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  • jcotteri
    Senior Member
    • Jun 2008
    • 1328

    #46
    Originally posted by djrajio View Post
    I first got interested in fashion during my first year in highschool. Growing up in LA I was heavily influenced by the streetwear, surfer wear, and skateswear asthetic, especially the graphic design t-shirt wave by companies like QuickSilver,Stussy, Billabong, and Mossimo, back when these companies were still run my local guys and weren't huge million-dollar conglomerate companies.I remember going to the localsurfer shopnear my house and just going crazy over the graphic designs done by these streetwear brands at the time. I thought it was the most amazing thing ever. So for me, in the end, all fashion, really comes from the street and I still believe that. These companies really influenced fashion in the late nighties with the whole big-logoed t-shirt/branding wave.



    Around the end of highschool I had the opportunity to study in Japan for three months. I didn't know any Japanese and didn't know the slightest thing about Japanese fashion. I went and had complete culture shock. It was a complete 180 from what I was used to, especially for an 17 year old. I had the opportunity to go Harajuku and found out about brands like A Bathing Ape, Neighborhood, Bounty X Hunter, all these amazing home-grown street domestic brands that had their own culture, design aesthetic, etc. Ironically, the Harajuku-kei style was a interpretation of the skater/surfer culture of LA/NY and I could relate to it and fell in love with it. Coming back to the states, I decided to start learning Japanese in college just so I could read the Japanese fashion mags and be on top of the latest street styles. I tried to get internships in Tokyo just so I spend my weekends in Harajuku and Shibuya to take in all the dynamic styles and walking around all the crazy back-alley shops.



    Back in 2001, very few foreigners would frequent the area and little knew about these labels, so it was always a shock for a foreigner to pop in and speak Japanese asking when the latest item would get in. Now, I think the media and trend-mags have pretty much despensed all these "secret areas"and now I usually see a ton of foreigners touring around theHarajuku, Daikanyamaand its not usual to see guerilla-style ads by corporate companies trying to be cool and hip with their ads all around and big corporate labels now with back alley stores as well to give it that street cred. It definitely doesn't feel the same.



    It was only last year that my style has really evolved into a more formal/elegant/minimal stlye which I currently am in love with. I think cloak was a huge inspiration for this especially when I had the opportunity to see the boutique the week it opened last summer when working in NY and attend the spring/summer fashion show. Starting to work in Tokyo again from last fall, I really started to get into the styles by Julius, etc. I think going forward I want to incorporate more quirky elements and siluoettes since I think the entire skinny, Dior-Homme, dark/gothic look is getting really tired. I've been really inspired by Junya Wanatabe, Comme des Garcons, and Frapbois as of recently and am really inspired by a more wooly/earthy/natural/organic look, something more comfortable and approachable but with an elegant and minimal aesthetic.

    interesting
    WTB: This

    Comment

    • almroth
      Senior Member
      • Jul 2008
      • 324

      #47
      when I was a kid I didn't care that much about fashion, haha. I was busy playing in the playground - but my mother told me I had my favourite pieces and I refused to wear specific colors. however, when I was a bit older (11-12) I only wore punk clothing for a year or so (and had a massive mohawk), which later became basic clothes only. about 3 years ago or so I started finding more interest in fashion and design, I discovered dior homme and experimented with other designers such as vivienne westwood, which kind of quickly led to other brands like n(n), ann d and ro..

      Comment

      • Fade to Black
        Senior Member
        • Sep 2008
        • 5340

        #48
        Originally posted by duncan_
        my style evolves like this

        Mom bought my clothes --> randoms shits bought from malls --> Nike/Addidas --> Cheap HK brands --> Topshop/Zara --> Tsubi/G-Star raw --> Prada/LV/Hermes --> Dior Homme/Burberry Prorsum --> Claude Maus/CDG/MA+/LUC/Julius --> make my own clothes
        this....THIS.....
        www.matthewhk.net

        let me show you a few thangs

        Comment

        • Time & Space
          Senior Member
          • Jan 2008
          • 249

          #49
          I started with the easy stuff, cause my parents had to get me clothes.
          Levi's, T-shirts, Converse

          Then my mother pushed me into a little bit harder junk--
          Ralph Lauren, Brooks Brothers,

          When I was in High School I got hooked on a Schott Leather Jacket
          kept looking to fill the void but no money

          Discovered Cloak about 4 years ago, found a 2004 Leather in my size on Ebay and lost control after that,

          pushed right past Cloak into the hardest of them all..

          CCP, Guidi, MA+, Rick Owens, Neil Barrett

          I have way to many Neil Barrett Leathers, not enough CCP leathers, and shitloads of Guidi shoes, and Rick Owens, MA+ all over the place..

          My gal thinks I am crazy, but I am healthy, happy and work hard.. so fuck her....


          What a drug!!!
          "With all due respect to Jesus Christ, Elvis was the greatest philanthropist of all time" -- Elvis Impersonator

          Comment

          • eat me
            Senior Member
            • May 2009
            • 648

            #50
            Originally posted by Time & Space View Post
            I have way to many Neil Barrett Leathers
            I would gladly take the load off you :). Throw in some Guidi's as well and I'll you, hehehe.

            Comment

            • ykidkwis
              Member
              • Jul 2008
              • 48

              #51
              Apparently when i was around 2 or 3 years old i loved wearing suits. I would wear them and think I was a prince. I'm not sure what happens between then and middle school. Probably didn't care much.

              Around 7th grade i moved to a new town and my sister suddenly discovered Old Navy and i got so jealous that i didn't have any. I thought it was the coolest brand and I was particularly envious of a long white sleeve crew neck tee with this modern looking screened Old Navy logo. Then i started to shop there and at Gap. I got obsessed with this one lime green fleece jacket/shirt thing and would wear it over a coordinating blue and lime green plaid shirt. That was my favorite outfit for a while. Second was a moss green terry cloth polo shirt from Gap that I wore for school picture day to match the mossy green forest backdrop i chose...only to be told that it wasn't available :(

              8th Grade...weird skater-y stuff....HUGE wide legged denim and american eagle and stuff....the coolest stuff from an upstate NY mall :P. The rest of highschool was a bunch of Abercrombie...LOL plus other preppy stuff. I had an obsession with striped collared shirts.

              I started caring more about what i was wearing senior year of college. I had no $ so i would just buy anything at stores like H&M that looked like designer things that i wanted. I was obsessed with Prada then. Finally i moved to NY a couple years ago, got a decent paying job and would spend time window shopping and seeing everything that was out there. My life changed when i found this drapey cotton ann d shirt with the double back ties at Tokio 7 and my obsession with her began. Concurrently became interested in Yohji and those two are still my favorite designers though i've slowly been branching out beyond that aesthetic. It was all black and white and gray for about a year and a half

              Currently re-discovering and exploring color.

              Comment

              • survivrons
                Junior Member
                • May 2009
                • 24

                #52
                its amazing how similar a lot of the stories i've read are to my own.

                i guess i always cared about clothing as far as i can remember. my mother and her taste for expensive things, coupled with the most laid-back and genuinely intelligent style has shaped who i am greatly. because i mostly grew up with her, i adopted a lot of her tendencies with fashion, even from a young age. she bought $1000 silk pumps in the 80's, bench made ralph lauren mens oxfords in the 60's, wore skirts down to her toes one day, and miniskirts the next. the highest end womenswear, and loads of thrifted goods throughout the past 40 years of her life. the reason i explain her story a little more in depth than mine is because mine is much more simple. she bought my clothes for me until i was 15. i always got frustrated with her because she did this. i really wanted to find my own things, and now that i think of it i regret that immensely. she would bring me the weirdest things to wear made of different fabrics and early on i became defiant and was like "ugh mommmmm! stop buying me this stuff!" she was bringing me womens clothing in the smallest sizes possible a lot of the time. i was often being confused for a girl or to be gay. although i'm neither of the two.

                i was most interested in blink-182 and my brothers opinions, all 3 being around 11 years older than me. i wanted to wear what they wore. i was obssessed with hurley and atticus during elementary and middle school. i wore a lot of girls jeans and tighter clothing and skateboard/snowboard brands because i do both of those activities to this day. i had a mild hardcore phase, i.e. lots of black and make up etc. i've always been talented musically, and obssessed with artistic creation all from a young age.

                around 13-14 when my brothers started making more money, they were buying brands like diesel, triple 5 soul, h&m, a lot of typical rock band type clothing. i really loved diesel and urban outfitters, h&m, lacoste, etc. im 17 now and in the past two years i've changed completely.

                (heres my story now) so post high fashion for women, i discovered mainstream designer mens denim and clothing. i rejected my mothers gifts of obscure brand names and i moved on to the easily identifiable labeled clothing. i bought a lot of diesel, penguin, rock and republic, juicy couture. after freshman year i turned to skinny cut jeans, and kept on striving for the best brands as i always thought i had. i found dior and i fell in love. i actually saw Hedi's designs and literally fell in love with fashion. i felt like i instantly could relate to it. everything he did in all of his seasons reflected a part of my personality...everything...

                i wanted to know more about the ideas behind this clothing. why it was so bold and different. i researched hedi and found out about his rive gauche years. i had already known about higher end brands, more so than a lot of other 15 year olds. i started researching more brands like yves saint and bottega veneta. hedi slimanes designs on the runway completely changed the way i looked at clothing. within the space of months after learning about dior homme and hedi slimane, i was already looking at names like raf simons, neil barrett, christopher bailey and helmut lang. stefano pilati, and rei kawakubo. bear in mind, i had discovered this so fast, i had not had enough time to even consider buying this clothing. it wasnt about wearing it, it was about the people behind it and just learning more and more. i would stay up (still do..) until 4 and 5 in the morning just looking through the robert geller and cloak, prorsum, lanvin, and prada seasons, etc etc etc. at this point i've analysed as many seasons of every designer on mens.style.com as you can. i discovered ann d, also julius and rick owens leather jackets. from there i stumbled on a you tube video of rick owens speaking about his womens collection Strutter. rick owens became my new hedi slimane. i worshipped the person and everything he made and stood for (still pretty much do...) with that i discovered the brands like M.A+, ccp, bbs, etc. i sold almost everything i owned made by diesel and other crap over the forums. with that money, i purchased and really only own a few select items of clothing. an ann demeulemeester knit top, dior mii black jeans, a henrik vibskov crew neck and the hunter shorts, a rick owens l/s, a black prorsum peacoat, a julius t-shirt. mix in vans and opening ceremony sneakers, common projects also. banana republic underwear and hanes socks and thats my entire woredrobe. i dont end up buying a lot of clothes honestly not because of hoe expensive it is. i dont buy a lot because i dont care entirely too much about it on me. i care about the clothing and how its made, who makes it and why/how it was provoked and produced by thoughts and inspirations. i believe entirely in creating things for them to sell well and be popular. i also believe in creating things that are completely priceless. im 17 years old right now and i'm planning to go to school in paris for fashion design and production. point is, i changed at the most crucial point of my life. while discovering what i want to be and will be, i truly found art in places i never thought i would. i now want to explore those places physically, with my career.

                p.s., i'm looking at a couple schools, but parsons @ paris, and flanders @ antwerp. if anyone else is as well, lets converse.

                Comment

                • TarHeart
                  Senior Member
                  • Jun 2009
                  • 252

                  #53
                  Really interesting thread. Most of the stories seem to have a similar red line through them. My story is not very different.

                  When I was about 8, or 10, I started skateboarding and found my identity in that culture. Actually I was quite concerned about what clothes I wore. I could buy pretty expensive jeans, and t-shirts which drove my father totaly mad. Fortunately for me, my shopaholic mother always supported my consumption. Thinking back on it, my sense and impression of »brands« was strong even back then. I categorized some brands as more attractive than others, for example Zero, DC, Zoo York, Element and Alien Workshop was really cool. I am today still aware of brands, I do not like to hide that, but it's not based on money. At least I like to think it's not.

                  I think I wore the same things for years, hooded sweatshirts, baggy jeans, skateboards sneakers, graphic t-shirts, some cap with some skateboard brand logo on it and a loose backpack. Imagine that guy from Gus van Sants, Paranoid Park, that was exactly how I looked a couple of years ago. The skateboard stereotype guy. This was my ideal. I remember wearing a shirt, and I felt really weird and dressed up about it, haha.

                  I remember some time ago, maybe three och four years ago, my mother bought me this perfect black minimalist leather belt, and I instantly liked it. It was no special brand, not cheap, but not very expensive either, with good quality, and really, really good looking. Think perfect black Jil Sander belt.

                  I think that was the starting point of something new. I discovered a shop in my hometown (pretty small town) which carried, not those international, high end designer brands, but local Swedish designer brands. The shop specialized in dark clothing, and I felt an interest and a strong appeal, immediately. My first love was the designers behind Nakkna, creating black clothing with unorthodox, innovative cuts and proportions. A little bit like Complex Geometries, but with a lot more style. I remember being in the Nakkna store in Stockholm, and this guy walks in with this »Raf« shirt. I had heard, or read something about him before, but I didn't know who this »Raf« guy was. I looked him up on the internet and he became my second big love (sorry for the gay connotation). This was my first experience of »high fashion«, and I was so amazed. I had never seen anything like it before. So sharp, exclusive, unusual, futuristic and elegant.

                  A few years ago, the swedish television broadcasting company, SVT, produced a program about fashion called »Velvet«. This was an amazing program, and it opened up my eyes for designers like Ann Demeulemeester, Issey Miyake, Comme des Garcons and Yohji Yamamoto etc. I suddenly became very conscious about the international fashion scene.

                  Today, I am not so interested in Raf Simons anymore, although he is still making some progression and cool designs. My favourite designers are Ann Demeulemester and Yoji Yamamoto, because of their unusual and very personal touch. They are sophisticated, and they have created their own universe (I know it sounds like a cliché, but it's so true). I always liked that, no matter if it's about fashion, music, movies or art, I like people who does their own thing, and do not care about others, or the influence from the outer world. I identify with that kind of personality, I have always been that way myself. I like them also because of their use of black, since I am not interested in colours, but the clothing itself. I don't like the expression »goth ninja«, I think it's ridiculous. I just like to wear comfortable, black, sophisticated fashion.

                  Today, one of my ideal looks consists of a black Boris Bidjan hooded sweater, Ann Demeulemeester jeans and Ann Demeulemeester sneakers. I think you can just replace the attribute "skateboard" to "high end fashion". My style is basically just the same. That is just life, at the end of the day, you are still the same person with just a little more sophistication.
                  Last edited by TarHeart; 06-09-2009, 05:25 AM.

                  Comment

                  • Fade to Black
                    Senior Member
                    • Sep 2008
                    • 5340

                    #54
                    good story TarHeart...Ann and Yohji huh...I suppose there's a similar thread between them - they design clothes for a man's man and a woman's woman. Clothes tough but also sensitive and human in their sensibility. Things I relate to, in design or otherwise, usually run through a similar narrative texture...
                    www.matthewhk.net

                    let me show you a few thangs

                    Comment

                    • skecr8r_l8r
                      Senior Member
                      • Apr 2007
                      • 122

                      #55
                      Started out ages ago listening to hip-hop of all things. But no popular stuff, "underground". Or whatever you can call the stuff that made it past the ocean.. Golden age. My inspiration came from deep within the beats, the snares, the samples. I only wore bright colors, baggy jeans, everything extremely oversized, high-top sneakers, hip-hop like it looked in the earliest 90s in the latest part of the 90s.
                      When I look back upon this period I see an extremely well-dressed young kid sporting seriously cool stuff. Everyone jumped this bandwagen years later, but I was wearing fucking oversize glasses and long chains with miniature metal-bling when i was like 5 feet. If you know how denmark is nowadays, I was fucking ahead of my game.

                      Well. I'm the obsessive type. When I find something I like, I have to know all have all get all see all. I found out about vintage denim by walking around San Francisco where my dad had a company back then. I knew CLOSE to everything about jeans. I spent ridic money for faded 12oz back when I was 15. 1950s and 1960s levis and lee - real deal. I think I maxed my MasterCard (why I ever got that is beyond me) three months in a row just buying jeans. I ended up with bunches and eventually brought a large suitcase full of them to japan and sold them. My only holy grail of clothing is still a pair of jeans: lee 1966 151z deadstock in a 32x34. would kill for those. Been after them for 5 years now. I only have a original 1993 pair of evisu jeans left. I also imported a shitload of jeans from japan to sell in denmark and ended in a lawsuit with a agent. he ended up ceding the case and hiring me as a consultant-type.

                      Jeans led me to appreciate the history of fashion design much more. I started reading about manufacturing, biographies of all the old houses, everything. Found contemporary Martin Margiela, Raf, Ann D., Jil Sander, Walter van Beirendonck, Neil Barrett. Fell in love with Antwerp 6 in general. Visited the Victor & Rolf house in Amsterdam. Everything was good, I was done with indigo and was decently dressed. Music, literature, art and SCIENCE was an increasingly large part of my life at this point.

                      I stumbled - randomly - unto CdG and was pretty fucking blown away. I got casted to do the S/S05 show, but I was too late to go to the fittings and I didn't have an agency, so they promised me I should do the next show. I never got back to the guy. Missed opportunity and spilt milk. Yohji, Junya and Kenzo (old). Never let go of the japanese.

                      Then Dior. Shit, blank slate and all new clothing for like 2 years. I think I saw the first stuff when Strip was on sale. Or was it luster. Sick nonetheless. Now I have too much of that, never sold too much of it. I have a ton of beautiful NWT strip, luster, reflection, follow me. might never get rid of it.

                      Dior got raped and bukkake'd by kris. I was left empty without much to do in terms of fashion, so it slowly lost importance for me. My record and book collection grew accordingly.
                      Knew about Carpe and Rick, think old Carpe is awesome, but I'm just too far past the era of altieri to really begin collecting shit, even though Yjapan is tempting sometimes. Like LUC and Ma+, but it's nothing really compared to the few things I've seen of real carpe and linea. Holy shit. Art art art. Never gotten into CCP, so I can stay away from that.

                      I never followed a particular crowd or gave a shit about what other people thought about stuff i was wearing. I always hated people who dressed rock and roll because they are fucking no-brainer wannabees who arent rockstars. And they got the girls - at least used to.

                      Looking back, only one thing is distinctly clear: I'm a loner in terms of my hobbies.

                      Comment

                      • Fade to Black
                        Senior Member
                        • Sep 2008
                        • 5340

                        #56
                        Originally posted by skecr8r_l8r View Post
                        Looking back, only one thing is distinctly clear: I'm a loner in terms of my hobbies.
                        Yessum.

                        This typa similarity in wavelengths the reason i dig you, ske.
                        www.matthewhk.net

                        let me show you a few thangs

                        Comment

                        • SuperTurboTaco
                          Member
                          • Oct 2009
                          • 89

                          #57
                          Never really thought of it until reading this thread, but I have been interested in clothing/fashion for as long as I can remember.

                          When I was a child I attended a Catholic elementary school and of course had to wear a uniform. This was very hard for me to deal with, I could not understand why I was forced to dress the same as everyone else. Once a month we were allowed to wear whatever we wanted, I lived for this day, it was the only time I felt like myself. Over time I started to wear what I wanted to school more and more. I always used the same excuse, my uniform was dirty and being cleaned. In actuality it was in my backpack as I always changed out of it on my way to school. This did not sit well with the nuns and got me into a lot of trouble, one nun even called me a slut (no joke!) for wearing a pair of jeans with holes in them! Needless to say Catholic school and I were not a match made in heaven.

                          Middle school would prove to be a much better experience, finally I could wear whatever I wanted to every day of the week. Of course at that age fitting is one of the most important things in a kids life and I was not different. Still some of my choices were not part of the status quo.

                          Until this point in my life I had always worn my brother`s hand me downs. But now I was, as my mother put it, a little husky and could no longer fit into these. So out shopping with my mother one afternoon I discovered something I had never seen before, a silk shirt. After touching the material and falling in love with its deep plum color it took a lot of convincing to get my mom to spend 45$ on this shirt which she thought I would never wear. In reality I often wore that shirt, even thought I got made fun of as it didn`t fit in with the skater style that anybody who was anybody at my school was wearing.

                          Upon entering high school I really started to get into music. My brother had introduced me to Led Zeppelin, AC/DC, The Rolling Stones, etc. But it was my discovery of The Grateful Dead that would have a huge influence on how I dressed. Yes, I would become a hippy! Throughout high school my new "uniform" was tie-dyed shirts, corduroy patchwork pants ( which I made myself!) and of course Birkenstocks. At that time I was also very into hiking, camping etc. and for these pursuits I had nothing but the best clothing, Patagonia. Which would be my first experience with expensive, quality "Designer"(in terms of outdoor clothing) fashion.

                          This style lasted for some time and after high school I moved to Vancouver, Birkenstocks and all. It wasn`t till I went to a rave, discovered house music and a couple other little things that my style would change. I burned my stinky clothes, cut my hair, shaved my beard and went shopping. This short lived style change would lead me to brands like SNUG, Geek Boutique, and Nothwave(still one of the most comfortable Shoes I have ever worn). After a few years of living within this scene/culture I was burned out, time to move on.

                          I moved back to New York (state) and for the next couple of years my style was pretty basic, Jeans, t-shirts and my one luxury, Camper shoes. At that time my father was seriously ill and my priorities were far removed from my wants.

                          Another move lead me to Japan where I must say, men pay a lot more attention to what they wear( compared to where I am from). As I read in one post somewhere, the SZ aesthetics can easily been seen in the streets of Japan. It was not so much what other men were wearing here but my girlfriend who made me start to pay closer attention to what I was wearing.

                          Up until about a year ago I was wearing Margaret howell exclusively. Then I bought a pair of Jil Sanders suede sneakers which I payed 600$ for. At the time, I could not believe that I just payed 600$ for sneakers!! Then the first day I wore them I felt soooo fuckin good!! I had never felt that way before, utter happiness, and walking through the streets it was like my little secret.

                          Now a year and thousands of dollars later( makes me sick just to say that!) I am trying to build a new style. I`m still not sure what that style is but over time I am sure it will come into its own. At the moment I am trying to build a foundation which I can work and change off of. Of course I would like to be a baller but in reality I think not having lots of cash is much more helpful in developing my style. Really makes me think more about what I purchase.

                          Still have not posted much to SZ but what I have taken from here has been very helpful and glad I found this place.

                          Comment

                          • galia
                            Senior Member
                            • Jun 2009
                            • 1719

                            #58
                            Mom buys clothes> catholic school with uniform (didn't hate it, pretended to)> cheap ass bellbottoms, super small shirts and doc martens> shoplifting trendier clothes from H&M + thrift store stuff + ethnic jewelry> middle market fashion like isabel marant and vanessa bruno (short phase) + thrift> sz designer stuff from e-bay mostly + thrift + french middle market brands & AA for decent quality basics + antique jewelry

                            Comment

                            • Farkhanyassin
                              Senior Member
                              • Jan 2010
                              • 693

                              #59
                              Let the pictures do the talking

                              Hip-hop Era RIP 2003-2005


                              The Popped Collar Polo Era RIP 2004-2006


                              The Neon Era late RIP 2007-Early 2009


                              The Graphic Tee and Skinnies Late 2007 - Present (Though slowly fading)


                              American Workwear 2008 - Present


                              Dandy & Preppy 2009 - Present


                              Glunge 2010 -


                              Currently I juggle between Preppy or Glunge. But this is how my outfit has changed the past couple of years.
                              MOSLEM PRIEST

                              Comment

                              • Fade to Black
                                Senior Member
                                • Sep 2008
                                • 5340

                                #60
                                man...you're fine by me, but that's not a document of style evolution; it's a portrait of privileged adolescence which you're still well in the throes of.
                                www.matthewhk.net

                                let me show you a few thangs

                                Comment

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