Subculture fusion

A Subculture is the result of a process of intellectual, spiritual and aesthetic development. A particular way of living, referring to a group or time.

With the upcoming of the Teddy Boys in Britain in the 50's, the phenomenon of the subculture became more popular. For the first time the British working class youth had money to spend on clothing, motorcycles and entertainment! With this important change came also the need for something different than the current society was offering. Together with the hipster and beat generation, the Teddy boys paved the way for other popular subcultures to emerge like the mods, rockers, hippies etc. Born out of social/ political disagreements, through the way each group dressed and the music they listened to, they expressed their view on the world. It was also an important change for the consumerism, starting to focus on the youth as the ones with money to spent.

Over time many more subcultures emerged, each single one expressing a different way of thinking, living and dressing, bringing people with the same interests together. But also some subcultures changed through time, adapted to the current mainstream society or came back to their roots (like today where the Teds are preferring the original Teddy Boy 50's look over the 70's version)

The fashion designers often take their inspiration from the subculture meltingpot, reinventing the look and making it more mainstream. Once the combination of leather jacket, jeans and a pair of motorcycle boots was associated with the rockers and criminality. Nowdays almost everybody owns one or all of those items. At fashionshows or in magazines we can see the rock look mixed with hippy elements or preppy punk. Not only because the fashion industry invents and reinvents but also because they like to go beyond the stereotypes. It is also reflecting how we are today. In a society that offers all types of music and clothing, and with a history where most shocking looks have already passed by, we show our political and social disagreement in a different way.

Now we can find people dressed punk mixed with a cowboy hat and listening to Mozart, not belonging to any subculture, but expressing the individuality till the top! With all the fashion choices we can make today, the clothing is not any more a sign of a certain convinction but just fun!

When fashion mixes up all the different elements into a new style:

Text: All text copyright Green Fashion (unless indicated) 

Images: Every effort has been made to trace copyright holders. Please alert me if there are omissions. All collages/looks: copyright Green Fashion