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LJ Idol Season 7 Week 11 Haute
Jan. 29th, 2011 09:12 amI am in no way a fashionista. My couture tends to the t-shirt, bowling shirts, hoodies, and pants end of the spectrum. I wear men’s shoes because women’s shoes don’t fit me well. I can’t wear heels at all due to having worn corrective shoes when I was a child to fix a problem of flat feet with slightly deformed ankles. I still have the flat feet but the ankles are in good shape.
However I am an observer of fashion and have done so since I was small. I always loved when the fashion magazine was in the New York Times on Sunday. I would spend the afternoon going over all the pictures and looking at the photos. Because of the way my mind works, I was picking out at a rather early age those fashions that were going to stick and those that were a flash in the pan.
As some of you know I have been going to scifi conventions (as we used to call them) for over 30 years now. And they have a fashion scene all there own that has evolved over the years. Even some fashion that started in fandom, made it mainstream over time. Some would call it costuming and they might be partially right however I see more people wearing what they wear at conventions and even renfaires outside the venue and they don’t look at all out of place.
Here are some current trends in fandom that I can see or already have seen outside the convention halls.
Let’s start with Steampunk. It is showing up more and more on the runways of Paris and Milan along with New York and Sidney. Steampunk the term was coined in the late 80s however I have seen people dress in steampunk garb as far back at the 70s. I have seen rocketmen and Jules Verne type explorers. It has only been recently that there has been an explosion of Steampunk garb which has gone into the main stream especially in the realm of shoes and boots. I have seen in both fall and spring collections more garments that have nods to the steampunk world. Eventually you will be able to get your punk on from your local Target if you would like.
Then there is gaming fashion. Yes, there is gaming fashion so don’t laugh too hard. One thing that came out of the gaming world that has made it into Hot Topic is the creature hoodie. It is a hooded sweat jacket that you can pull over your face like a mask and make yourself look like a pokemon or other characters from video games. I first saw a Pikachu hoodie about 10 years ago. The owner of the hoodie told me that his sister had made it for him. I thought it was a very clever idea and was not that surprised to see it in Hot Topic. Nor was I surprised to see hats with animal ears for teens and adults at Hot Topic which I first saw at conventions. The animal hoodie is not that far behind and will probably be available within the next two years.
Pirate couture is hot right now. There was piratical couture before Disney released “Pirates of the Caribbean” but quite an explosion since. It is now easy to find a pirate shirt in Sears or Target. Mainstream patterns are available in fabric stores and there is plenty of pirate themed fabric to be had at those same stores. Many of the former pirates have taken what they had and moved over to the Steampunk side of the fashion trends.
Out of Japan comes the Lolita fashion which had its start in the US back in the late 70s and early 80s. This is becoming more mainstream as well. The Lolita fashion has its own set of rules and regulations that I am not even going to start to go into. You started seeing this fashion mostly at Anime conventions but now it is more and more at mainstream conventions, tea rooms, and Disney parks. The fashion that I think is going to go mainstream is Gothic Lolita especially after I keep seeing people wear it in music videos. Also a lot of it is not far off from Steampunk. However I do expect to see more fabric for Sweet Lolita fashion in the fabric stores this spring.
Next I expect that clothing is going to have more of an oriental flair to it like what I see a lot of cosplayers wearing around conventions. Anime is going to be a big influence in the future along with more gaming clothing coming into the mix. Look at what people are wearing at the conventions and you may be seeing the future in fashion.
This was my entry for this week’s prompt for the LJ Idol. I hope you have enjoyed my thoughts on fandom and fashion and that you will vote for me in the next poll
However I am an observer of fashion and have done so since I was small. I always loved when the fashion magazine was in the New York Times on Sunday. I would spend the afternoon going over all the pictures and looking at the photos. Because of the way my mind works, I was picking out at a rather early age those fashions that were going to stick and those that were a flash in the pan.
As some of you know I have been going to scifi conventions (as we used to call them) for over 30 years now. And they have a fashion scene all there own that has evolved over the years. Even some fashion that started in fandom, made it mainstream over time. Some would call it costuming and they might be partially right however I see more people wearing what they wear at conventions and even renfaires outside the venue and they don’t look at all out of place.
Here are some current trends in fandom that I can see or already have seen outside the convention halls.
Let’s start with Steampunk. It is showing up more and more on the runways of Paris and Milan along with New York and Sidney. Steampunk the term was coined in the late 80s however I have seen people dress in steampunk garb as far back at the 70s. I have seen rocketmen and Jules Verne type explorers. It has only been recently that there has been an explosion of Steampunk garb which has gone into the main stream especially in the realm of shoes and boots. I have seen in both fall and spring collections more garments that have nods to the steampunk world. Eventually you will be able to get your punk on from your local Target if you would like.
Then there is gaming fashion. Yes, there is gaming fashion so don’t laugh too hard. One thing that came out of the gaming world that has made it into Hot Topic is the creature hoodie. It is a hooded sweat jacket that you can pull over your face like a mask and make yourself look like a pokemon or other characters from video games. I first saw a Pikachu hoodie about 10 years ago. The owner of the hoodie told me that his sister had made it for him. I thought it was a very clever idea and was not that surprised to see it in Hot Topic. Nor was I surprised to see hats with animal ears for teens and adults at Hot Topic which I first saw at conventions. The animal hoodie is not that far behind and will probably be available within the next two years.
Pirate couture is hot right now. There was piratical couture before Disney released “Pirates of the Caribbean” but quite an explosion since. It is now easy to find a pirate shirt in Sears or Target. Mainstream patterns are available in fabric stores and there is plenty of pirate themed fabric to be had at those same stores. Many of the former pirates have taken what they had and moved over to the Steampunk side of the fashion trends.
Out of Japan comes the Lolita fashion which had its start in the US back in the late 70s and early 80s. This is becoming more mainstream as well. The Lolita fashion has its own set of rules and regulations that I am not even going to start to go into. You started seeing this fashion mostly at Anime conventions but now it is more and more at mainstream conventions, tea rooms, and Disney parks. The fashion that I think is going to go mainstream is Gothic Lolita especially after I keep seeing people wear it in music videos. Also a lot of it is not far off from Steampunk. However I do expect to see more fabric for Sweet Lolita fashion in the fabric stores this spring.
Next I expect that clothing is going to have more of an oriental flair to it like what I see a lot of cosplayers wearing around conventions. Anime is going to be a big influence in the future along with more gaming clothing coming into the mix. Look at what people are wearing at the conventions and you may be seeing the future in fashion.
This was my entry for this week’s prompt for the LJ Idol. I hope you have enjoyed my thoughts on fandom and fashion and that you will vote for me in the next poll
