The Emperor's New Clothing?

(agree)

Speaking generally I'm also no fan, and never have been, of the Helen of Troy look - one shoulder band holding up the dress, one shoulder bare. This has been popular forever or perhaps since Troy, but I always think 'who thinks this looks wonderful'? Not even sexy in the way a dropping shoulder band/strap would be. Well, maybe to guys.

That photo #1 is an eye roller.. in my opinion.

I have long believed that most fashion designers (who are mostly men) actually hate women, hate them with a passion. The 'must have' designs they come up with are intended to be ugly and to humiliate the wearer. And most women fall right into the trap of thinking, 'This is new, this is so in, it must be cute. I better wear it.'

[PS to GW -- what's 'steampunk'? I'm serious.]

Here's an article from the NYTimes that does a good job explaining the term:

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/08/fashion/08PUNK.html

Don't feel bad, Merry, many people don't know what it is outside of London, LA and NY.

On the contrary, Steampunk is new to the fashion world and old to many of the rest of us. The Steampunk aesthetic doesn't come from the mind of some designer; New York, London, and LA are the newbies on the scene.

Cycloptichorn

I think that girl would look much better naked. I agree Green Witch, her clothes are a disaster.

But check out what they were qwearing in the 1920's!
http://images.buycostumes.com/mgen/merchandiser/10262.jpg

My friends and I dressed like this in the 80's, we just didn't have a name for it. We shopped for vintage clothing down on Canal and Broadway. We wore big black skirts with hippy petticoats (circa 1976) and the occasional corset or striped vest found at costume shops on 7th ave. I still have my original granny boots from that time period. I think the term is new, but the general philosophy of combining punk and 19th century fashion dates back to about 1984. Think of Cindi Lauper's outfits or even Bow Wow Wow's album cover that used Manet's Le déjeuner sur l'herbe... Here's Nickfun's wish for a pretty nekkid girl.

I wasn't clear. I think this look started in London and moved to NYC in the early 80's. I have no idea how people were dressing in East Jesus, Nebraska at the time. Where do you think the look started Cyclo?

Well, at least I now know what steampunk is!

The look evolved from the literature genre it is named after -

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steampunk

Not to say that you didn't dress that way, but the term didn't come about until later. And I believe that groups of punky yet literate kids were dressing this way all over the country at roughly the same time - there certainly was no fashion push or anything that people were trying to emulate.

Cycloptichorn

I guess this is always the challenge in fashion. It is a form of expression, and isn't necessarily always meant to be approved of by others.

That's okay.
K
O

I'll be right over!

Of course. But people that are involved in the business are a dense mass of crosscutting opinions, and they thrive on that. Others of us get to have points of view.

I usually am for personal expression, even re something like that outfit I rolled my eyes at. But I get to make my own picks re what passes by.
A former boss once said, style is everything - and that was a boss in the medical field, not later when I went into design. That comment wasn't only about clothes but presentation, content being assumed to be up to speed. I'm by nature less for presentation values than for personal expression values, or some combo of the two.

Personal expression as rebellion gets less interesting to me - I can see it as a given as a start, but that peters out as a motive - one gets interested in the questions. I'm interested in the art of it, the development of ideas. To the extent that any of us follow trends, whatever the names of them, they're not very idiosyncratic, even if they seem so in your neighborhood, even if you're part of making the trends. Actual creativity blooms in small places and ways, once in a while developing to street or market use, street often inspiring market, like a clutch.

kinda funny reading that

we were dressing like that in the mid-late 1970's. Never knew it had an official name.

Like Green Witch, I've still got my boots from back in the day.

A good pair of grannies are eternal chic.

Mine look like these:

I think sometimes fashion can be a form of expression linked with rebellion, but not always.

T
K
O

The fashion world is owned by gay men.

Have you taken a real hard look at how jeans make a womans ass disappear ? From behind most " in style jeans" remove any curves she has and makes her look like a 10 year old boy..

I once saw a headline, I think it was in TIME about this.

"Who wears this ****?"

That should be the title of most run way shows

Yeah, I had that in the back of my mind when I wrote in my previous post that the designers mostly seem to hate women. Just didn't wanna say it.