AntiCelebrity.net

The alt world consists of many little subcultures, that are distinctly separate from mainstream fashion- so fickle it changes week on week. So, what happens when someone feels equally at home in mainstream fashion and the alt scene, or dares to mix them together?

As mainstream fashion borrows gothic elements, mixes it with glitter to make glam-goth, we see leopard print making an appearance across both alt and mainstream fashion. It becomes hard to draw a line until we think about why sub cultures came to be in the first place.
                        
Subcultures usually begin as a breakaway group of people, championing their own influences, look and individuality. Subcultures can include challenging the fashion, beliefs and lifestyle of the norm. Take Goths for instance, historically this stems from the macabre aspects of Victorian culture and the dramatic architecture of the eighteenth century. Over the years genres of music have blended into the Gothic subculture, seeing it slowly evolve into something that is dark and mysterious, and less about death.

Scene and emo kids are again linked to music, whose trademark skinny jeans, studded belts and checked shirts have leaked through to mainstream fashion. The ‘emo’ way of dressing has been banned in Russian schools because of its depressive, suicidal connotations.

Mainstream fashion is what ‘everybody’ wears and is dictated by celebrities and designers. It funnels down into a chain store interpretation for mass consumption. Mainstream fashion is fickle and changes frequently, lacking the depth that the subcultures do. It’s for this reason that individuals started to splinter off and form subcultures in the first place. Over the last decade main stream fashion has referenced from 90’s grunge, 80’s, electro clash, 00’s, emo and 70’s rock. So does this cheapen the meaning of a subculture?

Some would argue that the person who straddles between the alt scene and mainstream is actually more individual, because they are creatively mixing their influences and make their own fashion flavour. Others would argue that someone who dresses trendy one day and emo-inspired the next is an unoriginal poser or a try-too-hard.

The person who attempts to mix the two faces the same unwelcome responses as the founders of subcultures, animosity for trying to do something different. So anyone choosing to mix fashion genres must stand tall and work their individualism until they’re either accepted or tolerated.

There is certain possessiveness over a person’s subculture because it is hardwired right into their identity. Subcultures develop over time like people, so its members probably won’t appreciate it when fickle fashion magazines are stealing elements without feeling the meaning behind it.

People belonging to the subcultures that are being imitated can ignore it –with fashion moving so fast, it will soon pass. Or they can turn on their heels, rebel some more and add more depth to the scene.
                        
In conclusion, straddling between the alt scene and mainstream fashion is a difficult but not impossible task. It requires the individual to carry off their look with more conviction than a subculture because they are out there on their own.

There’s also something very cool about someone that is prepared to do that for their own individuality.

(*Black Eyed Peas - Meet Me Halfway)