we're getting technical, as I can't afford to run out and buy a whole new wardrobe (at least, not without eBaying half of what I have!). But I'm very much evolving towards a fifties inspired casual look. If my fifteen year old self had been presented with the jeans I want to wear nowadays, he'd probably have preferred to go naked. lol Of course, the punk threads come out of the wardrobe still, the goth bits (I was never full on goth, but I love a lot of the look, and there was always a crossover element of the goth look into punk) do too at times. I could never limit myself to say only strictly fities period looking stuff when there are so many great clothes out there, I like to mix it up a bit. And I do like my nail varnish (colour coordinated, naturally), which ain't fifties at all. Not for the boys, anyhow. I've long had the peacock tendency - I think when I really morphed into thinknig about clothes a lot was when I was at university. I know for over a decade now even on a day when I'm only wearing a t shirt and some jeans, the whole thing will be completely calculated and coordinated - shirt, shoes... etc.

Funnily enough, since I got more serious about the retro thing, I've noticed I'll look to different periods for inspirations for different things - day to day casual wear, the fifties rockabilly, often with psychobilly touches; something a bit more dressed up but still casual - elements of thirties and forties style; For more formal wear, or when a suit is appropriate or desirious, it has to be the thirties. I'm looking forward to replacing all my modern suits with thirties repro pieces. Due to budgetary constraints, I'll just have to do it over time (also I want to lose some weight again, so I'll hold off spending the big money before that).

I think everyone gets to a point where their sense of personal style is more or less set as basic building blocks, but will still continue to evolve in some details. That's what's happening to me. I know since getting invovled here (maybe influenced by this place!!), I've started looking for different things and my taste have been affected - mostly in issues such as learning which shoes were considered correct with which modes of dress, and so on. It's fun to break the rules once in a while too, but equally, I like to know them first. And I've definitely started wearing a pocket square more often than only with black / white tie since I started hanging out here. I've long been interested in accessorising a suit - this place has been a great way to learn about it, and it's (as well as gonig bald) also helped me get more into hats for all occasions too.

For all my phases with clothes, there were a couple of things I could never abide: flares, and ripped denim. I find it amusing to see these designer "pre-distressed" jeans, and more - the whole pre-distressed look in a lot of clothing has been big on the high street here for a couple of years - selling for the big money, when I know if my jeans looked like that I'd be considering them ready for the bin... lol

 

[imoldfashioned]

Such a sweet picture Lizzie!

My mother dressed me like Heidi when I was a child--floral prints, angel sleeves, aprons and frighteningly short skirts (it was the early 70s but still...).

Early/mid high school aka the Dark Ages. I just wanted to disappear, didn't really think about my clothes--I had 2 pair of jeans, 2 plaid shirts, 2 sweaters and a pair of Famolares (shudder!).

Very late high school/College and beyond. A side effect of my adolescent depression was a huge weight loss which helped usher in my first flush of vintage--Doc Marten mary janes (my favorite shoes ever--I actually wore the strap out on one of them), dresses from the 1930s-1950s, cloche hats, coats from the teens and 20s, beaded sweaters and plaid skirts. The prices were so low then--sigh.

Late 20s/30s. Oh my God, I have a real job! I jettisoned much of my vintage wear for suits and "careerwear". Then in grad school I wore a black skirt and a t-shirt which expanded as I gained a hideous amount of weight. Stress, gotta love it.

Late 30s. I'm feeling more settled, I've nearly lost the weight from grad school and rediscovering vintage with a vengence. In some ways I feel like I'm expressing myself with clothing for the first time, the way I "should have" when I was in high school. Dressing is becoming more fun and less functional.

 

[Mid-fogey]

Some things (and people) never change...

...I've been a button down and classics guy since the mid-70s. I bought my first fedora in '80 and my first fountain pen in '79. I've worn out and replaced countless suits, etc. So far, I've been able to find whatever classics I need.

 

[gluegungeisha]

My friends and I refer to rockabilly as the "punk rock retirement plan". The natural progression for most of the people in the "scene" around here seems to be: skinhead-punk rocker-mod-rockabilly-vintage
(Not skinhead as in Nazi, skinhead as in, shave your head and ride around on scooters and listen to rocksteady and stand by your brothers. [huh] )

Haha, that "progression" is pretty true. I wish the skinheads here were like that...ours are more like, shave your head and drink and fight and listen to Screwdriver (WP skinheads or not). I think the proper term for them is "boneheads."

My personal story is that I've sort of always marched to the beat of a different drum. While everyone in my first grade class was wearing Disney merchandise and those awful 90's velvet shirts, I wore:

...with a pair of carved wooden Dutch shoes. You recognize me before you saw me by the very loud "clop clop clop" sound I made when I walked.

I continued to be very experimental all through elementary school. I went through one phase in 4th grade where my goal was to basically wear as many articles of clothing I could in one sitting. I recall wearing 6 layered shirts in one day.

Middle school was mixed. I started out in 6th grade with my same erratic style. I wore an angular 60's bob that I was secretly crazy about, but that year the bratty girls at school got to me. Older kids would actually go out of their way to follow me during passing period pouring their drinks on me, unzipping my dresses from the back, grabbing my flute and backpack to hide it, etc.

I got pretty angry...

Angry enough to go through my "punk" phase!!...which lasted like a week.
After that, it was the indie rock thing...you know, wearing shirts off a four-year-old boy's back, dramatic makeup and a razor haircut, etc.

In high school I went decora-crazy. Decora is pretty big in Tokyo subcultures. My hair was every color of the rainbow, decorated with barettes I made out of thrift store kids' toys. I did dress vintage on special occasions, like dances. I don't think I've ever been without a tube of red lipstick since hitting puberty.

I went through a brief little old lady phase at the end of my time in high school...lots of pastel cardigans, orthopedic shoes and disintegrating hats. I was really just fed up and bored with fashion at that point.

And then...a glorious transformation occurred and I saw the light! After being extremely depressed and jaded for years, I started to snap out of it and have some fun expressing myself in a more becoming way. I started going dancing every week, and learned how to move to music I've always loved. I maintained my thrifty ways with my wardrobe and made my style really work for me.

And the rest is history.
Sorry for that novel!

 

[Diamondback]

For me, the fashion/style journey has been:

Pre-1993: Unknown. Absolutely no data available before August 1989.
Ca. '93-'96: polo, jeans, windbreaker or parka and tennis shoes.
9/96-ca. '01: "Poindexter Bad-arse." Leather jacket, jeans, polo or sweater, work boots, all in black.
Ca. '01-'03: "Secret Service/MIB." Black suit, black overcoat, narrow black tie, black leather oxfords. On "casual days", replace suit and tie with polo and slacks, in black of course.
Ca. '03-foreseeable future: "MacArthur Lite." Slacks and 2-pocket long-sleeve collared shirt, both in khaki. Brown leather oxfords, khaki web-belt with brass buckle. Full set of five-star rank insignia carried in pocket at all times. Phase II, started June: replace black leather jacket with brown leather A-2.

 

[Miss Neecerie]

Some of us are just inherantly blah....no matter what clothing you put on us or however much we play 'dress up'...


Not everyone can be 'look at me' all the time.