Bradford
Current Events Moderator
- Joined
- Mar 19, 2002
- Messages
- 6,626
- Reaction score
- 228
OK - I mentioned this on the temporary forum yesterday, but I can't resist bringing it here as well. Since someone mentioned it, I took a stroll over to modernman.com and read their posts. I actually remembered this one from nearly 3-years ago when I first read it - it's pretty funny - so I thought I would share. The topic of discussion is "The Death of Preppy" and it starts with the following question: "Have we all become fashionistas?" --SHUMAN Not this guy. I am a 34-year-old man who's interested in fashion and, though I dress differently from everyone else in my small Midwestern town, no one has ever dubbed me a homosexual because of my attire. When I was 16, in 1984, I first became interested in fashion when the TV cop drama MIAMI VICE aired, featuring stylish sleuth Don Johnson dressed in unconstructed sportjackets over solid-colored T shirts and multipleated pants in shades of pastel pink, peach, aqua, lavender, fuchsia and white. That TV show triggered a major fashion craze that lasted through 1989, and clothing just like Don Johsnon wore on the program was readily available at most department stores--I snapped it up. When the clothing went out of style circa 1990, I dressed pretty much like everyone else for a few years in dark colors, pullovers, etc, and dropped into a deep depression. Then, around 1993, I discovered that International Male carried styles that were similar to those on MIAMI VICE, which I purchased, and I supplemented my wardrobe by teaching myself to sew MIAMI VICE-like styles. I currently dress like Don Johnson did on Miami Vice--unconstructed sportjackets that are unlined, loose, single-button closure and a deep V-shaped gorge down to the button, with nothing in them but a pair of big shoulder pads; these are worn over solid-colored T shirts and triple-pleated or double-box-pleated dress pants in shades of pastel pink, peach, aqua, lavender, fuchsia, white, among other pastel hues. Some of my favorite articles of clothing are my 11 pair of pastel bubblegum/carnation pink triple-pleated pants, just like the ones Don Johnson used to wear on MIAMI VICE; 4 fuchsia short-sleeved "wet-look" poly sportshirts with velcro closures instead of buttons; 4 turquoise "wet look" poly sportshirts with the same velcro closures; 4 lavender Linen Lites double-button single-breasted sportjackets; 10 white silk short sleeved sportshirts with pastel paintbrush-strokes of lavender, lime, aqua, yellow, red, black, etc. I also make--on the sewing machine, using a pattern drafted from one of my old sportshirts that fit well--short-sleeved sportshirts with a straight hem and printed patterns of splashes, splatters and brushstrokes of vivid pastel MIAMI VICE color. It takes me about 3 weeks to make a shirt THE RIGHT WAY. Also--great news.--about three weeks ago I went to see a seamstress and she said she could draft a pattern from one of my unstructured sportjackets without taking apart the jacket to do so. She'll use the pattern to make me however many MIAMI VICE-style unconstructed sportjackets I want in whatever fabric I want. Cost: $60.00 per jacket. Not cheap, I know, but that's still MUCH less than a sportjacket typically costs in a department store. She just finished the first jacket yesterday, November 21, and I picked it up--it cost $75.41 total with tax and with the cost of shoulder pads and buttons added in--and she pronounced the color "hot pink" and man, is it exquisite. Said she when I tried it on: "Don Johnson, you are ready to party." I gave her enough hot pink fabric for two more jackets. If a guy's determined enough to want pastel MIAMI VICE/Don Johnson style clothes, where there's a will, there's a way. But, back to the subject. I remember when the preppy look was all the rage in the early 80's, when I was in 7th , 8th and 9th grades--at its height it featured an exaggerated form of the look involving light-colored khakis, loafers, a buttondown Oxford shirt with a pastel sweater thrown over the shoulders with the arms tied in a knot across the chest. Some stores sold these pastel "sweaters" with the arms permanently knotted, to be thrown over the shoulders and chest, shawl-like. I despise the baggy jean look of young people of today--both men and women seem to dress like slobs. What's up with that? Don't they have a desire ever to look "nice"? I just got my hair trimmed and feathered yesterday and noticed with horror the hairstyles other people were requesting--one young man wanted his head shaved bald, and a young woman requested only that the ends of her long, straggly, unstyled, parted-down-the-side hair be trimmed. What the...? IMHO, the guy should've kept his hair and the girl should've gotten a fancy hairdo. Guys dress like baggy-jeaned slobs and girls dress like bellbottomed, straggly-haired slobettes. And I too, think the multitude of buttons on a suit looks ridiculous; I prefer a single-button closure with a deep gorge--which is the style my seamstress is making me--or, at most, two buttons. Any more is extravagant. At any rate, I don't understand the...well...SCUMMY way people dress nowadays, even my mother dresses like a grub in rock n' roll tee shirts and faded, beat-up jeans. Her excuse: " *I* dress look just like everyone else. YOU stand out like a sore thumb." Just because everyone else dresses like a scuzzoid doesn't mean you yourself have to join in the herd, if you don't feel like it. I just don't get it. --Trevor Trevor in other posts then goes on to defend his sexuality - which may be true - but unfortunately, as much as I too enjoyed Miami Vice in the 80's, there is no defending his taste which remains stuck in that rut. I guess now we know who buys all those low-gorge mid-80's jackets on Ebay and in the International Male catalog. Bradford
