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Underground > Art, Fashion & Design >

This whole poncho business has got to stop

17:37 / 18.09.04

Right. It seems like the whole world has been draped in a poncho. Ponchos of every shape and colour, everywhere I look. Well I've had enough. It's got to stop. Unless you have five days' stubble, an old hat and a cheroot, and you have a sideline as the mayor of Carmel, then you have no business sticking your head through a hole in a piece of fabric.

Now who's with me?

17:54 / 18.09.04

Well, the real question is, is it a real poncho, I mean, like is it a Mexican poncho or is it a Sears poncho?

21:26 / 18.09.04

Thats a Zappa refrance and i claim my five pounds!

21:35 / 18.09.04

Oh if only it was. If only. Don't fool yourself girl. It's going in the poncho.

21:44 / 18.09.04

by the way i agree whole heartedly on the poncho thing, brain dead fashion lemmings.

mind you all we need is a stock of nan blankets and a big fucking shiney pair of scissors and we could make a mint.

00:30 / 19.09.04

I used to really hate ponchos. In summer. In summer day-time. What the fuck?? I still can't get my head around actually taking to a poncho myself; it's just, like, a really shit blanket, aye? I would always feel my legs were left out. People need to love their legs more; no more dressing the top first, no more wearing long-sleeved things and shorts; this is wrong! Balance one's self!

That said, now that it's winter, I quite like the idea of everyone staying in blankets and being like hibernating animals. I want people in slippers carrying mugs of tea around on my street! And open dozing in public!

Tell me that isn't happiness, and I will tell you you are wrong.

flufeemunk effluvia

00:58 / 19.09.04

At first I thought you meant those rain ponchos. I even stopped using those.

Pshew. USELESS.

Lilly Nowhere Late

07:07 / 19.09.04

Sorry, but you are wrong. I agree that poncho's are a bit ugly and shapeless; however, they are the most comfortable thing to wear in changeable weather. Not too hot, not too cold, just right against wind and easily slung aside when the shy sun makes an appearance. You must note that ponchos do nothing to enhance the female figure, yet with the volume of women and girls wearing them, one can only deduce that they are of the ultimate comfort. My 3 year old's favourite birthday pressent has been her purple-y poncho which she asked for everyday til she got to have her's. Mine's only black and nondescript like all my clothes. I reach for it everytime I leave the house and dread the day I have to start wearing a heavier more burdensome coat.
Ponchos. Ponchos ponchos ponchos.
Maybe if you try one, you'll see.

07:26 / 19.09.04

I'm afraid I couldn't even try one Lily, because of my contract with the Anti-Poncho Alliance which states that I'll lose my position if I'm ever seen in one. Kind of like Jamie Oliver being caught out shopping in Tesco.

I think it could be the shapelessness thing that bothers me. Yesterday I say this tall girl bobbing along the street with a long poncho on and I couldn't see her arms. And her body looked so narrow that I thought for a moment she didn't have any. And she was weaving all over the place like someone trying to walk on a football so maybe she didn't. Either way the poncho wasn't improving her balance.

I know that some things become fashionabe and everyone wants in on it, but honestly you need to draw the line somewhere or THE TERRORISTS HAVE ALREADY WON. How about a compromise. I'll overlook the denim skirts with ugh boots if the ponchos are taken off the table. Can't say fairer than that.

XXII:X:II = XXX

08:24 / 19.09.04

As it happens, I often affect a leather cowboy hat, look shockingly unshaven, and even chew on the end of a natural licorice root like a stogie. I possess a number of dusters, and have been known to mosey. All of this is despite having been born and raised in New York City. That one fact aside, I think I'm entitled to wear a poncho. Point of fact, however, is that I never have. But I feel that if the mood ever struck, I'd be within my personal esthetic rights to do so.

/+,

11:26 / 19.09.04

Clint Eastwood is not the Alpha and Omega of ponchos.
One could always affect the Battle Angel Alita look...

20mm cannon optional.

15:14 / 19.09.04

I kind of agree with you, Loomis.... but, they're just.so. FASHIONABLE!! I've succumbed and bought one. I started a course on Tuesday night, was wearing the poncho and did question the morality of wearing a poncho to the start of the course. But I did it anyway. I'm pretty sure the last time I owned a poncho it was 1978 and I was 5. Look on the bright side, maybe ponchos have a 30-year fashion cycle.

15:29 / 19.09.04

Well I'm glad you're at least questioning the morality of the poncho Cherry. But was it real soul searching? Teasing the fabric of existential doubt? Wearing a poncho is a philosophical statement and I do wonder that if perhaps all poncho wearers put themselves through such a rigorous analytical process before donning the dreaded instrument then maybe there'd be less of them on display.

I assume it's the same in London, as here in Edinburgh it's like an explosion in a sodding blanket factory. If there's a piece of fabric or knitwear that a person can get their head through then it's being employed. I secretly suspect that stores have just gone through their old stock of unsold clothes and attacked them with their scissors. Instead new trend! Bah.

I'm not such an ogre. I know being fashionable makes people happy, and I want people to be happy, lord knows I do. But it's just that when it comes to ponchos, every little piece of happiness gained is taken at the expense of my own happiness. And it's hard not to take that personally.

No star here laces

16:15 / 19.09.04

Somebody please post pictures of fashionable ponchos!

This trend is passing me by in sunny Asia and I am intrigued.

17:40 / 19.09.04

Avert your eyes, children.

17:57 / 19.09.04

I assume it's the same in London, as here in Edinburgh it's like an explosion in a sodding blanket factory.

I would say that this is because it is lovely and warm in London, whereas in Edinburgh everyone is (I would imagine) already huddling round the fire with marmite toast and fretting about the fact that the 'nights are fair flying in'. However I've just been to Oxford St and can't imagine a place where there is a higher concentration of ponchos.

I can see why they might be nice and cuddly, but since the thing I like best about winter clothes is great big coats with great big pockets I don't think I'm ever going to be converted to the cause.

18:54 / 19.09.04

I would say that this is because it is lovely and warm in London

Et tu Vincennes? Stabbing poor temperate Edinburgh in the back already in favour of uncomfortably hot London? O, most wicked speed, to post with such dexterity to incestuous southern cities ...

19:09 / 19.09.04

Obviously, if you substitute the word 'poncho' for the phrase 'blackened, pollution filled lungs' in this thread title I can vigorously defend The Best Country In The World™'s capital...

Also Jefe -you really aren't missing anything.

19:37 / 19.09.04

the thing I like best about winter clothes is great big coats with great big pockets

I have a really great coat.

Lilly Nowhere Late

10:29 / 20.09.04

Denim skirts and ugg boots? Ugh!
Battle Angel Alita is my hero though!

And it's not warm and sunny in London and hasn't been most of the summer. We've been cheated by the weather and now it's time to make up for it all with ponchos. BTW, my daughter got another one for a b-day pressie! With stripes!

10:37 / 20.09.04

Every time I see someone in those ponchos, I get that "I'd rather be a hanky than a snot" Simon and Garfunkel tune running through my head. This alone is a valid reason for wanting the trand killed. However, I have to say I find the move away from figure-hugging clothing a welcome change from the usual skanky ho style fashion wear.

Regrettable Juvenilia

10:47 / 20.09.04

I quite agree Grey Area, we should make them wear burkas next, wot?

Tryphena Absent

13:23 / 20.09.04

I want a poncho... but I want tweed more.

Lilly Nowhere Late

17:43 / 20.09.04

Tweed poncho then, ADL?

I do not like tweed, even the pink ones from Channel.
But you go right ahead...

at the scarwash

06:30 / 21.09.04

My roommate has a delightful openwork knit poncho, something along the lines of the bastard offspring of your granny's afghans and the traditional serape. Although it looks a bit like she's walking around making out with a wooly octopus, it somehow works in a Fruits kind of way.

11:17 / 21.09.04

Recognise Gally as GOD OF PONCHO! RECOGNISE!

08:21 / 04.12.04

I would just like to say that poncho is dead, THE FUTURE OF ANNOYING FASHION TRENDS IS THE GILET!!

That is all.

09:00 / 04.12.04

Watch it, Gally will throw her motorcycle at you if you keep dissing the poncho.

10:57 / 04.12.04

That's if it doesn't get tangled in the stupid, annoying swathes of pointless fabric flapping around and getting in the way...

13:28 / 05.12.04

Sources close to the high-street tell me that following the gilets, capelets and tippets this winter, the spring will herald a kaftan invasion of overwhelming force. You have been warned.

Sienna Miller, so much to answer for.