I find it hard to tell if something has actually changed, or whether it’s just my perception of it that has changed. As a for instance, take clothes.
Back in school and as an adolescent, name brands were everything. I order to be cool, all of your non-uniform clothing had to bear the logo of one designer brand or another. I remember dreading PE lessons for three months because my Dad had decreed that I should have some cheap trainers for school to save me wearing out my more expensive ones. He bought me an awful pair of nameless trainers from our local market, and that was all I was allowed to wear for PE. He told me that it wasn’t the shoes that made the man, etc. which all sounds very good when you’re a grown man and confident in yourself. When you’re a fourteen year old boy desperately craving acceptance by your peers, it tends to ring hollow.
So I spent those few months trying to sneak my ‘decent’ trainers into school for PE, and when I failed at that, trying my damndest to hide the garishly coloured things by sitting on them, hiding behind things, or just keeping my feet moving as much as possible. Eventually my mother prevailed upon my Dad to change his stance, and I joyfully disposed of the horrid things sometime later. This incident has stuck with me, and although an extreme example, it demonstrates the sort of craving for brand names that dominated my time as a teenager. Outside of school the shirts were all Ben Sherman, the Jeans were all Levi 501’s, and the shoes were all Kickers moccasins (for my social group at least). Although the actual brands and styles changed over the years, the necessity of designer labels didn’t.
If I look through my wardrobe now, although there are brand names and designer labels in there, they weren’t bought because of that. They were bought because they looked good, or because I liked them at the time. Some of my favourite items of clothing are either second-hand or of no discernable brand. Even those that do bear a famous name don’t usually display it openly – it’s confined to a small tab sewn inside the garment somewhere, away from the prying eyes of the public. With me these days it’s all much more about style than brand.
This could all very easily be attributed to me growing up, and being less concerned about other people’s opinions of my clothes and superficial things like whose label is stuck in my t-shirt, but I’ve seen the same thing happening to other people, both of my age and younger. And I also still know people who place high value in the brand stitched into their jeans, or the printed logo on their shirts, which serves to muddy the waters somewhat. Has there been a general paradigm shift in views towards clothing? Or is it just my paradigm that’s shifted?
I really have no idea.
TTFN
Not Your Average Geek 