The Alternative Fashion Blog

Longest Running Sitcoms

2011-11-02T02:05:00.000-07:00

A list of the longest running Sitcoms (sorry nothing to do with Alt Fashion.... just had to put this somewhere!)

#1. “The Last of the Summer Wine” - 31 Seasons (1973 – 2010) 37 Years

#2 “The Simpsons” - 23 Seasons – (1989 – present) 23 years

#3 “Only Fools and Horses” 22 Seasons – (1981 – 2003) 22 Years

#4 "The Jack Benny Show 15 Seasons" (1950 - 1965) 15 Years

#5 “(The Adventures Of) Ozzie And Harriet” - 14 Seasons (1952 – 1966) 14 years

#6 “South Park” - 15 Seasons (1997 – Present) 14 years

#7 “Are you being Served” - 13 Seasons (1972 – 1985) 13 years

#8 “King of the Hill” - 13 seasons – (1997 – 2010) 13 years

#9 “My Three Sons” - 12 seasons (1960 – 1972) 12 years

#10 “Rab C Nesbit” - 11 Seasons (1988 – 1999, 2008, 2010 – present) 12 years

World Goth Day

2011-06-28T03:09:00.000-07:00

World Goth Day originally started in the UK. BBC 6 was looking at a number of music subcultures on May 22nd 2009, two goth DJs got together DJ Cruel Britannia and Martin OldGoth and organised an event. It was decided that May 22nd would be the day when this event would be held regularly.

The tradition continued and spread outside the UK.

World Goth Day celebrates the sub cultural aspects of the Goth subculture, including fashion, music and art. Many of the events feature local Goth bands, and some have taken on a charity aspect, supporting the Sophie Lancaster Foundation, a charity that combat and prejudice and hatred against members of subcultures.

The event has seen celebrations all around the world, including in Australia, the UK, the US, Singapore, South Africa.
Great article on World Goth Day here:
http://blogs.laweekly.com/westcoastsound/2011/05/world_goth_day.php

Military influence on Subculture - When is it bad?

2011-05-11T06:01:00.000-07:00

Marilyn Manson screengrab from the fight song Filmclip. This is a Waffen SS Officer cap, with the TottenKopf(skulls) and German Eagle Insignia removed.

Metamaphose, and EGL (Elegant Goth Lolita) designer from Japan caused an uproar in the Lolita Fashion community, when they released this outfit, and some others. The uproar was based around the fact that they were supposed to resemble Nazi uniforms from WW2. In fact, they don't really resemble German uniforms at all, except for the German eagle insignia.

18th century military officers uniform influence in this gothic outfit. "Military Style Jacket" from Horrorshop.

Not so subtle SS Officer uniform with trenchcoat on a Japanese girl, including the SS cap.

I was at a alt fashion show, Circa Nocturna, and one of the designers had some military influence in her work. Most of it was German Wehrmacht, German Waffen SS and some Russian Military uniforms from the same era. Interestingly the designer herself was Russian.

An odd thing happenned. My older friends, in their early 40's and late 30's, were apparently quite unimpressed with the military references, mostly the Waffen SS (which I thought was prevalent in mainly one design) ones. I think some of them were going to walk out.

Howwever the majority of the crowd, who were generally younger, didn't seemed bothered by it...in fact, they couldn't work out what the issue was. Obviously to us older types, who grew up in WW2's after affects, are more affected by it. But I wasn't actually sure if the younger people there (1) were unfamiliar with the war and the symbolism of the uniforms or (2) were familiar with it, but didn't think it was an issue.

I myself was going to buy one of the jackets, but my Girlfriend (older) threatened to disown me if I did.

In any event, Subcultural fashion, and subcultural fashion worn on stage by musicians, loves to shock, and if you can get some shock out of referencing some thing that annoys people, then you may get your mediabytes from it. And in some cases, the only bad publicity is no publicity. Sex Pistols used swastikas on T shirts to annoy the public - they (or Malcolm Mclaren at least) were masters of shock publicity, and it made them what they were. Certainly Marilyn Manson also benefits from the shock value of military fashion.... and it fits with his general modus operandi of wearing whatever he has to the looks cool, but stil shocks. Ahhhh Mazza....bless your fishnet socks!

Are military uniforms sinister, or just historical influence on fashion though? How far back do we have to go before something is benign. Are WW1 uniforms ok, but not WW2 uniforms? Are 19th Century British redcoat uniforms Ok?. Are the German Uniforms from WW2 not ok, but the Russians ones fine? Are the Wehrmacht uniforms ok, but Waffen SS no good?

I don't have the answers to these things, my answer is that what is good to wear or not to wear may often be contextual. I like military influence on fashion, but at the same time, care should be taken to not deliberately offend. Certain countries take more offense than others... certainly Nazi Fashion seems not to offend some in South East Asia.

Military influence, or in this case, Nazi influence in subcultural fashion can

The Gothic Ruth - The Ruff in Goth Subcultural Fashion

2011-05-04T06:14:00.000-07:00

Goth Ruff as part of a Goth Elizabethan inspired outfit, from Gala Nocturna 2010.

2 Ruffs on Victorian Goth Outfits. Wave Gothic Treffen 2009. (c) Rachael Black
Goth Victorian Inspired outfit, with Ruff. WGT 2010 (c) Rachael Black
Ruffs at Wave Gothic Treffen. WGT 2010 (c) Rachael Black

Continental European goths have taken to the ruff to some degree, as part of their overall interest in historical fashion and acoutrement. The ruff can be seen in the goth subcultural context in two places, at Gala Nocturna a ball held yearly in Belgium, and also at the large Gothic Wave Treffen Goth festival. In particular, at WGT, the Victorian Picnic is the main event where historical fashion is flaunted.

Worldwide, these are probably the two main focal points for elaborate and the most exquisite fashion in the goth subculture. Certain German, Belgian and Bulgarian goths focus on the historical fashion and strive to make their outfits and makeup as elaborate as possible. Its within these groups you will see such a strong focus on historical style, within the general milieux of goth subcultural fashion.

Goth subcultural fashion in this form is rareley seen in Australia, the US or the UK, though it is not unlike some of the focus on elaborate historical clothing, in particular the Victorian era, amongst some Japanese subcultures.

Viona Ielegems has a strong focus on historical goth fashion, and ruffs are sometimes seen as part of her work. She makes her own outfits and photographs as well.

Gala Nocturna - held yearly in Antwerp, Belgium
http://www.gala-nocturna.com/

Wave Gothik Treffen held yearly in Leipzeig, Germany
http://www.wave-gotik-treffen.de/english/

WGT pics courtesy of Rachael Black (her blog is Fade to Black - the Art of Makeup )

The Ruff in Modern Couture.

2011-04-27T05:24:00.000-07:00

The amazing Viona Ielelegems - photographer and costumier. Features a range of historical influence in her work, including ruffs.

Modern Haute Couture Ruff. Gaultier, Westwood and pearls by Mikimoto. From Russian Vogue, 2010. Photographer: Sharif Hamza.

Ruff from Russian Vogue shoot. Pearls by Mikimoto, couture by Maidon Martin and Margiola Artisani. Photographer: Sharif Hamza.

Gareth Pugh's Ruff, for his Spring 2009 show.

Lady Ga Ga wearing a ruff on a flying Piano (...of course). Ruff and latex outfit by Atsuko Kudo.

Close up of ruff by Atsuko Kudo

What is a ruff? You may have seen portraits or portrayals of Queen Elizabeth wearing large cloth collars, generally white. Ahhh..those things! That's what a ruff is.

Ruffs were originally a decorative piece of material at the edge of a shirt, a small collar. Like a lot of fashion, they took on a life of their own, evolving to a larger size, and becoming a separate garment to be worn around the neck.

At their extreme they grew to be about a foot wide. They lasted about 100 years, roughly from 1550 to 1650....and lingered as clerical clothing and some cermonial dress.

More recently, Ruffs have made a reappearance with Lady Ga Ga, in some haute couture fashion, and the odd photoshoot. Design house Atsuko Kudo, who specialise in Latex wear, make Lady GaGa's ruffs. Each one uses a couple of metres of latex, because of the concertina nature of the ruff.

Gareth Pugh, like his fellow Brits Galliano and the late Alexander McQueen, takes influence from historical fashion. His spring 2009 show featured some black and white ruffs, as part of a number of ensembles.

Russian Vogue featured some Ruffs in a photoshoot of theirs - I have been trying to work out who the creator was, but my Russian isn't too good! :-). If someone can work it out, please tell me.
Ruffs are highly unlikely to be seen in the officeplace, or down the local nightclub, but can still make a fashionable presence on the catwalk and in high fashion photography...so the ruff would still be alive and kicking to some degree 500 years later.

Raver Fashion

2011-04-20T03:54:00.000-07:00

"What goes up, must come down" - Human Traffic

Old skool ravers in boiler suits

Cyber goth/ cyber ravers

Cyber ravers

I was talking to a rave wear designer friend of mine - the interesting conundrum, with ravers in Melbourne at least, is that there are thousands of people that attend raves, but not that many of them wear raver fashion - a lot of them wear normal clothes. In contrast, you may get 200 people at a goth club, or 300 people at a heavy metal gig....but everyone (bar the odd girlfriend who hasn't been converted yet) will be wearing the subcultural attire.

In Melbourne, this has led to the situation where there are far more goth shops for clothing, and a lot more goth designers, than there are for ravers...even though rave attendees outnumber goths 50 to 1. Largely, people going to raves don't get dressed up - they wear their mainstream clothing.

My immediate answer to this is, that raves and dance music are too successful - the club environment and music has left the distinct confines of its subculture and attracted attention from a lot of mainstream people. You see a similiar phenomenon with gay clubs...they get successful, straights start turning up, and then the gays have to move on. Raves get huge and successful, then the mainstream people move in. Goth clubs generally have pretty strict dress codes...and never seem to draw the mainstream crowd in large numbers anyway.

I did the rave thing, when I was young enough too......, mixing it with goth a bit. Rave clothing is pretty cool...and it always struck me that out of all the subcultures, rave clothing (and may be hip hop threads) connect to the music. Other subcultural clothing could often exist on it own, without music. Rave clothing only sort of makes sense in the context of dance music, that ravers listen to. Rave clothing, is also, really fun, and to a degree, pretty practical for dancing. Considering that some people will dance for hours at a time, and then off to another club for more dancing, it has to be.

Anyways, on to Rave Fashion. Like a lot of subcultural fashion, rave fashion has gone through changes, and has its subtypes.

The orginal ravers, from the Summer of Love 1992, bright colours, dummies, and whistles, boiler suits and chemical/dust masks.

Feral ravers, basically ferals that are at bush doofs, with a bit of augmented rave clothing. Modern day hippies.

Cyber ravers - a lot like cyber goths, with the falls, and may be big boots, but with lots of neon. And possibly bright makeup.

Individual items include phat pants, big glasses, fluffy furry leggings, runners good for dancing...and of course, glo sticks!

If you want to have a look at some interesting raver fashion, have a look at my buddy Fi's label, Vicious Klothing...I love her dino hoodies with the spikes. www.myspace.com/vicious_klothing

Contact! Contact Lenses in Rock Music and Subcultures

2011-04-14T05:30:00.000-07:00

Amazingly, contact lenses go back to 1888, when they were made of glass. Plastic ones were invented in the 1930's.

Contact lenses have actually been employed in movies since the 50's and 60's, generally for use in science fiction or horror themed movies or programs. Children of the Dammned, made in 1963 featured an array of unearthly creepy kids with identical contact lenses - "beware the eyes that paralyse".

Pete Burns from Dead or Alive, ever willing to experiment with fashion and to take a chance, was quite possibly the first musician to wear contact lenses as part of his rock persona...this shot of him wearing them is from 1981.

Of course.... the man who made the contact lens one of his signature effects is Mr Manson. Manson started wearing contacts regularly as part of his rock persona, from the "Smells like Children" era, 1994 onwards. In particular, he was known for wearing a light coloured lens in one eye, and his other eye normal. For many years after 1994, publicly it was pretty rare he was seen without Contacts.

Wes Borland from Limp Biscuit was always seen wearing contact lenses, from his early days in the band. He adopted a fantastic element to his on stage persona, wearing not only contacts, but often elborate costume and makeup. It was quite at odds with the rest of the band who wore relatively everyday hip hop/metal clothes.

Recently Lady Gaga, in her continued search for something to give her an edgier element, has started wearing contacts. Generally, she wears larger black ones.

Contact lenses are worn by many elements of subculture. Contact lenses are common amongst goths, though possibly more so industrial than traditional goths, and certainly Mansonites.

MANSON

2011-03-16T18:28:00.001-07:00

What do you say about Marilyn Manson?.

I was at one of his concerts, about 10 years ago, and a slightly older rock chic was there with her son, and said "its all been done before.... he's just a new version of Alice Cooper". In terms of alt fashion, makeup, stage presences, and music style, indeed there is a bit of truth in that....the shock element goes around and comes around. But I think to right him off as just another version of Alice is probably a bit of an understatement.

Manson does have a bit of a twist. He's a talented musician, but very much into the image of his band. His use of visual imagery on stage, on his album covers and in particular his direction of his video clips is almost a separate art form to his music.

He has given his own brand of art a name Celebritarian Corporation.Apart from his art, filmclips, and stage performance, he has spent some time producing a movie based on Lewis Carols "Alice in Wonderland". The clips released from this movie were disturbing enough to some of the public that it may have related to the project being put on hold indefinitely.

....the teaser trailer...and yeah, a tad controversial!!!!

http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xd21ii_phantasmagoria-the-visions-of-lewis_shortfilms

In terms of fashion, Manson has always gone for an industrial Goth look, and inspired a lot of goth fashion. His constant use of contact lenses (he is rarely seen without them) and his "red stripe over the eyes" is a well known look. HIs use of Nazi/fascist inspired black uniforms too is a Manson staple. Lots of pinstripes in suits. Waistcoats....top hats. A lot of his notable fashion hallmarks have made their way into goth wear during the 2000's.

I love his work, while he has not got the profle he once had, his combination of interest in fashion and art has always given me a lot of respect for him.
Go Mazza!

Myspace and alt fashion

2011-03-15T04:02:00.000-07:00

Man.... I need to spruce this blog up.... I still have Myspace pages on here.
I remember when Myspace for alt fashion, designers, modesl and photography was massive. Now its mostly bands and the owners (the packers I think?) are trying to sell it off at a bargain price.

Circa Nocturna 2011

2011-03-15T03:45:00.000-07:00

Once again, Circa Noturna http://circanocturna.com/ has been deployed to the alt fashion world. I helped with the 5 person org team to get this one up.... it wasn't easy, first time I have done it with a baby.

After 7 years, this is our last Circa at this size, we plan to make more regular CN events, at a smaller, boutique level.

Here are some pics from our Official Photographer, Mark Boyle, who does some great work. Lots of Circa Nocturna pics on the web, just do a Google search. We were very happy with the size, two shows of about 300 people each, so quite chuffed. Still didn't make that much money though.... too many cost blowouts.

If you are an alt fashion designer anywhere in the world, and would like to consider being in the show, give us a hoy!

Now, on to the pics.....

Ruffs!

2010-12-03T00:54:00.000-08:00

The amazing Viona Ielelegems - photographer and costumier. Features a range of historical influence in her work, including ruffs.

Gareth Pugh's Ruff, for his Spring 2009 show.

Lady Ga Ga wearing a ruff on a flying Piano (...of course). Ruff and latex outfit by Atsuko Kudo.

Close up of ruff by Atsuko Kudo

What is a ruff? You may have seen portraits or portrayals of Queen Elizabeth wearing large cloth collars, generally white. Ahhh..those things! That's what a ruff is.

At their extreme they grew to be about a foot wide. They lasted about 100 years, roughly from 1550 to 1650....and lingered as clerical clothing and some cermonial dress.

Patricia Morrison

2010-11-06T03:09:00.000-07:00

While Siouxsie Sioux was at the forefront of establishing a goth subcultural look for would be goths in the late 1970's, early 1980's.... Patricia Morrison was important for being a high profile goth female carrying on the goth look in Rock, when not many female goth musicians were active.

Patricia was the prominent lead singer in the Sisters of Mercy, starting from 1987. Along with Andrew Eldritch, she was a prominent Goth Muso in a band that had good success with songs like dominion, This Corrosion and temple of love.

The teased hair and goth eye makeup was no doubt a prominent influence on many goths.

She ended up marrying Dave Vanian from the Damned, joined his band, and still maintains a stylish goth look when she plays with them.

Patricia....*le sigh*

LunarMorph

2010-11-06T02:48:00.000-07:00

The two main alt fashion events in Australia are LunarMorph in Sydney and Circa Nocturna in Melbourne (which I have a bit to do with).

I havent got to Lunarmorph yet, and having a baby, may find it even trickier to get there these days, but have been following it, and it does seem to have evolved over the years into quite the event. Sydney has some great alt fashion designers, and they can put on a show. The first big alt fashion show in Australia, Edge City came from Sydney after all, so its fitting that a regular event is held there.

This years event was accompanied by an orchestra pit full of vintage syntesizers.
As is the current trend at the moment, the Lunarmorph parade was presaged by an associated steampunk event - Steampunk Symposium.

All this is part of the Under the Blue Moon Festival, a goth festival held in Australia, as well as part of Sydney Fringe Festival.

This years Lunarmorph featured a Melbourne buddy of mine, the delightful Dolly Q, plus a host of Sydney based designers. The full list was:

DESIGNERS
The Wild One
Gallery Serpentine
Matt Bylett
Dolly Q
Clockwork Butterfly
Of Air & Rubber
50ft Queenie
Tentacle Threads
Reactor Rubber & Furr Hair

Bit late for this year, but if you are anywhere near Sydney, keep Lunarmorph in mind for next year. Much more exciting that your average fashion show!

http://www.underthebluemoon.org.au/news/lunarmorph-2010-enmore-theatre

A brief history of Circa Nocturna

2010-09-07T02:57:00.000-07:00

Circa Nocturna. Circa is an alternative fashion show run in Melbourne, Australia. It has the honour of being Australia's longest running alt fashion event, and possibly the largest as well (though a little hard to tell - it all depends on how you measure it!).

Circa spawned after the realisation that there was a big alt fashion show in Sydney, but not one in Melbourne.

After briefly being dubbed Nightware, The show was called "Nocturnal Instincts". The Sydney inspiration had been Edge City which was then one of Australia's premier fashion shows, the Mercedes Fashion Week in Sydney. So we decided to hook the show up with a big show in Melbourne. L'Oreal Melbourne Fashion Festival was very happy to have us on board as part of their arts programme.

The show's main point of difference from other catwalk was that it used alternative people and freaks as catwalk models, the people on the catwalk modelling the outfits were the sort of people that would wear the alt fashion, some of them were designers as well.

First show was at a club called Tatou in Melbourne, near Southern Cross Station. It only had space for a little stage, we had about 8 designers. The show did pretty well, thought it really suffered from having a smallish space and a short catwalk. As it was run at a club, the After Party (which was called Gothanistas) started as soon as we cleared the cat walk off the dance floor.

The second show in 2006 expanded out to a larger space. We opted for using a comedy Venue. This was a massive venue, capable of holding about 700 people, however, being a comedy venue, there was only backstage space for a couple of comedians to hang out in a little room and have a few pre show cigarettes. We had to build another area by hiring in temporary walls for all the models to get changed. This was expensive, but the night was still successful. The after party was held at the club.

By this stage we were looking to move away from a Goth specific theme, and were looking at showing off all types of alternative fashion. The name was changed to Circa Nocturna to reflect this. By 2007 we had outgrown Clubs and after much hunting around, decided to move it up a notch and get a larger venue, more suited for shows. We ended up at Northcote Town Hall. This was a great venue, had a small hall next to it which we used for practice, and had quite a nice bar. It was also quite close to where a lot of us lived. The only thing was, we were worried that moving the show out of the city into the North may damage it. We shouldn't have worried...the people followed. The show had grown to about 12 designers at this stage. This was the first year we experimented with a market, three of the designers set up tables in a room outside the show. Once again, the show was quite successful.

For the 2008 show we decided to move to another venue, the Fitzroy Town Hall. This also was a great venue, and we liked it so much we have been there ever since. I had been trying to get it for years, and it was always being renovated - so as soon as it was available we booked it. The 2008 show saw us split the designers into two groups, the established and the new designers. We also offered a prize to the best new designer.

2009 once again saw us use the same venue. By this stage we were getting some top nothc designers, including our first Foreign designer from Russia. We were also starting to get designers from all over Australia, with designers fly in from Perth and Brisbane and Canberra to be in the show. The 2009 show was once again a success and very popular, the after party being held at a nearby club. The day after the show a market was held, entitled Carnivale Nocturna - this was the first time we had done a second event. It was held the Sunday after the show, and while was moderately well attended, not as well attended as we hoped.

By this stage, the organising committee formed into Non Profit Incorporated Association. This mean the show became non profit, but we weren't doing it for the money anyway, and the Incorporate Assoc status protected the Managing Committee in terms of liability.

2010 was a brilliant show, and the first time a Catwalk wasn't used. Instead, the models walked on the floor. Raised seating was brought in so the audience could still see the models. The stage was set up with antiques fitting the era of the actual Fitzroy Town Hall itself (which dates to the mid 1800's).

And so, on to 2011!

Nasir Mazhar

2010-06-11T20:40:00.000-07:00

To call him a Milliner is probably a bit of an understatement. I have seen him described as a "Headwear designer"..which while vagueish, I think encompasses more of what he does. Nasir Mazhar designs go beyond the norm when it comes to hats....quite far beyond the norm.

And that is why he is he on the alt fashion blog.

Nasir Mzhar started doing hair at Vidal Sasson.He sought to extent what he was doing with the hair, by adding forms and peices to the hair to create structures that started to develop a life of their own. Teh structures very soon became headwear, irrespective of the hair itself, and he made the transition from cutting to sculpting wondrous pieces for the head.

Like a lot of designers (eg Galliano) he sees the importance of historical fashion, in this case the historical development of modern hats.

At only 26 years old, Mazhar has worked with the who’s-who of London’s fashion and Entertainment talents, including Mark Wheeler, Kylie Minougue, Gareth Pugh, Richard Nicoll and the Royal Opera House. He has even worked with historical headwear at the Globe Theater.

Most recently he did the headwear, a Borg-ish/steampunkish headpeice, with working retracting eyepieces, worn by Lady Ga Ga's in the filmclip for her latest tune Alejandro (or is it her song for her filmclip?)

Vale Alexander McQueen

2010-05-12T06:48:00.000-07:00

Alexander McQueen was not an alt fashion designer. Being the head designer at Givenchy, working at Gucci, and then starting his own label..he was in the mainstream side of fashion and very successful at it. However, his work, in my opinion had a cheekiness to it, an edge that was very similiar to the kind of spirit that alternative fashion has. And this most prominently in his catwalk stuff.
Reading about subcultural influence on fashion, McQueen's name is often mentioned as taking influence from goth fashion in particular (as is Gaultier's) for his catwalk range.
McQueen's catwalk shows were famous for their blitzkrieg effect, innovation and outrageousness. In particular the talk about his shows will no doubt recall the hats he used for his 2009 Paris show, his models wearing a Borat inspired Mankini in 2006, the use of huge 12 inch stilettos on the catwalk, Aimee Mullins the amputee model or his famous low slung Bumster jeans.
He also employed cute technology, inlcuding a hologram of Kate Moss taking to the runway for his "Widows of Culloden" show in 2006. And, possibly borrowing from Goth subculture, his use of skulls in fashion became famous and was copied widely. As Karl Lagerfeld said of him: “There was always some attraction to death, his designs were sometimes dehumanized.”
In particular, some of his use of metal couture was very inspiring. McQueen went out of his way to find interesting British artisans/designers to help accessorise his catwalk designs.
Vale Lee Alexander McQueen. The only consolation to your loss to this world is that you leave behind many people who you have inspired over the years with your fantastic, irreverent and ingenious work.

Apologies for no recent posts...

2010-05-12T06:47:00.001-07:00

Sorry - had some time off having a baby - will be getting back to writing about alt fashion shortly.
And my god, I will have to start filtering the comments, to get rid of the dodgy spam posters. Curse them!

Skinhead Fashion

2010-02-11T02:46:00.000-08:00

(promotional pic for "This is England') Two guys on the left are Rude boys.
It is interesting how close the Rudie look is to the skinhead look, but still they are quite different in a lot of ways.

Skinhead fashion is the fashion that, out of all subcultural fashion, comes across as the most aggressive visually. It certainly makes a statement...particularly when a big group of them appear in the pub!

Subcultural fashion tends to speak for its wearer. People wearing subcultural fashion make statements through what they wear. Skinhead fashion is practical and certainly conveys a look that is functional and hard.

Tight jeans, Big Doc Marten boots, short hair, all very practical.

That said, traditionally skinhead fashion in the 60's, coming out of the hard mod look, also had its stylish side. Early skins, and modern sharp dressing skins, wear suits, Ben Shermans and much of the sophisticated mod look when dressing to impress.

If you want more detail......The quintessential book about skins, including lots of fashion development, is this...

"Skinhead" by Nick Knight.Its a bit old now, but has great detail on the evolution of the subculture, philosophy and some great photography. Also, "This is England", "Skinhead Attitude" and "Romper Stomper"

Doctor Martens

2010-01-04T00:49:00.000-08:00

Patent leather docs

I remember about 20 years ago....the only people that wore Dr Martens were skinheads. The only people who knew what they were were skinheads. Now most alt fash people (at least) know what they are, and many people have bought a pair....or have at least considered

Sydney in 1985. Spending $70 on a pair of boots was unheard of. But we did. Our parents couldn'
t believe it. And that was just the ordinary 8 hole ones. You could only buy them in one or two disposal stores in the city, who imported them and sold them to Skinheads. Then Rude boys got in on it, then a few mods, and then they seem to generally get out into the alt community. Punks I think started switching over from GPs eventually.

Standard Cherry reds

The concept of a group of rough and ready Skinheads or punks wearing $90 imported English footear, at the time when $90 was a lot of money, was pretty contradictory. Dr Martens were the rough and ready, working class, boot. In the UK they were anyway, they were an affordable, attainable, workboot. In Australia they were expensive, but they were the cool thing to wear, so we did..and we liked them.

Originally Dr Martens came in 8 and 10 holes, and usually were black or Cherry red. People wore white or red shoelaces in them. Some said this meant something about racism or something, but I think most people weren't too fussed. I (I was a rude boy) had one pair of 10 hole boots, black with white laces. Some "normal" friends thought they were wrestling boots.
We would wear doc shoes to work, and people would assume we were wearing our shoes leftover from school.

I wore these for years. Hmmmm *rubs chin* Actually, may be I will get some new ones for work....damn, writing this blog can be expensive!

Slowly by the 90's they became general alternative footwear. My mate was going travelling through Europe - I was suprised to see him wearing a pair of the new ones, without the traditional sole, but with a big chunky hiking sole...some kind of Doc-hiking boot hybrid thing.
Heresy.

The variation of docs got wider. Doc shoes. Doc sandals. Doc shoes with polished steel caps on the outside. Union Jack Docs. PurpleFelt docs. Patent leather docs. Green docs.
Some people would paint them or do their own mods on them.

Purrple leapard skin felt

Docs have air wear soles. So they have little compartments of air in the soles. The standard of docs seem to vary, some people had had them for years. Sometimes the leather would crack. Sometimes they would wear down too quickly.

I remember I used to think Docs were the big clumpy boot. Until I saw New Rocks.

I paint in an old pair of mine now, when I do my home renovations. Must be getting old :-)

The very stylish Dave Vanian

2009-12-17T20:34:00.001-08:00

Dave Vanian has been in the music world limelight since 1976.
Vanian is a bit of living subcultural fashion. Being one of the original goth lead singers to get a profile, he provided a leading influence on goth subcultural fashion. What he wore, really influenced what a lot of goths wore in the 1980's, and still wear to this day (especially the more traditional styled goths).

Anyways, some pics of Dave Vanian through the years, in his own inimitable style.

The original vampire esque look (late 1970's - early 80's).

The hair, the white streak. Classic Damned and classic Dave Vanian (mid 1980's, the era of teased hair!)

Lately (2005)

Dave Vanian, along with Siouxsie Sioux and Robert Smith, would probably be the triumvirate mainly responsible for influencing goth fashion, particularly in its early days.

Video of him singing Eloise.... so much white!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b31L4P7G5j8&feature=fvsr

Mr Vanian, a toast to thee!

Boots with metal

2009-11-20T15:59:00.000-08:00

I recently did a post on the original boots with Metal detail... New Rocks.

I noticed recently a slight trend with incorporating metal in boots - Lady Ga Ga featured some Alexander McQueen boots featuring metal decoration. Very nice. The amount of alternative fashion the Lady does portray in her clips is damn impressive!

These two are collaborations between Terry De Havilland and Melbourne Jewellery esigner William Griffiths. I've written about William a few times here (he is one of my fav jewellers), his jewellery is very cutting edge, and he takes the edgier side of life and is want to give it life through his jewellery.
Here he has added some of his work to DeHavillands latest line of footwear.... including a play on the word stilleto (stilleto can mean the high heel of stilleto shoes, or is the name given to a type of knife).
Anyways...very nice work by both of them here.

For more of De Havillands shoes, see here:
Article from Vogue UK - http://www.vogue.co.uk/news/daily/090522-terry-de-havilland-launches-his-cou/gallery.aspx
And for William Griffiths Metal Couture range - here's his newish website (he has a store in Melbourne, but is stocked in various shops)
http://www.metalcouture.com/

Lady Ga Ga - more Metal Couture

2009-11-20T15:44:00.000-08:00

Lady Ga Ga says she has been bankrupt 4 times... because she spends too much on fashion.
Who knows if thats the truth? I love her visuals and she has cottoned on to Metal Couture, employing it in her film clips.
She is also a frequent user of Manual Albarran pieces... he does some very intersting work.
I'm still researching who makes her stuff, hard to track down.

I would love to know who made this for her. My friend wants me to make one of these..the metal corset I could do, but the spinning wheels are a bit beyond me.

This is a Manual Albarran face jewellery piece. Easily recognisable, I'm guessing its made of brass. His work is very distinctive, and he tends to make work for male models, where a lot of the other metal Couturists make work for females.

Emo Hair

2009-11-02T04:58:00.000-08:00

Emo Hair.

Weeeeell...a little post about Emos and their hair. They have plenty. Have you ever seen a bald emo? NO! The guys have the most obvious. Hair is generally dies black, semi long, and hangs over one eye. It looks a bit like an anime character. Tre dark and mysterious. (Hey, with eyeliner, I think looks pretty good. And there is ALWAYS eyeliner). To me, it looks very rawk, mainly because Emo hair is very influenced by their fav band looks.

Sometimes its teased up as well. A bit Brian Molko-esque

Over both eyes... See. I told you there is always eyeliner.

Other variations are with colour.

Emo gals...

Like the guys over the one eye anime character look but long and with colour. And more eyeliner.

Blonde...not sure if this is completely emo esque or not. Hard to say....

This one....tre cool. Geometric with ribbon.

Emo - was it the subculture of the 2000's? Will it be around in 10 years?

Emo clothing

2009-10-25T18:37:00.000-07:00

Is Emo dead?

Emo was massive about 2 years ago, where young goths loitering about public places were replaced with young Emos loitering about public places.
About a week ago, I heard some students on the train saying that Emo has dies, and changed its name to "Scene" (no idea?)
Despite all this, two days later I saw an Emo couple, also on the train, looking suitable dressed.

http://www.emoboyfriend.com/img/catpics/emo-boys.jpg

Following the success of bands like My Chemical Romance, AFI, Fall out boy and many other eyeliner wearing types, the EMO clothing and subculture was spawned and adopted by thousands of young things in the UK, US and Australia.

At a cursory glance, Emo subcultural fashion looks a bit like Goth. A lot of black, long straightened hair, eyeline. Its also quite androgynis, which Goth has become over the years. In my opinion, Emo guys look most like Goth guys - there has been signicant influence on each other, in hair styles at least.

Emo initially got its fashion inspiration from the Emo bands and what they were wearing.
Long skinny jeans and T shirts, often black. T shirts may have Emo band names on them.

Studded belts and black wristbands are common.
Converse sneakers, skate shoes are worn, and white or coloured, in contrast to black clothes.

As mentioned, hair is often straighted, and the guys have the "Little Nicky" straight hear, with bangs, often over one eye.

Anyways, I think Emo subculture has hit its peak and may be on its way out. It certainly has some cool fashion associated with it, and I know at least one person who will be sad to see cute Emo boys disapear from the subcultural landscape! :-)

New Rocks.

2009-10-12T03:00:00.000-07:00

New Rocks.

I first saw New Rocks in (I think) about 2000. I was in England, in Camden, with the then girlfriend. We saw some cyber gothy people off in the distance. They were wearing these big boots. I was in awe of them...they were tall!!!!! They didn't have anything like new rocks in Australia, and the whole Cybergothy thing was pretty new to the UK, and completely an unfamiliar concept to us.

Anyways, these Cybergoth gals and their big boots wandered off, and we kept shopping in Camden, and came across a shop that sold them. We could look at them close up....they were amazing. We thought they were like a peice of weird art, and I remember saying that they could equally belong on display or on your feet.

We were back in Australia, and the same girlfriend bought me a pair, to make up for a rather major faux pau on her part. Presumably I can keep wearing them forever..the heels are four inches high, so they will never wear off. The boots are solid construction, like armour (and I'm an armourer, so I'm qualified to say that!). I loved them, they were amazing. And they still are.
Only thing is they aren't as unusual as they were when I first bought them.
Then again, what is?

New Rocks, Muy Sympatico.

Eventually New Rock started making girls boots, and corsets and various other things, but as far as I'm concerned, the original big chunky boot is the true New Rock boot. They very much remind me of when the Doctor Martin boot appeared, made a similiar sort of impact, big, weird footwear, except the New Rock Boot was a hellish weird looking thing, and not associated with violence like Docs were. In fact, unusually, for a big chunky, aggressive looking boot, they were very often worn by females.

They are a subcultural fashion icon. In 20 years time, I think we'll probably look back on them and remember of the early 2000's. May be we will laugh..... who knows.