my favorite new wave outfit(s) (and yours?)
Posted: Thu Sep 30, 2004 5:52 aminspired by the earlier new wave fashion post:
circa 1983 teenage boy:
hair: my hair is curly, so i would let it get big and puffy and then torture it down over one eye all wavy and curly. oh, and the sides and back were shaved. some people rightly called me "mushroom head".
on days when it was humid and the hair wouldn't stay up i'd wear a straw fedora, duran duran style.
top: a sleeveless white t-shirt with a japanese "rising sun" in red with asian writing all over it
pants: reddish maroon vinyl parachute pants that were skin tight and had zippers all over them. the cuffs i would peg real tight and wrap bandanas around them (!). oh, and a bandanna at mid-thigh for kicks.
shoes: black suede elf boots. they had a cuff that flopped over. god, they were cool.
accessories: the ever-present walkman. i had three over my teenage years... the first big gray one, a little metal collapsable one that broke very quickly, and a big black waterproof one with auto reverse.
also: various pins and buttons of bands i loved and a few leather wristbands with metal spikes. oh, and a spiked belt.
LOVELY.
later, as a senior in high school (1985-1986), i was into vintage and thrift stuff, with tons of brooches and rhinestoney shit. so i'd look like a glamouous homeless person i guess. big giant button-down paisley shirts buttoned to the neck. pants from the gap i could cut into capri pants. little $5 chinese slipper shoes. fake reading glasses to look like morrissey. dyed black hair (EGADS THIS WAS UGLY ON ME). copious bracelets. oh, and a bright knit sweater slung low off my hips like the benneton shop kids.
i also had my left ear pierced by a drunk hippie girl in a stairwell at theater camp. it was one of the first times i had smoked pot. she put an ice cube on my earlobe for 5 minutes and then pushed a rhinestone stud through my ear! i still remember the "pop" as it came out the other side. GAWD. funny enough, it didn't get infected!
oh, and naturally, black eye-liner when i went out at night.
i and my friends all wore these sorts of outfits to a mall in houston one time and were accosted by an angry woman who shook her fist at us and shrieked in a texas twang: "YA'LL LOOK LIKE QUEEEEERS!"
and, yes we did. and we all turned out to be queers too. although at the time we wanted to be thought of as "bi". the height of chic!
AND WHAT WAS YOUR BEST LOOK?
circa 1983 teenage boy:
hair: my hair is curly, so i would let it get big and puffy and then torture it down over one eye all wavy and curly. oh, and the sides and back were shaved. some people rightly called me "mushroom head".
on days when it was humid and the hair wouldn't stay up i'd wear a straw fedora, duran duran style.
top: a sleeveless white t-shirt with a japanese "rising sun" in red with asian writing all over it
pants: reddish maroon vinyl parachute pants that were skin tight and had zippers all over them. the cuffs i would peg real tight and wrap bandanas around them (!). oh, and a bandanna at mid-thigh for kicks.
shoes: black suede elf boots. they had a cuff that flopped over. god, they were cool.
accessories: the ever-present walkman. i had three over my teenage years... the first big gray one, a little metal collapsable one that broke very quickly, and a big black waterproof one with auto reverse.
also: various pins and buttons of bands i loved and a few leather wristbands with metal spikes. oh, and a spiked belt.
LOVELY.
later, as a senior in high school (1985-1986), i was into vintage and thrift stuff, with tons of brooches and rhinestoney shit. so i'd look like a glamouous homeless person i guess. big giant button-down paisley shirts buttoned to the neck. pants from the gap i could cut into capri pants. little $5 chinese slipper shoes. fake reading glasses to look like morrissey. dyed black hair (EGADS THIS WAS UGLY ON ME). copious bracelets. oh, and a bright knit sweater slung low off my hips like the benneton shop kids.
i also had my left ear pierced by a drunk hippie girl in a stairwell at theater camp. it was one of the first times i had smoked pot. she put an ice cube on my earlobe for 5 minutes and then pushed a rhinestone stud through my ear! i still remember the "pop" as it came out the other side. GAWD. funny enough, it didn't get infected!
oh, and naturally, black eye-liner when i went out at night.
i and my friends all wore these sorts of outfits to a mall in houston one time and were accosted by an angry woman who shook her fist at us and shrieked in a texas twang: "YA'LL LOOK LIKE QUEEEEERS!"
and, yes we did. and we all turned out to be queers too. although at the time we wanted to be thought of as "bi". the height of chic!
AND WHAT WAS YOUR BEST LOOK?