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The Alive wrote
Can Columbus become a Midwestern fashion capital?
Thursday, October 2, 2008
By Brittany Kress
Take a look at the street corners, the sidewalks, the grocery stores. It’s a sea of people in sweatshirts and sneakers, and that casual, Midwest lifestyle is stifling Columbus designers’ best intentions.
Well, so are the makeshift studios they’re working from in bedrooms and living rooms across the city.
But it’s not just quality craftsmanship, training and education, sweatshop-style long nights and promotional efforts that’ll put the city’s designers on the map. Simply put, if Columbus wants to become a fashion capital – and plenty are pushing for it – we’re going to have to start looking more like New York. Or at least shopping a little more local, and with a little more style. Because designers can’t get respect coming from a city of sweatpants.
Alive’s Featured Fashion Designers:
- Columbus Style: Akira Burgess
- Columbus Style: Working from home
- Columbus Style: Brad Osting and Justin Hemm
- Alive & Unedited: Project Runway’s Terri Stevens
- Columbus Style: Shannon Mingus
I saw a girl wearing flip-flops and leg warmers the other day. I don’t think we can be a fashion capital until we make her leave town.
Apparently all we need to do is have a pogram to round up and rid this town of all the fashion faux pas’ that litter our streets!
Then we can ship out up all the conservatives, and be as progressive as any town in the country!
If we send the people who read airport paperbacks and third rate literature to another state, we’ll be a literary mecca!
Buy a bus ticket to Palookaville for everyone who eats crappy fast food, and we’ll become a gourmet capital!
I’m all for promoting specific designers who are doing specific things that you find cool — but I don’t understand why that has to devolve into slams against those unwashed masses who are harshing your hipster dreams.
Harshing my what now?
Not directed at you specifically (I don’t even know you!) but the oft-state goal of establishing something “just like New York” or “just like San Francisco” or whatever place it is people hope Columbus will become just like.
I love the idea that there is emerging fashion in Columbus. I don’t like the idea that we have to replicate the styles of other cities. Or re-create the “fashion district” of other cities.
Why can’t Columbus be Columbus?
Seriously, someone please explain what you mean by a fashion district.
Good question:
———-
Absolutely, though I don’t think that really supports any particular point of view in this thread. The ‘balance point’ between form and function is different for any given designed object… the ‘form’ (meaning, aesthetic) component of a screwdriver will surely be a less pressing consideration than it would be for, say, a perfume bottle.*
Is a perfume bottle ‘better’ than a screwdriver? Is a strikingly patterned scarf on a beautiful person ‘better’ than a well-thought-out pair of carpenter pants on a carpenter? Depends on who you ask, right?
Some are much more interested in how their ‘aesthetic’ relates to their ‘self’ than others are… contrary to your assertion, that much is inarguable. The degree to which it matters is entirely subjective.
That said, my sense is that you’re being a bit dismissive of what the ‘aesthetically negligent’ are communicating through what they wear… I suspect it’s more than you might be willing to absorb.
*Worthwhile observation – even the perfume bottle must achieve the minimal functional requirements of holding and dispensing perfume in order to be a perfume bottle.
Ummm.. I have no opinion about some or others because I can’t read minds. Maybe you’re able to read minds.
Honestly, I don’t care either way. I was offering a personal assessment to back my opinion as to why Columbus is not or won’t be anytime soon “a fashion capital”. It doesn’t consume me.
What other dudes are wearing – doesn’t consume me. It doesn’t inspire rage where I want to “strangle” someone. That shit sounds like some insecure hick talkin’ trash about Kevin Bacon in Footloose. Gettin worked up.
I can’t tell you how many times some suburban douche bag has walked out of Marcellas with his GF and has harassed me about what I’m wearing. The most recent case – I was wearing a plain white t-shirt and jeans that don’t fit like a big, floppy diaper. What a crrraaazzyy outfit. This would be the social risk I speak of.
I think, Drew, that you have let this scarf/accessories thing take you too far off subject. Like it or not, you get judged based on what you wear. If you can speak well and put together an appropriate outfit, you’ve got an edge on the guy that cannot. Fashion can be an investment.
We should ride our scooters together on the Hilltop sometime. The comments are way better than the ones down here with just me, I think the two of us together would give us stories to tell our grandkids.
I think this mentality, which I believe holds true in Columbus, is what holds us back from being a “fashion capital.” There are a lot of creative people in Cbus who aren’t afraid to wear something new and be judged for it, but i think the general population are still people who wear what they think other people want them to wear, or what other people would like. Even though Limited and Abercrombie are located here the clothes they make are not unique or cutting edge, which i think would spark emergence of new fashion in columbus. Their clothes are classics; things you wear year in and year out, and I am absolutely one to wear their clothes, but I don’t consider myself a fashion ingienue at all.
Not to say people in Columbus don’t have their own personal sense of style, because I do think that everyone has their own unique look and way of wearing clothes, etc. but what I think I’m trying to say is that if Columbus is going to be a fashion capital, then new ideas about fashion would have to be originating here and being adopted by the masses, and I don’t necessarily see that here, right now.
We should ride our scooters together on the Hilltop sometime. The comments are way better than the ones down here with just me, I think the two of us together would give us stories to tell our grandkids.
LOL – with the exception of the standard issue, white bread suburbs – honestly, some of the most flattering comments I’ve received are when I’m outside of my area of familiarity or comfort zone. Likewise, some of the most interesting fashion I’ve seen has been in the most unlikely of locations. Brooklyn (not any stop off the L) always surprised me. Same when I was in Southern Ohio earlier this year. Last week this 65 year old Japanese man at SFA was flipping me out with his fashion coolness.
I think this mentality, which I believe holds true in Columbus, is what holds us back from being a “fashion capital.” There are a lot of creative people in Cbus who aren’t afraid to wear something new and be judged for it, but i think the general population are still people who wear what they think other people want them to wear, or what other people would like. Even though Limited and Abercrombie are located here the clothes they make are not unique or cutting edge, which i think would spark emergence of new fashion in columbus. Their clothes are classics; things you wear year in and year out, and I am absolutely one to wear their clothes, but I don’t consider myself a fashion ingienue at all.
Not to say people in Columbus don’t have their own personal sense of style, because I do think that everyone has their own unique look and way of wearing clothes, etc. but what I think I’m trying to say is that if Columbus is going to be a fashion capital, then new ideas about fashion would have to be originating here and being adopted by the masses, and I don’t necessarily see that here, right now.
Oh for the love of God…
What I am saying is you need to dress appropriately for the occasion. I own a clothing store, so I can dress pretty flamboyantly, and that’s fine. If you work at Nationwide you probably have, and should have, a little less freedom. I am all for freedom of expression through your wardrobe, but it’s about being creative within the bounds of what is accepted socially. So, wear a well tailored suit to work, with a great belt and tie AND SHOES (can’t stress that one enough). If you’re a working artist then you can have ridiculous hair and not wear shoes and have a ton of bumper stickers….. whatever your thing is, and thats fine too. If you’re an artist who works at Nationwide you should dress appropriately for work.
Being fashionable is a lot more about being appropriate than being expressive.
I’m pretty sure you don’t need to read someone’s mind to know what they’re thinking. Sometimes you can actually find out in the course of casual conversation. :wink:
I assure you that it doesn’t evoke anything anywhere close to those feelings in me, either.
I’d hope that nothing I’ve said previously would lead you to think I’d respond to that in any other way than to say that such harassment is garbage, and it reflects very poorly on the (hopefully small) portion of the locals who act like that.
Outside of my offhand scarf comment that apparently gave outsized offense, my bigger point is simply this – Columbus doesn’t necessarily need to be a capital of ‘high fashion’ to be influential in fashion overall… if you remove the ‘haute’ from ‘couture’ it could be argued that we may already be there.
Which is not to say that I’d have any problem with it becoming a center for high fashion, either… just think it’s worth acknowledging what’s already here… it isn’t trivial.
When we are talking about scarves, what kind of scarves are you imagining? Wooly ones? Skinny ones? Fringed ones?
Keffiyehs?
I was just talking this weekend about people who wear keffiyehs with absolutely no clue about their connotation or association.
Who knew Yasser Arafat would be a trend-setter!
If you are middle eastern, fine.
If you are trying to express solidarity with a particular middle eastern group of people, fine.
If you actually purchased it somewhere in the middle east, even better!
Here’s an interesting article about this:
You Say Keffiyeh, I Say Shemagh
And, on a totally unrelated note (but still related to fashion), I would like to nominate my entire school teaching staff (with 2 or 3 exceptions) for “What Not To Wear”.
I’d be happy to meet you, but that’s a little creepy.
Oh just you wait..
By the way, in case the question comes up, he IS happy to see you..
I think this mentality, which I believe holds true in Columbus, is what holds us back from being a “fashion capital.” There are a lot of creative people in Cbus who aren’t afraid to wear something new and be judged for it, but i think the general population are still people who wear what they think other people want them to wear, or what other people would like. Even though Limited and Abercrombie are located here the clothes they make are not unique or cutting edge, which i think would spark emergence of new fashion in columbus. Their clothes are classics; things you wear year in and year out, and I am absolutely one to wear their clothes, but I don’t consider myself a fashion ingienue at all.
Not to say people in Columbus don’t have their own personal sense of style, because I do think that everyone has their own unique look and way of wearing clothes, etc. but what I think I’m trying to say is that if Columbus is going to be a fashion capital, then new ideas about fashion would have to be originating here and being adopted by the masses, and I don’t necessarily see that here, right now.
Neither A&F (and I speak of modern Ohioan A&F here, not the A&F that sold Hemingway shotguns) nor the Limited make anything even remotely resembling “classic” clothing. Their clothing is extremely prone to trends (particularly the Limited), and if anything has at best the air of “New Traditional” about it that I associate with unsightly homes and furniture.
On a related note, 99% of the men’s footwear in Columbus isn’t fit to be worn while cleaning a barn.
I would agree. You should really be wearing some sort of galoshes while cleaning a barn. Any other type of everyday shoe is bound to underperform for that type of task.
I would agree. You should really be wearing some sort of galoshes while cleaning a barn. Any other type of everyday shoe is bound to underperform for that type of task.
Galoshes would be an improvement over the legit re-re and/or neon semi-ironic hipster re-re varieties of footwear that have near-absolute saturation in this sartorial hole.
i’ve cleaned many a barn and i have to agree that wellington boots are the preferred boot of barn cleaners. especially if the water line to the barn breaks in the winter and you have to gather buckets of water from the nearby pond. but i digress…………..