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Underground > Art, Fashion & Design >

Rank your three top fashion triumphs of the year

No star here laces

07:09 / 03.01.05

1. Blinging out the hippy beach party on NYE

My friend had invited me to Ko Chang in Thailand for NYE. I knew it was going to be a hippy drugfest, indeed that's why I wanted to go. But I also knew that it would be terribly amusing to wind up the hippies. So I showed up in a fur hat, Gucci sunglasses, various Louis Vuitton accessories and one of those wheeled suitcases. Then danced more wildly and for longer than any of the dreadlocked losers. I struck a blow for glamour and felt all the better for it.

2. "French Revolution" style at the IAS awards

We were told to dress "glamorous" for this fatuous industry circle jerk. I consider a dress code of "glamorous" to be utterly meaningless so I interpreted it as a red neckscarf, 19th century style corduroy jacket, wooden watch chain with straw voodoo doll gewgaw and tight stripy shirt buttoned up assymetrically. Despite my having written all the awards entries my boss refused to let me go collect them, but the photographers were all over my ass. Score!

3. Valium induced kurta confusion

This is either a triumph or a disaster. I'd been sitting at home necking valiums with vodka and playing superpitcher records (try it some time) when I got a call from a friend (who I knew would probably sleep with me) to go out clubbing. So I donned a pair of red and black adidas trackie bottoms, a translucent lace kurta with gold thread detail (kind of knee-length indian male dress garment), a red fitted flat-brim cap (with shiny sticker still attached, naturally), big red sunglasses and a 6-inch fake diamond crucifix pendant then finished the whole thing off with a long red scarf wound around my right arm like a bandage. Ze did sleep with me, but everyone else I encountered that night looked slightly scared. And was moving far too fast.

Regrettable Juvenilia

11:21 / 07.01.05

"And some fell on stony ground..."

Come away, come away, come away.

12:56 / 07.01.05

There was this one time when everybody thought I was gonna wear a black T-shirt and blue jeans and I foxed 'em all by wearing a blue T-shirt and black jeans!

Woo! Talk about gettin' my freak on! Watch me now!

Regrettable Juvenilia

11:56 / 09.01.05

Like a comfy, practical piece of footwear trampling on a rose.

Goodness Gracious Meme

22:57 / 09.01.05

*bump*

This is why 'I Love Laces' is the topranking show on the GGM network right now.

Not sure if this are my 3 *best*(so many to choose from), but I'll certainly play.

Back when I've thunk.

10:37 / 10.01.05

Like a comfy, practical piece of footwear trampling on a rose.

Imagine a black lace-up Rockport Walker stamping on a human face... forever.

Goodness Gracious Meme

15:21 / 11.01.05

They'll have to come one by one as I remember them.

Mekano Set gig, Marlborough Theatre, Brighton, UK - Twenties Invert.

Well, that was the 'dress code'. Marlborough is a tiny theatre-above-a-pub, perfect setting for a little gentle perversion: Battered red velvet drapes, gilt-edged mirrors, black box stage etc.

So:
Tux, dress shirt, silver cufflinks, bow tie (tied at start of evening, louche and loose later..), Ziganov Blacks, long white/gold-tipped cigarette holder, boots, blood-red nails, hair brylcreamed and slicked-back.

Next time I'll have a cane and gloves. Perhaps a monocle.

Ended up running the door. Created the right initial impression, I think. *g*

Less searchable M0rd4nt

18:22 / 11.01.05

I get to wear a hard-hat at big skool. I look so good in un casco, I can hardly stand it.

ONLY NICE THINGS

14:59 / 13.01.05

Evening dress. Bulletproof vest. Heavy, but damned useful.

17:21 / 14.01.05

Vest over or under the evening dress?

Our Lady Has Left the Building

10:44 / 15.01.05

I need to buy some more skirts.

More Barbeboys in skirts in 2005! A glimpse of stocking is nothing shocking!

Rollo Kim, on location

19:05 / 16.01.05

I just wish I had the legs {for skirts}.

Goodness Gracious Meme

21:28 / 16.01.05

Dancinglady: can I manage your campaign?

Rollo: you *do*, dear.

ONLY NICE THINGS

07:24 / 17.01.05

Vest over or under the evening dress?

Worn as a waistcoat.

Our Lady Has Left the Building

12:17 / 17.01.05

Rollo, do you have legs? Then you have legs for skirts. It's not like I've got the legs of a supermodel myself.

Tick-tock, tick-tock, I quite like Gwen Steffani's dress in her latest video.

19:57 / 17.01.05

Our Nine Ladies, If I could afford anyhting off the Utilikilts* site, I would proudly display my bare shins in public. As much as I think my legs are my finest (physical) feature, I don't think I could pull off anything less, uh, rugged.

*I realise that kilts are not really skirts, but try telling that to Joe Sixpack from the United States.

04:30 / 18.01.05

i want a Utilikit sooooo badly. i almost bought one last summer.

but, even barring Utilikilts, i really should wear more skirts.

Our Lady Has Left the Building

14:06 / 18.01.05

I think we need to organise a 'boys in blouses'/'sirs in skirts' shopping expedition...

Goodness Gracious Meme

00:26 / 20.01.05

or a cross-dress Barbemeet! YES!

Our Lady Has Left the Building

16:12 / 20.01.05

Pah, hardly transgressive for the girlies. How about one where the women have to wear skirts too? < g >

Ex

12:34 / 25.01.05

Three from a remarkably sparse year - will make more of an effort in 2005.

Being a sailor at BiCon – with beard and small perky hat, as seen in the photos thread. I liked this because usually I wear black and show skin to dress up, and here I wore white and covered everything, including parts of face. I reprised the outfit partially at Duckie and am still looking for excuses to wear it.

Morning suit at KinkFest. Intriguing questions followed: Where do you wear it? What do you do in it? What’s your name when you’re wearing it? Are you a prefect? My answers were rather less interesting (weddings? worry about spilling things on it, the same as when I’m not wearing it, no, sorry).

An ongoing low-key sartorial joy has been wearing a tie for most of the last six months, for work and leisure. It's smart when I can’t be bothered ironing, and it makes me look as if my outfit is deliberate and thoughtful when it’s usually a mishmash of semi-soiled garments. I’m reading Fashioning Sapphism by Laura Doan to research my tie-wearing sisters of the interwar years.

Sartorial resolutions for 2005 arising from these highpoints:
- dress up more stupid more often
- ditch horrid shirts purchased four years ago for bar work and buy proper shirts that don't crease all the time.
- try to avoid looking like David Boreanaz.
- wear best suits more - they'll only get moth otherwise.
- train fringe down over one half of face to allow skin underneath to turn green and get very localised rickets from lack of sun.

00:27 / 26.01.05

I bought some red, italian, spike heel shoes and wore them with a little black dress and it made me feel really weird and girly, because I haven't worn anything but mostly sensible things for the last forever or so.

09:25 / 26.01.05

I reprised the outfit partially at Duckie and am still looking for excuses to wear it.

You should've gone with the beard, too; Duckie's quite jolly with that sort of hirsute goodness.

Sadly, I can't think of any great fashion triumphs, unless one counts C'est Barbican, offshoot of Duckie (again), when we shamelessly overdressed in full 'Highland wedding' kilty regalia, with all the trimmings. Overdressing is always good.

10:01 / 26.01.05

Yesterday I wore a red skirt.

Unremarkable, you may think, but quite an astonishing change from my rather repetitive outfit of black trousers and black tops.

Goodness Gracious Meme

15:21 / 27.01.05

Not a speicific occasion, this one:

hacked-up black biker t-shirt*
+
red Adidas late 70s track top (mens, xs size, perfect fit)
+
black/red boxers
+
+
tux jacket
+
charcoal grey salopettes
OR
howge khaki combats
+
pink/black trainers(non branded, from Peacock's)
=

I AM TEH HOTTTNESS

00:40 / 28.01.05

for this weekend

Phat Farm cargo shorts and a black/blue harness! Minimalism, air conditioned. For dancing and fucking!

Goodness Gracious Meme

17:06 / 28.01.05

Now *that's* stylish. Tasteful, not gaudy.

Oh, and for my third.

Some glitch night I can't remember the name of, Spring 2004, Brighton
So glitch nights. Not a fashion mecca, really. Carhatts and ponytails ahoy. Having neither a ponytail or beard, I opted for:

*Black knee high Vegetarian Shoes boots, zip up/heavy flat sole.
*Black hold-ups with pink hearts/stocking tops.
*Black 70s repro 20's flapper dress. Side split, asymetric hem, one shoulder, layers of black fringing.
*String of turqoise 'pearls'

Danced my arse off and injected a little old-skool glamour into the proceedings.

20:59 / 03.02.05

Laces, you are Nathan Bar(belith)ley, and I claim my £10.

01:12 / 09.02.05

This year I bought a black three-piece suit and have had heaps of fun wearing it places people wouldn't expect - best so far, suit + fedora to a a noise gig at which people kept asking if I was sure I belonged there.

Like Ganesh said, overdressing is the business.

Also this year I bough a white suit, but I'm not sure if that's a triumph or a disater. Still, it's good for times when you need to wear something "nice" and would like people to say "what the fuck?" a lot.