While perusing my local mall this week, I noticed that grunge is making its cyclical comeback. I remember grunge back in 1991, my freshman year of college, Smells Like Teen Spirit was #1 on the Billboard charts and my token outfit was cutoffs, fishnet tights, a lace cami, my dad’s old flannel and a pair of work boots with writing all over them. It was cheap and completely DIY.
I think that’s what’s bothering me about whole “neo-grunge” thing. I’m seeing spiked jackets, flannel shirts and pre-worn cutoffs going for a mint at the mall, and it really seems the antithesis of everything there was about the original grunge. It was totally DIY back then. Same with punks, goths and rivets. There were so few clothing outlets available for niche subcultures, so we all dove into whatever Goodwill had to offer.
To this day, I rarely buy anything at the mall that isn’t already marked down on clearance or deeply discounted. I love outlet shopping and thrifting (as can be shown by my many haul pictures). I buy used clothes and make my own patches. I love to spend time looking for outfits online, and deconstructing them in my head so that I can build what I love once I have my sewing machine.
What happened to the uniqueness of grunge, goth and punk? Where is the “I made it mahself!” attitude? When did it become ok to simply flash plastic at the local mall to make an outfit look like you bought it at Goodwill? It makes no sense to me!
I’d love to know, how many of you are DIYers? Are you more likely to buy something off the rack? Clearance or full price? What about thrift stores? What happened to the joy of having that one item or outfit that you know nobody else is ever going to have? Do you really want to pay top dollar to for clothes that look like they were dragged out of a dumpster?
I don’t know. Sometimes I think the creativity has been squeezed out of the fashion world like an overripe orange. You decide. Leave a comment below, I’d love to hear your thoughts on this. Ta!
Amphetamine Crash 