What does alternative fashion and subcultures mean to you?

submitted by medium_tomato from self.AlternativeFashion

What do you think makes an alternative fashion alternative? Punk and goth has been co-opted and diluted by the mainstream. Is it still alternative?

Do you think it's important to keep your fashion to a select group or spread it until it hits mainstream?

Why do you love your fashion? Why are there some fashions you are only satisfied with looking at but not trying?

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[–]Edge_Finder 6 insightful - 3 fun6 insightful - 2 fun7 insightful - 3 fun -  (2 children)

clothes don't define me

[–]medium_tomato[S] 3 insightful - 3 fun3 insightful - 2 fun4 insightful - 3 fun -  (1 child)

I agree one hundred percent! Clothes are not an identity. But there are still so many different styles, especially ones that derivate from the norm. For me personally the reason I love alt fashion is not because it's other, but because I just couldn't find anything I liked in regular stores.

So people tend to often ask where this and that is from because they also love the same things. That's why I created this sub.

[–]medium_tomato[S] 3 insightful - 3 fun3 insightful - 2 fun4 insightful - 3 fun -  (0 children)

Also thanks for the first comment on the sub! It's actually kind of perfect :p

[–]Trajan 3 insightful - 4 fun3 insightful - 3 fun4 insightful - 4 fun -  (1 child)

If something is really interesting, and particularly low-effort, you can't easily keep it to a small group. It's like any hobby or interest. Once it becomes noticed, whether you like it or not, it's pretty much game over for the die-hards. The fashion will be coopted, altered, and the sense of identity it used to have will be ruined. The lifestyle associated with the identity will be discarded, as all the larger group wants is to identify with the lifestyle either without living it or by living it in a sanitised way. Take hunting. You can go out actually hunt, or you can pay somebody to provide you a tamed animal that will be a nice easy shot taken from a comfortable and sheltered chair.

Here's a related article: https://meaningness.com/geeks-mops-sociopaths

[–]medium_tomato[S] 3 insightful - 2 fun3 insightful - 1 fun4 insightful - 2 fun -  (0 children)

I have read this before and absolutely love this essay! It explains so much of what happened or is happening with my favorite subcultures/hobbies/fashions. Look at how gothic influence is everywhere these days. High fashion brands that never used the aesthetic have been making some very goth shoes and pieces. Same goes with kawaii things now. On one hand it's kind of cool when your favorite stuff is suddenly everywhere and you don't need to search so hard for it. But on the other hand, it makes you wonder what happens when it goes out of trend. Something that is pretty timeless just got a timestamp placed on it.

For example Harajuku fashion styles have been around since decades ago. Then from the early 2000s they became a niche group in the west. Right now they are all the rage but suddenly something that was timeless because of how out of place it was everywhere became the 2010s fad. So if you got into it in 2000s and will still be in it way into the late 2020s you will now be labeled as stuck on 2010s.