Fashion Tribes.
I have always wondered what makes people dress so generically. I understand that inevitably there is a limited number of clothes in the UK but with the majority of people seemingly clad in fleeces with dogs on the front and Marks and Spencer’s slacks, you would think there would be room enough in the other stock for a bit of individuality….seemingly not.
The Indie Kid. 
This is a group rather like Barack Obama’s presidency so much promise but ultimately disappointment. It has always been something I’ve pondered on why a group so intent on individuality ultimately ending up conforming. Skinny jeans and a check shirt with high-tops suggest difference but one saunter through Shoreditch will confound that ill-conceived judgement. If I see one more Pete Doherty wannabe with rosary beads draped round his neck like a cracked out nun, there will be trouble. Pete is stylish for the very reason that you shouldn’t dress like him, he’s so off his nut he couldn’t copy you even if he wanted to.
The Abercrombie Gym Monkey.
I’d just like top make it clear this is not a rant which can be attributed to my less than perfect physique or fear of treadmills. The main offender in this category is not the wearers themselves, (because I’m scared they’ll beat me up), but Abercrombie. Whoever in their marketing department created muscle fit deserves to be shot. Could they not see they were opening up a steroid fuelled can of worms, for these gym-bound halfwits to wear clothes that accentuate their freakish arms is a temptation too far. It is not just that the majority of the T-shirts bear logos for “old-school” sports events that never happened but also fact that they seem to be manufactured such that they encourage a desire to “roast birds” and make friends with bouncers, I can only recommend the former.
The Jack Wills Dream.
Before I start this study I would just like to pose some questions about JW. How does a brand which does so much to alienate such a large proportion of the population, through undisguised snobbery and pictures of girls frolicking in country houses, manage to sell so well? Why do so many people choose to wear sports wear of teams that never existed? Why do its devotees think it cool to constantly look like they have just got up? Anyway getting back to the tribe, it is always stra
nge to me that a group would want to identify so strongly with a look that is beyond a cliché. It leads to me to believe that Jack Wills is no more a bastion of the upper middle class than greyhound racing. That is to say, in fact it is a tribe of wannabe, it is the Parsons Green of fashion, a group perennially waiting for their wealthier friends to invite them on a weekend shoot.
By Guy Rathbone
Tags: abercrombie, indie, jack wills, tribe
