Say It Ain’t So January 3, 2007 zuzu A reverse mullet??? I agree with the article, though — have the courage of your convictions, hipsters, and wear Joan Collins shoulderpads if you’re going to bother. Sheesh. Via Rox.
This is, or at least was in the nineties, called a “chelsea”. It’s popular with punks and skinheads. I often sported one between mohawks.
What Vanessa said. It’s sort of modified from the standard 90’s version, but the general idea is the same.
What are you, an old gramma? Oh, kids these days… and their wackie hairdos! Seriously, though, fads come and go, or like the sad remains of punk (a lifestyle/fashion relic that is on life support) hang on for dear life. Making fun of them says way more about us than them. I, for one, can’t pull it off with my broad shoulders, but Montreal is the northern mecca for these 80s trends. And I have to say, the way they do it up here is often hot, however much it is not. Unlike punk, this one will be dead in two years. (Punk may yet live again–hopefully not in a frankenstein manner.) The very fact that there is an article on this 80s thing shows its passed its prime. I’ts so over now… They are on to something new out there, something more insidious–I can’t wait to see what it will be. I hope its back to the 70s. Making fun of them is totally apropos, but if you take it too seriously you end up sounding like your parents. D PS. The chelsea laden woman was the most attractive one there.
When the link said reverse mullet I felt SO SURE that it was going to be a picture of that dork Geo from the Misshapes: http://www.themodernage.org/temp/images/geo_reznor.jpg
The picture with this caption: This is why you should dress before doing bong hits. made me laugh hard enough to knock my cat off my leg.
They sort of lost me here: no other decade can rival the ’80s in unattractive fashion Oh, yes, one can and did.
I had one of those haircuts (and, yes, it was called a chelsea) back in the mid- to late-80s. Yes. Yes, I did. And I’m not ashamed of it, dammit.
As bean alludes to, that haircut predates the 90s. Again, not admitting to a younger fondness for Canadian teen television (ahem), but the woman in the picture looks a lot like Liz from Degrassi Junior High. I pointed that out over at Rox’s, but stupidly, on the wrong thread.
What are you, an old gramma? Oh, kids these days… and their wackie hairdos! Yes. I had to live through it once already. I wore peplums, people. Peplums!
Ilyka, you need to post a “Leif Garrett trigger warning” so that those of us who used to have a crush on Leif Garrett back before we could reasonably be held responsible for having taste could avoid the memories of those regrettable days. Oh, the humiliation! (I keed! I keed!)
Yeah, no dissing the Chelsea. The rest of the fashion corpus of the 80s, though…why, hipsters? Why? And why must I live in your hipster Mecca?
hipsters? when did the chelsea become popular for hipsters? maybe it is out there in weirdo LA but every where else its the defining physical characteristic for female skinheads. c’mon everyone knows thaaaattttt
I don’t think that girl was a hipster. I think she was a skinhead–check out the outfit. Of course, I’d have to see if she was wearing fucking boots with white socks and fishnets, but I’m pretty sure she’s a skinhead. I know people who have had chelseas since the mid-90s. I mean, the haircut’s still hideous, but it’s been pretty much a staple of that particular subculture since the 60s.
Oh, it’s not that bad! …Although, it’s kind of hard to see the leg warmers back. Thought those were a bit odd the first time around. Bit upset they missed the jelly shoes, though, I loved those things.
I fully approve of bringing back the grunge. Of course, as a college student who buys plaid flannel shirts at Goodwill, wears combat boots with a very Doc Marten-look, and doesn’t shower enough, I’m most of the way there already.
I have to say, grunge is better than the styles of the 80’s. But then again, I was in junior high and high school in the 80’s, and I can’t imagine that stuff ever looking good on anyone! By the grunge era in the 90’s I was in grad school and not so akward (and um, I think I still own several pairs of Doc’s, just don’t wear them)
That girl was indeed rockin’ the Chelsea cut. As ever, these things look great on about ten people and horrible on just about everyone else.
NO NO NO fucking NO to grunge. that shit was bad enough the first time; we -still- haven’t got past it, with all its legacy of horrible little nasal droning pop singers and angsty-aggro white boys. fuck it, let’s just bring back the forties. or the Gibson Girl era. or the Renaissance. or nudism. something -fun.- i ALREADY feel grungy, it’s winter in New York, i’m wearing shleppy dreary old sometimes hole-ridden or stained clothes in layers just mostly ‘cuz they keep me warm, and i hates it, HATES it we says!
fuck it, let’s just bring back the forties. AMEN to that. Or the twenties. Although I might seriously pay to see shoulder pads become the next hipsterism. Maybe I don’t get a say, though: I wear my low-top black Docs nearly every day; they’re a damn good shoe.
Howdy, all–I’m a new refugee ’round these parts. Glad to be here! Personally, I have a *thing* for the Chelsea, but that’s just ‘cuz I spent many years in love with a woman who had one, and I’m a torchbearing sort. And on 70’s fashion horror vs. 80’s fashion horror: you know, to me the ugliness of 70’s fashion somehow felt like a warm, funky, almost friendly kind of ugliness, complete with a reverence for harvest gold and avocado as a color scheme. Could have been the fondue, could have been the pot, is what I’m sayin’. But the 80’s ugliness always felt cold, distant, and somehow isolated to me. Which, I should add, did not at all stop me from wearing it and looking like a complete and total solid-primary-color-blocked dork. In mock-pirate clothes. Oh, and: I loved the 80’s look when it was on David Byrne, for some reason.
NO NO NO fucking NO to grunge. that shit was bad enough the first time; we -still- haven’t got past it, with all its legacy of horrible little nasal droning pop singers and angsty-aggro white boys. Angsty-aggro white boys is right. No, actually, everything you said here is right. NEVER AGAIN.
I used to ride the bus with a kid (not more than 14 or 15) who wore a Dead Kennedys jacket. You don’t know how hard it was for me not to go up to him and say, “Aww, aren’t you adorable? I used to love that band when I was your age, too!” And then pinch his cheek. I somehow refrained, but that’s what I always think when I see kids in punk or 80s styles.
I HATE that the skinheads co-opted some perfectly wonderful fashion. And yes, I too wear lowtop docs almost daily. They’re a durable comfy shoe.
Oh, and: I loved the 80’s look when it was on David Byrne, for some reason. I think that can be easily explained by the following fact: David Byrne is AWESOME.
The Chelsea was a fine haircut. For the 80s. It’s not the 80s. Ah, I had a chelsea. In grade 9 and 10. …That was only 7 years ago. Eek. As someone who puts up with hipster friends they would be f’n pissed to hear that these kids were getting called hipsters – hipsters listen to the kinks, wear cords and smoke personally rolled smokes. They don’t put that much time or effort into fashion – thats glam punk or people hyped up on too many drugs trying to look… interesting. BWA I totally wore a Dead Kennedy’s jacket on the bus to school too! and only hung out with the boy who has a mohawk… oh, i miss high school.
I HATE that the skinheads co-opted some perfectly wonderful fashion. Wait. What fashion do you think skinheads co-opted? Certainly not the chelsea. Or doc martens. Those were always part of the skinhead dresscode (born from it’s working class roots). And if they did “co-opt” anything (flight jackets, perhaps), it was done so in the 60s (the skinhead fashion has changed very, very little in 40 years). In fact, I’d say other people co-opted a lot of skinhead fashion, frankly. And yes, I was a skinhead. Not all skinheads are nazis. Not all skinheads are racist. Think SHARP Skins.
They don’t put that much time or effort into fashion I suppose that depends on what you consider to be “fashion.” There is most definitely a particular look and style associated with hipsters, and most hipsters (certainly here, in what is, unfortunately for me, the hipster mecca) most definitely work hard at conforming to it.
bean–Yeah, exactly. The National Front co-opted skinhead values and fashion. My husband’s an ex-skin, and although I have issues with a lot of the skinhead culture (I know a lot of trad skins, though, so I don’t know that much about SHARPS), I still get really pissed off when people automatically assume that all skinheads are racists. katie–We call the “hipsters” who are overdressed “painfully hip.” Distinguishes them from our friends who are cool hipsters.
That’s funny. I’d just decided to pick up some docs again despite the fashion climate because shoes for middle aged women are weak, part of that make-her-defenseless-and-immobile crap. Look, I’m not going quietly into that women’s orthopedic shoe store!
Bean – Alright, I hear you on that. My hipster friends just take it as far as throwing clothes on in the morning that just happen to look rad. I know a few of them that take a lot of time picking it out – but most of the time they claim it’s just been thrown on off the floor. (Chances are they’re lying to sound more hip, no?) And I suppose I work hard at making sure I don’t dress like people who aren’t hipsters. (Sorry for how awkward that was, but I refuse to say I dress like a ‘hipster’) Katie…the name thing is a throw off, so I’m putting my last name in from now on. “Painfully hip” is a good one… I’ll be using that for the people I was previously refering to as over dressed.
I wanted a Chelsea very, very badly back in the 80’s. Of course, I also wanted very badly to be a skater. My familial units weren’t having any of it, though. Sniffle. I’m still bitter, dammit!
know a few of them that take a lot of time picking it out – but most of the time they claim it’s just been thrown on off the floor. (Chances are they’re lying to sound more hip, no?) Perhaps they are. It’s very possible they’re not. However, they still had to pick out the clothes in the first place. They had to buy them from somewhere. I have no doubt that most of these people even pick out clothing that they genuinely like (not just because it “looks cool”). But, it probably still makes them look like part of the group that they belong to. And I’m being general here — because I do think this is true of just about everyone, not just hipsters. I just don’t think hipsters are nearly as free of the “conforming to fashion” thing as they want or claim to be. Katie (the other one) — ftr, honestly, I don’t know a whole hell of a lot about SHARP skins, either. I just figured they’d be the more likely ones that people would either already know or look up. I was an anti-racist skinhead, but not affiliated with SHARP.
One of the more amazing things I’ve ever seen, Bean, was a confrontation between anti-racist skins/ARA guys and neo-Nazis in a Jewish neighborhood. I was there as a street medic, and I’ve never seen anything like it.
Katie Kish–Sorry about that! I’ll not be posting all that often once school starts again, so if you want to reclaim your name, have at it! bean–Gotcha. Yeah, I’ve done the same thing, too; then you don’t have to go through the whole history of mods and hard mods and traditional skinheads and anti-racist skinheads and suedeheads and blah blah blah.