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Underground > Art, Fashion & Design >

Fashion trends that you HATE

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07:56 / 26.09.07

Love that Galliano stuff.

Trends that i cant stand?..

Tiny Scarves. For chaps i mean, they look so silly. You wouldnt walk around with a tiny hat on, so why a tiny scarf? It cant be much use for keeping warm either....

08:44 / 26.09.07

A no! for skinny jeans! (on men)

Especially! when worn with second-hand pointy boots that dont fit!

I'm sure there must have been a man once, somewhere, who looked good in stupid! skinny jeans, but he definitely doesn't live in manchester.

Worst thing about this Awful! trend is that

a. all the boys wearing skinny jeans and trying to look all mod forget to turn around and look backwards into the mirror to check in case the butt doesn't fit and makes them look like they have a saggy nappy on. Skinny jeans on undertoned skinny legs + saggy arse = WORST EVER!

b. all the boys wearing skinny jeans and trying to look all mod forget to hold their feet in front of their body, instead of out to the sides. When wearing secondhand boots that you were too lazy to find a fitting pair of, as well as stupid! tight trousers on your skinny skinny legs, you should avoid, at all costs!, the risk of looking like an uninteresting clown by sticking your feet out to the side.

Stupid!

All Acting Regiment

18:30 / 27.09.07

It looks really, really good on the girls though. The men have that "worker ant" look, as there's usually twelve of them desperately trying to attend a Queen Scenester Wasp.

14:12 / 29.09.07

I like Gaultier and Galliano too and one day if I am rich I shall buy a wonderous outfit and wear it randomly around the house and to lounge in front of the telly just because I can.

This season I am mainly hating plastic jewellery. It loooked tacky in the 80's and it looks tacky now. Plus, there's no excuse now because costume jewellery is so cheap you might just as well buy that. Especially bad are those horrible disk shaped plastic studs. Stop it will you please?

All Acting Regiment

16:31 / 29.09.07

What do people think of this?

20:20 / 29.09.07

It makes me feel like the designer knows me personally and has done everything in her power to make a product that will exercise me to the maximum degree.

On an aesthetic level, it's not particularly special - certainly more fussy than anything I'd wear, but that's not setting the bar for fussy especially high.

As far as the message of it goes, though, it's thoroughly obnoxious. The criteria I tend to use to choose clothes (or almost any other product) is confidence - not "will this make me confident?" but more "is this how a confident piece of clothing should look?". I'm not sure that I achieve that, some or all of the time, but I've found it to be a useful criteria. Telling someone that they suck is almost the opposite of confidence - it's smug, snide and nasty.

On the level of design, I'm not sure how it's supposed to work, unless your problem is that gentleman spend excessive time gazing at your elbows as you walk away. They (gentlemen not elbows) would need to be peering pretty intently to read that text as well - so I also dislike it because it's presenting itself as a solution to something that is really not a problem.

10:03 / 30.09.07

That's the most tame of the whole collection. All the others say things like 'No time to fuck' and 'I heart porn' in pretty little sweet writing. I don't like them, I don't know why. They annoy me. I know that they're supposed to look cutesy and then when you get up close you see the rudery, but if i'm going to wear a T-Shirt saying 'I really need a fucking coffee' then I would just have one that clearly said it. Rather than, as in this case, hiding the rude words within embroidery and flowers. I don't think they're honest. What are they saying? That girls look all pretty and nice but underneath they're rude? That it's OK to be rude as long as you do it in a pretty and nice way?

Tryphena Absent

12:18 / 30.09.07

I quite like "cute little fuckers" and I think this is because it's quite a sweet statement but you're right, the majority of them just don't work. "I love porn" just looks grim, the T-shirts seem to be an example of good old fashioned British repression and let's face it, that's not something we want to encourage in our lives. I suppose I'm really agreeing with Olulabelle, are they saying that it's OK to be rude as long as you do it in a pretty and nice way? They do further the idea that girls are sugar and spice and all things nice and that seems to me to be something we should be steering away from rather than towards.

I still love "cute little fuckers" though and I'm tempted to buy it.

21:50 / 04.10.07

Please, go back and read the 'about' section of that website, these t-shirts aren't just saying naughty things in neat handwriting,
the charming young swiss designer says her designs,
"help bring attention to a woman's uniqueness"
and
"let people know she is unpredictable, one of a kind, and can dazzle men with her wit and charm",

nothing dazzles like saying fuck with a cute smile!

Tryphena Absent

08:11 / 05.10.07

Sorry, do you have a problem with that and if so what specifically do you dislike about it?

11:39 / 05.10.07

It's a rather grand claim for a t-shirt.
I think what annoys me is the idea that the contrast of sweet embroidery and rude words will at once "set ourselves apart from the crowd" but not so much that we won't still "dazzle men with (our) wit and charm"
The messages are not unique or challenging to the status quo, being a nice girl with a dirty mouth plays up to a common male fantasy, 'whore in the bedroom' sort of idea. The lack of effort irked me.

I suppose it's just part of a personal dislike of writing on clothes in general.
I've never liked the idea that my clothes would literally be speaking for me although I accept they will always be signalling something about me.

Apart from that I didn't like the drab colours either.

All Acting Regiment

13:44 / 06.10.07

Yup, the problem there is "dazzle men with (our) wit and charm"...

18:29 / 06.10.07

Kan:
I suppose it's just part of a personal dislike of writing on clothes in general.
Allecto:
If there's anything I hate about menswear it's those ridiculous t-shirts with silly words and pictures all over them.
I'd like to echo these sentiments. I am not particularly fashionable, but one of the few things I care about are nice t-shirts. It's become nearly impossible to find ones without some ignorant sexist quips, nonsense, or logos all over them, or ones that don't hang like a potato sack, with sleeves that drape to the elbow and a cuff that reaches the thighs.

All Acting Regiment

10:07 / 07.10.07

Topman and H&M do cheap basics, but yeah, it's an unpleasant law that what looks cool written on models doesn't anywhere else.

Tryphena Absent

11:16 / 07.10.07

I've never had a problem with writing on T-shirts, in fact I find a lot of cheap, men's T-shirts utterly boring. They're generally the same basic shape and there are only so many colours you can experience before some sort of design feature becomes desirable. Words don't have to be awful. I do not include marketing logos and slogans in this statement. I do not wear clothes to further a brand label but on the same note I don't not buy clothes because of the marketing spiel attached to them.

I honestly couldn't give a crap if a Swiss designer believes somewhat delusionally that these clothes "help bring attention to a woman's uniqueness" and writes that on her website. If she was selling them through a shop then I wouldn't know that she had said any such thing and I believe in taking clothes on their own merit (unless we're talking about underpaid workers in sweat shops or stores donating funds to the arms trade). Frankly her crimes are nothing compared to Gap, Marks and Spencer and a whole host of large stores that we've probably all shopped in.

12:20 / 07.10.07

You're quite right. It is rather unfair to pick on this lone designer's spiel when it is no different from that of any major fashion emporium's.

The clothes must be judged on their own merit and on this level they fall down for me. When I read the description I was expecting a gorgeously adorned design and was a bit disappointed by the embroidery which reminded me of something on an old nightdress.

The self-similar tones of the colour palette in the embroidery pieces didn't ping for me and when combined with the lack lustre backdrop the whole effect was unappealing.

The darker grey/blue of the cure little fuckers t-shirct was the most successful but I think would have looked better if the embroidery spread more sumptuously across it.

13:01 / 07.10.07

An additional seasonal bug bear - the biker boot trend = Teleute becoming dwarf no.8 - Stumpy.

trouble at bill

14:10 / 20.03.08

hmm, i can see the problem with the sexism in the Locher stuff which features sexual references. But in its defense, some of it, like Life's Fucked Up made me chuckle. That said, it also reminded me of stuff I've seen done before, possibly some of Tracy Emin's art, possibly stuff in kitsch shops? So even if some of it is mildly witty and clever, it's only in a rather derivative-seeming way and wouldn't be funny for long as that sort of visual/verbal joke continues to proliferate.

On an unrelated note, if someone can tell me why half the males near where I work in London's fashionable Shoreditch area seem to be sporting a 'Hitler look' with their fringes and little 'taches then please do so. It wouldn't be clever to start Nazi saluting them so I shall resist the urge but the temptation is there and getting stronger by the day.

All Acting Regiment

12:04 / 21.03.08

My pal just grew a broad, broad tash and it looks really good. So good that all little tashes just seem silly now. When you say fringes, are they actually hitler fringes?

Poke it with a stick

15:55 / 22.03.08

I blame The Feeling and their never-ending quest for musical Lebensraum:

23:04 / 22.03.08

I don't find the emo-cuts above terrible for anything other than their numerosity and the seeming alarcity with which they've sprung up.

Kind of like a childhood nemesis of mine I only hate them because they hate me-
Baseball Caps.
Can't wear them- make my oddly dissimilar ears stand out and do bad things for my face in general. Generally, I think they look tatty and they only a blessed few pull them off with any amount of verve. I'm sure, It'd be easy to prove me wrong but....

All Acting Regiment

10:17 / 23.03.08

Same with all sports clothes worn outside of sport, you need to be aware of what you're doing and what it signifies. People doing it on purpose - groups of hip-hop boys, etc - tend to look pretty good, otherwise it's sort of slightly too casual. It pushes casual into the realm of laziness.

Fungus of Consciousness

10:33 / 26.03.08

FCUK shirts with their oh so pithy phrases playing on the letters.

It wasn't that clever to start with and it certainly ain't clever five years on. Hopefully they'll run out of phrases shortly....

Whisky Priestess

13:47 / 26.03.08

It's unlikely, alas. "Fuck" being the most versatile word in the English language, pretty much.

I hate tiny jeans on men, worn well below arsecrack level. I saw a guy wearing his skinnies like this last week and I still have horror flashbacks: his belt was actually around his upper thighs. He basically had his cock out under his shirt. Yuck.

He looked deformed and very, very stupid.

trouble at bill

18:17 / 28.03.08

i am inclined to agree with the above: skinny I can cope with (though not a look i'd deliberately aim for myself) but it's the hip-hop lo-slungness added in which causes, yeah, what can only be described as a deformed element to the whole affair. Why in god’s name did they decide to add the hip-hop hang-lo ting to the tighter trouser? Am I alone in suspecting such things might actually be an elaborate joke perpetrated by the bastard child of Jeremy Beadle and Stuart Home?

What is even more worrying is the way that the 'normal' trouser seems to be edging in a similar direction quite covertly. I recently bought an apparently innocent pair which are just about acceptably skinny but hang so low that i soon realised i had to choose my undershorts and shirts specially to go with them (i.e. high shorts or ‘t’-shirts long enough to stay tucked in, or for work high shorts in light colours so as to not show through blue or white cotton 'office' shirts). The wrong combination is a recipe for either builder's backside syndrome or me appearing to be wearing some sort of truss. Only a few combinations of shirt & underwear avoid these twin evils, meaning that even in the hugely unlikely event I can be bothered to think it all through first thing in the morning the right combination's rarely availale and so the net result is I hardly ever wear the damn things. I know it's probably my own fault for shopping at GAP but I just wish it had been made more obvious – surely the trousers could have had a warning, disclaimer or at least a special name?

00:43 / 30.03.08

I can't stand these kinds of polo shirts. They're usually worn with a wife beater underneath. To me atleast, they scream social degenerate.

I really don't see them that much, but on occasion...it makes me gag. I'd also like to stereotype the wearer as someone who went to a motocross event the night before and probably owns four wheelers and jet skis. They probably also chew wads of gum so large they look like they're chewing tobacco. I assume you understand what I'm getting at.

ONLY NICE THINGS

01:55 / 30.03.08

Not exactly, no - possibly because your frame of reference is American.

02:17 / 30.03.08

I'd like to hear what you think a "social degenerate" is.

07:03 / 30.03.08

Let's see, I know everyone bitches about the smock dress but for some girls it's nice. Sometimes I want to feel cutesy and not call attention to my chest. The smock dress makes me feel more camouflaged.

I'm really tired of crocs, shirts that aren't long enough, shirts that are made out of flimsy fabric that is practically see through, and how everyone suddenly loves fruits fashion.

Well I did it, my first Barbe-post!

18:59 / 30.03.08

Are the stupidly low-cut womens trousers a fashion trend, or just the way designers/manufacturers think women are shaped? Or do the designers simply delight in making women flash the world their buttocks?! Because for so many years now the only trousers/jeans I've found that fit me right and don't flash my underwear to the world when I sit down are trousers bought from Hiking/camping shops, or from the men's department! Admittedly I don't look very far - clothes shopping tends to frustrate me. But I hate it. It looks bad on other women, for the most part I don't appreciate seeing bum-crack the moment a person sits down, and I don't like it on myself. Not comfortable.

The tops above, with the strange embroidery like 'you suck', I thought some of them weren't a bad shape, although the colours were ridiculously bland to my mind... although that probably says more about my tastes than the tops themselves. The majority of the messages, however, with the idea behind them being expressed as them being aimed at men, just reminded me of the theory that women* are constantly dressing/posing for the 'male gaze'. If I wear clothes I want to wear them firstly for me. It makes me sad that people feel they have to wear messages for the opposite sex... especially when they are degrading. Plus, I'm definitely in agreement with the sentiments above in that I don't see how these are supposed to be 'individualistic' the style/concept seems overplayed, although this is perhaps more subtley done than some designs. The whole thing I found vaguely distasteful.

Oh and... *waves at ninjalie* Welcome!

*I don't know where third/other gendered/trans people fit in with this theory.

20:03 / 30.03.08

women*

Well, as a trans woman I generally fit in most comfortably without an asterisk. I agree, though, with what you say about dressing for yourself. I can't rightly say, however, that I never dress to try to attract men.

In other news there was a bunch of young'uns (I'm old) of about 19-20 in the pub this evening and at least 3 of the guys were sporting what can only be described as quiffs. They know not what they do.

All Acting Regiment

13:37 / 31.03.08

Oh yes, I've seen two of those. Looked quite good though, the ones I saw. They were worn with a sense of humour, though, which I think 'ironic' appropriations of things have to be (so it's saying 'this is actually fun and I like it' as opposed to 'I get this reference, fuck you').

02:00 / 01.04.08

@Tsuga

I mean someone who doesn't care much for tact, hygiene, or the connotations related to their appearance. Not that there's anything wrong with a polo shirt with flames printed on it, that part simply doesn't seem very aesthetically pleasing to me.

04:59 / 01.04.08

I mean someone who doesn't care much for tact, hygiene, or the connotations related to their appearance.

(please, please, please let barbelith die before the americans get to have there own equivalent of chav-thread-gate...)

05:46 / 01.04.08

I only wish, AAR. These guys seemed to be taking it all too seriously. I found myself checking at ground level for brothel creepers and winkle pickers (no so bad, perhaps). There was also somebody driving a Lambretta and wearing a Parka. It sent a shiver down my spine, reminiscent as it is of the retroism of the early 80's in my school. We've already had another stab a ra-ra skirts, please let's not go back to cropped hair with rat-tails.

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