and another thing

[threeplusfire]

Recently I've been out and about downtown, and I've noticed a terrifying resurgence of all that was ugly about the 1980s. The urge to scream "fucking hipster!" at every person in a white, wide leather belt over a striped shirt and leggings is almost unbearable. Really, leggings aren't so bad. They are useful and they can be comfortable. They are good for yoga.

HOWEVER - leggings are not pants. They. Are. Not. Pants. Wearing a fancy shirt and a jacket that just barely skims your hips does not magically transform your leggings into pants. WE ALL KNOW THEY ARE NOT PANTS! At the Erwin Center the other night I could only stare in numb bemusement at a girl dressed in such an outfit. I wanted to ask her if she left her skirt in the car, or perhaps on the bathroom floor.

Seriously, wtf?

I need to clean the floors, but the kitties are sleeping and it would be mean to wake them up. Perhaps laundry instead.

Comments

You have no frame of reference here, Donny!

[silentjack.livejournal.com]

Don't know if you've ever seen it, but http://tightsarenotpants.com/ has a fine manifesto against hipster-couture/culture and the weird leggings crap going on. It wouldn't be so bad if all the kiddies runnin' round in leotards and tights and such actually were alive when Cyndi Lauper was doing it first. The expropriation of trend without due credit has always bothered me, but that could be my academic side wanting to slap footnotes onto such people.

[kevinblanchard.livejournal.com]

I believe what you describe seeing is one of the signs of the Apocalypse.

[brienze.livejournal.com]

Actually, I think it's only a sign of the apocalypse if said garments are being worn by someone who wore them the first time around.

[calledmara.livejournal.com]

My friend Lily, who is maybe 20, recently described new pants she had bought. Suddenly I realized she was talking about stirrup pants. I yelled at her, but I've also seen her with a mullet, a rat tail, and leggings as pants (more frequently than pants as pants) so I'm not too hopeful.

[violetisblue.livejournal.com]

I thought leggings were meant to be worn under a skirt or dress, if you aren't wearing them to exercise in. I'm so old.

[schpahky.livejournal.com]

Today's leggings are crap, too, very thin and cheap. So they are even less like pants! I like them as tights though in winter.

[norda.livejournal.com]

I have to laugh, because we just watched DOCTOR WHO: Colony In Space, filmed in 1971, and Jo Grant was wearing that very style.

Barbara Wright, one of the first Doctor's earliest companions, really rocked the tunic-and-leggings look in 1963.

Everything old is ever-new again.

[ladyofthelog.livejournal.com]

I admit that I am guilty of the leggings/tights-as-pants crime. They are so comfy! And also, make me less likely to share my underwear with the world despite my fondness for short dresses and clumsiness. But I have never owned a white leather belt and have only one striped shirt, and it's a turtleneck.

[eroticcakejob.livejournal.com]

I agree, no one wants to see your camel toe.

And yes, in leggings everyone has camel toes.

[halfacork.livejournal.com]

I was an unfortunate victim of misinterpreting 80's fashion. I was nine or ten and saw this long shirt with our camp logo.

Looking back I realise it must have been a sleep shirt but--at the time?

I thought it would be AWESOME with one of those big belts.

I didn't actually have any leggings though--

The final result ended in laughter (theirs, not mine), embarrassment, and me running to hide in my cabin for the rest of the weekend.

I really don't need to relive that walking down the street.

[covers eyes]