g’rups
“This is an obituary for the generation gap. It is a story about 40-year-old men and women who look, talk, act, and dress like people who are 22 years old. It’s not about a fad but about a phenomenon that looks to be permanent. It’s about the hedge-fund guy in Park Slope with the chunky square glasses, brown rock T-shirt, slight paunch, expensive jeans, Puma sneakers, and shoulder-slung messenger bag, with two kids squirming over his lap like itchy chimps at the Tea Lounge on Sunday morning. It’s about the mom in the low-slung Sevens and ankle boots and vaguely Berlin-art-scene blouse with the $800 stroller and the TV-screen-size Olsen-twins sunglasses perched on her head walking through Bryant Park listening to Death Cab for Cutie on her Nano….”
~via mighty.girl, who is irked by the article.
i found this article interesting because i’ve recently come into a place where i go into Old Navy not to buy anything (ohhellno), but to see what NOT to wear. i don’t actually WANT to appear as though i’m trying to look 17, or even 21, but how does one dress fashionably, or SHOP fashionably, without looking like a Gen Xer trying too hard? my recent answer to this question has been to start making my own clothes, or buying clothes that my friends make. “off the shelf” looks are so… off the shelf.
and it’s not just clothes – i completely refuse to walk around with those white iPod buds hanging out of my ears, and if you ever see me with clothing with an obvious label/brand on them, i’ll be embarassed. i’m not into looking like a young mallrat. however, according to the article, lots of other “yipsters” are, and those old conventions about “how to dress in your 30s” (as opposed to how you’re allowed to dress in your 20s), are out the window, and it’s causing confusion amongst those who like to think of humans in terms of their age, not to mention marketers and advertisers.
the article is long and goes on and on about all the various trends aka status symbols that 30-something yipsters/yindies/grups are into these days that were designed for teens&20s, so if you’re one of them who notices you and the 14 year old girl at the bus stop are wearing the same sweater from H&M, it’s of mild interest. the article also references the exactitudes project and how everyone trying to be “alternative” still ends up looking the same, which i blogged about … what? 3 years ago?
anyway, there’s a point in the article somewhere, although it’s hard to find, about generation gaps and expectations and all that….i think it’s a great thing that people in their 30s are no longer feeling forced to look/act/smell/eat/think/taste like a “grown up”. if you ask me, it’s how rock and roll has saved the world from becoming full of suburban robots. or …wait…. do they just dress differently now? i can’t tell.
Filed in culture and random linkage | Tagged with affluenza, bourgeois | Comments (6)6 Responses to “g’rups”
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awwww, shit…now i’m going to be all red-faced the next time i spree at forever 21… damn you, amy!
orange, you’re still well under 30, so you’re excused.
I hear you. I only shop at Old Navy because the t-shirts are cheap and colorful and work for my large belly.
It might be a pipe dream, but now that I have a sewing machine, I plan to put it to use making clothes for myself and The Speck, because by the time I can fit into all of my current clothing, it will be even more out of style than it already is. Maybe that’s a good thing?
It’s hard, though, when you see a cute top and think “oh, that’s cute” but then stop to wonder WHY you think it’s cute. Is it because it’s truly cute and unique or whatever or because you’ve seen it on some anorexic starlet and are therefore predisposed to think of it as cute? Where does fashion stop and style begin? Are they interchangeable?
I hate clothes. I honestly do. I think t-shirts and jeans are the height of fashion and I would wear that outfit every day if I could get away with it. I would toss in the occasional sparkly dress for flavor and spend the rest of my time in a comfy cotton cocoon. Or naked.
“Where does fashion stop and style begin?”
aHA. now that is the key question. you don’t have to be “fashionable” to have FANTASTIC style, and these days i go way more for style than fashion. fashions are trends, trends fade and a few years later you’re like “WHY DIDN’T SOMEONE TELL ME I LOOKED SO STUPID?”. style never fades.
still though, i’m with you: i vote for naked. all the way.
I see this, I just see an echo of all the “Generation X: Total losers?” articles that were so popular in pretending-to-be-news magazines back in the 90s. A continuation on the “youth of today: What’s the world coming to?” angle that’s been a big seller with old folks since roughly 1 million years ago. But now with the added spin of editorial boards realizing that many of their readers are in this demographic and that means they are an important market. So the tone is a little more accepting now. Thus the $800 stroller detail — you see, they dress like hipsters, but they’re still good consumers!
Now that I’m a grownup I own a suit or two, but I mostly dress like I always have because A.)It’s cheap, and my clothing budget is very, very miniscule, and B.) I can get away with it. Thank god, because ties are really uncomfortable to wear all the time.
I’m with you on fashion. Fashion is all about getting you to replace your clothes every year. The more fashionable it is this year, the more embarassing it will be next year.
You really go to Old Navy to decide what NOT to wear? Wow. That’s dedication.