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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
Ah… but in a city known to its detractors as a cow town, shoes worn to do work in a barn are semi-ironic hipster footwear. So I don’t see how they could be an improvement.
I totally agree with you. I live and work in the Short North and walk most places. Not a week goes by where I don’t get called “fag” out the window of a passing car or by a group of meatheads heading towards me on the sidewalk (or get more specific comments about what I’m wearing). I know at least one other person who has been participating in this discussion as well who experiences this sort of thing frequently too.
As far as how I dress, I don’t see how I’m provoking this either. I wear almost exclusively black, grey, and white. It’s not like I’m freaking John Galliano.
As long as incidents like the ones described above (and by Jon) are the norm here, and people who dress even slightly out of the ordinary are frequent targets of mindless ridicule, I have a hard time believing that Columbus will be considered anything even remotely resembling a fashion capital.
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.
A&F and its related brands really don’t sell clothing. They sell a “lifestyle.”
By the way, I think we should have tax-free shopping, either all year round or a few times a year, like a lot of other states. But, I guess in this economy, that might be hard to sell.
Back up, back up. Yes Arafat is setting fashion trends, but good God (choose one), look on the table. :shock:
Now that’s diplomacy!
Columbus has a large younger population, and the Short North has the pleasure of being adjacent to OSU. That young population is often cited as one of our great assets, but things like you described stem from immaturity, which is the downside of this demographic.
I’m not saying that type of behavior should be tolerated, but don’t expect it to ever go away unless all of the colleges in Central Ohio magically disappear overnight.
Besides, you don’t think there are dickheads shouting obscenities in every other major city in the world? This type of behavior is hardly exclusive to the Short North.
Back up, back up. Yes Arafat is setting fashion trends, but good God (choose one), look on the table. :shock:
Now that’s diplomacy!
Are you talking about the gun or the glasses? Because the glasses might be worse, and I’m a proponent of government gun-grabbing. Saddam Hussein had the same glasses, for the record. I’ll give the keffiyeh a pass, but bad glasses is not a trend we should import from terrorists.
I know A&F and related companies are said to have pioneered the “lifestyle brand”, but I’ve always disagreed with A&F being a lifestyle brand.
Given their degree of digression (marketing and messaging) I don’t see A&F as a lifestyle brand at all. The social groups that make up the core customer are on polar opposite ends of the lifestyle spectrum. Being in San Francisco last week and seeing how A&F was marketed there confirms that observation for me. Usually with a lifestyle brand there are a shared collection of values that make up the brand identity. The identity of A&F is all over the place. It’s tough to be a mass market offering and be a lifestyle brand. Especially in clothing. Maybe if you’re IKEA, but even that’s a stretch for me.
Those specs look THICK, and old. Like Joe Paterno’s. Arafat’s near-sighted for sure. Words of warning…do not incorporate the semi-automatic pistol with your bad glasses and keffiyeh. You can wear that button or pin he has placed over his heart and the moustache.
I’m not saying that type of behavior should be tolerated, but don’t expect it to ever go away unless all of the colleges in Central Ohio magically disappear overnight.
Besides, you don’t think there are dickheads shouting obscenities in every other major city in the world? This type of behavior is hardly exclusive to the Short North.
I think this speaks more to the backgrounds of these students and how they were raised.
The years I lived in NYC and spent many a day and night close to NYU surrounded by students, I don’t ever recall someone yelling “FAG” at me for how I was dressed. I don’t ever recall anyone bitching about being harassed about how they were dressed. I’m not saying students there are anymore mature, but there at least seems to be a better tolerance and taste level.
I know A&F and related companies are said to have pioneered the “lifestyle brand”, but I’ve always disagreed with A&F being a lifestyle brand.
Given their degree of digression (marketing and messaging) I don’t see A&F as a lifestyle brand at all. The social groups that make up the core customer are on polar opposite ends of the lifestyle spectrum. Being in San Francisco last week and seeing how A&F was marketed there confirms that observation for me. Usually with a lifestyle brand there are a shared collection of values that make up the brand identity. The identity of A&F is all over the place. It’s tough to be a mass market offering and be a lifestyle brand. Especially in clothing. Maybe if you’re IKEA, but even that’s a stretch for me.
I don’t think I agree. Perhaps we mean something different by “lifestyle.”
I mean that the people who shop at A&F do so because they want to emulate the lives of the models in their ads.
The last time I wondered in to one of their stores (admittedly, it was a while ago), I was really surprised at how many of their items looked pretty much the same and almost all of them had a big “A&F” on them somewhere. And then I got a splitting headache from their loud music and the cologne pumping through the vents and left…
So, I think they’re selling the idea of their lifestyle–that if you wear their brands, you’re as cool as those models are. I think this started with Abercrombie and Fitch, but Hollister has a particular lifestyle that it sells to high school kids.
I’m not sure about the newest brand, Ruehl, though. It was too dark in there for me to see anything! :lol:
Columbus has a large younger population, and the Short North has the pleasure of being adjacent to OSU. That young population is often cited as one of our great assets, but things like you described stem from immaturity, which is the downside of this demographic.
I’m not saying that type of behavior should be tolerated, but don’t expect it to ever go away unless all of the colleges in Central Ohio magically disappear overnight.
Besides, you don’t think there are dickheads shouting obscenities in every other major city in the world? This type of behavior is hardly exclusive to the Short North.
With regard to your assertion that all, or even the majority, of the harassment is coming from students, I beg to differ. If that was all it was, then I’d be more inclined to just chalk it up to a lack of experience/maturity.
However, while immature students certainly contribute to this sort of behavior, I would argue that there are more than enough immature, ignorant, and narrow-minded adults doing their part as well.
I have spent lots of time in many of the larger fashion capitals (specifically, Chicago and New York) that you are referring to and lived in one (London). I would put forth the opinion that incidents of this type are not nearly as frequent in places like that. Although, this is more true in London and NYC. I think the greater numbers of people in those cities who do have a unique fashion perspective (or even just the overall greater exposure to all sorts of diversity) have lessened the average person’s hostility towards, and contempt for, those who look different than them.
You’re right, that doesn’t mean that it doesn’t exist. I just haven’t seen it as being as prevalent in those cities, even near universities (maybe even especially near universities).
I don’t believe that this is something that can’t, in time, be overcome in Columbus. I just think that we have a very long way to go.
But “cool” isn’t really a lifestyle. “Cool” might be the end result of a series of choices that make up a lifestyle. But, you don’t just put on a new outfit and instantly adopt a new lifestyle as well.
I don’t see A+F actually projecting any specific sort of lifestyle anymore. In their original permutation as a sportsman’s store they certainly did.
I also thought that in the earlier years of “A+F lookbooks” (mid to late 90′s) they were trying to project a lifestyle through sections that made recommendations for travel, literature, magazines, music, etc. However, I always thought that the majority of their suggestions were more sophisticated/refined then their product or their actual target customer.
Haha, awesome! +1!
Haha, awesome! +1!
Honestly, I had a follow up that mentioned you and a few others. You’re a dude that cares about the clothes he puts on, but you still look like a dude. I got lazy and deleted what I started :)
You can check out some of Columbus’s up and coming designers from CCAD at a fundraiser and fashion show, “Proper Attire” benefiting Planned Parenthood of Central Ohio, using Planned Parenthood’s “Proper Attire” condoms, on Tuesday, October 14 at The Columbus Renaissance Hotel, 50 North Third Street, from 7-8:30 p.m. Call 614-358-8730 or go to http://www.plannedparenthoodcentralohio.org.
Haha, awesome! +1!
Honestly, I had a follow up that mentioned you and a few others. You’re a dude that cares about the clothes he puts on, but you still look like a dude. I got lazy and deleted what I started :)
Thats nice to say, thanks.
Also, to clarify before I get jumped for my “+1″:
I agree many “fashionable men” as you say, do in fact look like girls.
But the scarf thing, while quite stupid, does not make me want to strangle anybody.
But the scarf thing, while quite stupid, does not make me want to strangle anybody.
…although if you did want to strangle someone, it would certainly add the element of “function” to the scarf.
Hahahaha, I say if anyone jumps on you just threaten them with the glock hoodie :)
And just to complete my thought I got too lazy for originally, I think Dru and his wife might just be the best dressed couple in Columbus and he’s quite the dude!! Except when he orders blended fruity drinks at St James, but that’s a whole ‘nother story…
Usually when I hear people talk about “fashionable guys” looking like girls what they’re really talking about is body type not attire. And usually that judgment is being leveled by some kickball butt.
Same holds true the countless times I’ve been harassed here in the Short North. The delivery usually comes from some Applebees fed heavy attired in a boxy shirt that fits like grandma’s muu muu.
Same holds true the countless times I’ve been harassed here in the Short North. The delivery usually comes from some Applebees fed heavy attired in a boxy shirt that fits like grandma’s muu muu.
Judge not, lest ye be judged.