Skulls or skirts?

[imomus]

I was probably trying too hard and overdressing wildly, but I set off to my meeting with the editor of Vice wearing the brightest colours my suitcase could muster, and a skirt. When you've been living out of a suitcase for weeks you start wearing stuff backwards and upside down just to make something new out of the same old clothes: the "skirt" was my Malay robe tied at the waist, the T shirt a nice one Mumbleboy gave me the other day.



My ultra-colourful ensemble was a sort of "fuck you" to the boringness and machismo of New York these days. It was a "fuck you" to the policemen who closed the Deitch party down last week, a "fuck you" to the gays in the West Village who never dress flouncy and girly any more, as if their feminine side has become somehow shameful, and a "fuck you" to my own inner cowardliness and desire not to stand out. (But remember, when people in New York say "Fuck you!" they really mean "Have a nice day". When people in LA say "Have a nice day" they really mean "Fuck you!") I also had a secret agenda: I desperately wanted to get into Vice's famous Dos and Don'ts page. I didn't care if I was a do or a don't, but I imagined the text reading something like this: "You gotta admit, it takes cojones to walk around New York City dressed as a gigantic flower. Sure, leather and studs is fine for the fags in the Village, but este hombre es muy macho!"



Perhaps I was just following the advice of a poster I saw on a Chelsea wall, a poster that said "Practice more failure" (a theme echoed in one of my Vice pieces, "Wrong is the new right"), but my garb felt so right and yet totally wrong. Right because it felt cool in the sweltering New York heat, as fresh as a yukata, loose around my limbs, non-toxic, reminding me of my sento spree last summer. Wrong because I was dressed for the wrong town. (And nobody at Vice batted an eyelid or made a single comment, let alone reached for a camera.)

While my crazy neo-hippy-femio colours and the unthreatening, childish imagery on Mumbleboy's t-shirt might have gone down well in Tokyo, they don't compute here in New York, where black is still the thing to wear. You wear black clothes, and you wear headbands, and you wear skull motifs. That's what Jesse and Phiiliip were wearing when I lunched and dined with them. It's what New York has always worn, really, from Lou Reed through Suicide and Richard Hell through The Strokes, right up to today's Williamsburgers. Black, black, black. Skulls, skulls, skulls. Of course, you can wear anything nutty here, and people just ignore you and tolerate you as a nut, one of millions of New York nuts. But if you wear black and skulls and a headband it computes.



Jesse gave me a copy of the new Vice and there were about a hundred skulls scattered through its pages. He told me the headband fad was down to Devendra Banhart, but while Devendra has adopted robes and Indian colours, it seems to me that his fans and followers are making some kind of bizarre blend of Electroclash, which many of them were into before they jumped onto the anti-folk bandwagon, and the softer hippy-folky thing that's come along since. They've picked up some kind of 60s rock look from Devendra (the headband hippy bit) but not the Indian bit. Which seems a pity. Dress Indian, America!

By the way, if you're an anti-folk fashion victim Jesse recommends a group called Tower Recordings, some of whom happen to be playing tonight (under the name PG 6) at Cakeshop at 152 Ludlow Street. Maybe I'll see you there. I'll be wearing my new skirt, bought at the Sally Army on Bedford Avenue for $3.48. As a concession to glum old New York, it's grey.

Comments

[(Anonymous)]

Funny, just today I saw someone (a man) on campus wearing a long skirt. Skirts for men were a minor fashion here in Berlin a while ago, haven't seen it that often yet this summer. Always think "must try this" when I see someone wearing one, though.

der.

[cap-scaleman.livejournal.com]

I've had the same feeling at times. I know two guys who dress in skirt at times! But I've never found a skirt that fitted me that much. I got a kil-looking wooly thing though my girlfriend gave me a time ago.

[lord-whimsy.livejournal.com]

Just got back from a thrift run--found a marvelous short, velvet cape with frogs, just the thing for winter readings. Also picked up some brightly patterned sarong-type wraps, a la Julian Schnabel circa 1985. My calves tremble with anticipation.

I think a Chinese parasol should be adopted into your repertoire, as well as a painted fan. Mucho mandarin. Perhaps an orchid pot for a hat...

There's something truly amiss when aging sissies have to carry the sartorial load while the kids are largely sitting on the sidelines. Blue collar drag is a blight.

W

Kashpoint

[automatique.livejournal.com]

There's something truly amiss when aging sissies have to carry the sartorial load while the kids are largely sitting on the sidelines. Blue collar drag is a blight.

Not so in London dear.

x

[butterflyrobert.livejournal.com]

I haven't seen the cape and already I'm jealous.

[cap-scaleman.livejournal.com]

I've read about these arguments about skrits, coming from womens infact, that says that men don't have "nice legs"! Whatwhat? In that case, what kind of legs are perfect? Who decides how the perfect leg looks like? Not all womens have goodlooking legs either.

[hokahey.livejournal.com]

i found your journal by searching livejournal.com for "i killed someone"
and saw your lovely picture and anit-machismo statements and wondered if i should add you, but then i saw you have a million friends and are famous.

so should i still add you? will i be lost in the sea?

[imomus.livejournal.com]

You'll be lost at sea with an unreliable pirate, but it might be worth the ride!

[lord-whimsy.livejournal.com]

It has perplexed me why the gender whose lap is in the greater need of free movement is the very sex which has long been under the yoke of the inseam, and denied the garment that might confer deliverance from the bondage of fiber tectonics. Should not a gentleman’s attire accommodate his manly seasons?

If men wish to appropriate this garment, skirts must evolve into something other than “skirts”; they must become specifically tailored for men’s proportions, like sarongs and kilts. The same rules of proper fit and proportion would apply to these alternate items as to trousers, hats and jackets: men of certain height or weight may not benefit from many of these innovations, as is true of men with knobby knees or graceless, thick ankles. Just as only tall men may enjoy cuffed trousers and men with luxurious frames benefit from double-breasted blazers, so too shall the “skirt” and its variations be subject to such aesthetic considerations.

[stanleylieber.livejournal.com]

I'm supposing the black-lace Victorian dress with 1" chain-link belt (real chain!) would be out then, this season. Demographics continue to fascinate, as where I live, wearing black is anything but a fashion safety net. In these environs, the dandy had best go armed.

[thetemplekeeper.livejournal.com]

Lord Whimsy, that is another fine hat. You are a sartorial inspiration (though where's the elephant?)

[wingedwhale.livejournal.com]

So true about LA, I must say. Actually, all the way up to NorCal, really.

Insult a barista at a Starbucks, of which there are plenty, and you will get the full-toothed, HAVE A NICE DAY.

Y our suitcase

[thetemplekeeper.livejournal.com]

I'm always amazed by the bright clothes your suitcase can muster!

Thanks for another fun, thought-provoking post (I'll disagree with you about almost anything, I expect, taking my stance from the argument from illusion and all, but I very much enjoy disagreeing with you, and your writing is always interesting too - as are the other posters' opinions on this site!)

Very best wishes to you and the other Click Opera 'bloggers,

Simon

Fashion Marks

[(Anonymous)]

Lose 6 fashion marks for trying to hard.

who cares

[(Anonymous)]

you wear it or you don't. it'll change in the next 4 months anyway.

[(Anonymous)]

you're too old to be acting like such a dufus.

[lord-whimsy.livejournal.com]

This lazy-minded, conservative twaddle about trying too hard must be laid to rest. We've finally lowered the mark to the point where anyone who takes any kind of trouble is 'trying too hard'. Besides, most people's effort in this respect is obscured by the fact that they're all trying in the same direction. Is Nick's outfit any harder to don than the ubiquitous tribute-to-rock ensemble: carefully-mussed locks presiding over errant facial topiary, tastefully-stressed ironic tee shirts and properly grubbed jeans with vestigal belt? If anything, he's trying less than everyone else; he's merely doing his own thing--you know, being an artist.

[(Anonymous)]

...and what I mean by 'artist' is that he's risking something of consequence--his reputation, his peace of mind, even his physical safety. Many would-be creative types do not put themselves out there in this way, and are often content to adopt or work within that which is fashionable or accepted, and so are merely pretending to take chances.

W

[dayofthelocust.livejournal.com]

Williamsburg and its stupid skull motifs makes me want to barf. Keep on messing with things in the way that you are doing. I like whatever this thing is you are doing.

t-shirt

[(Anonymous)]

Ha! The mumbleboy t-shirt has skulls too!

Re: t-shirt

[imomus.livejournal.com]

You know, you're absolutely right, and I hadn't even noticed it. Like all ubiquitous things, skulls become invisible.

take that eyepatch off

[lostcosmonaut.livejournal.com]

she

http://www.livejournal.com/users/grovestreet/63209.html

is going 2 take U out like th sucka U R.


--mza.

Momus video!

[(Anonymous)]

http://www.travelersdiagram.com/MVI_1160.AVI

I took off early from work to check out Momus and Mai Ueda yesterday. I took the above video on my mini digi. It's a shame you can't hear his voice. The stories were excellent. He described St. George slaying display dragons outside Chinese restaurants in NYC. The lovely Mai was mostly languid for the half hour I was in the gallery, save for the moments on this video. Enjoy. -tim.paul@gmail.com (travelersdiagram.com)

anyone for?

[(Anonymous)]

actually, the real seed of the bandana-rocking frenzy can be traced back to this book I'm reading, Infinite Jest. I've been reading it for 7 years but only made it to page 93 because I keep having to refer to the author photo. and so it is that David Foster Wallace has been my big style inspiration, I crib all my fashion notes from the fashion spreads in bookforum. up next: tennis beard and hairy elbows
P

[vampiresoflove.livejournal.com]

i fucking love Vice magazine, it is a secret dream of mine also!! to be on thier dos and donts page. i liked your example caption, you got it exactly right they are the funniest people on the planet!

[(Anonymous)]

It's seldom I'm embarassed on behalf of people above 30, but you continually manage to do this. And please don't respond with a justification as I'm all too aware of how it's going to sound. Peace.