Birds, birds
Although I don't plan to be a hipster myself, I hope that there are more and more hipsters around me, and I hope that they are becoming more and more hip. I have a narrower view that the more fashionable a society is, the more secure people are in self-expression and the more vibrant their cultural life is.
When she told the editor the topic of this column, she joked that we should not "lose" fashion too much, after all, we are a fashion magazine. I said okay, I'll write about the benefits of fashion in this issue.
I think that in addition to always asking people to spend money and sometimes highlighting the glamorous side, fashion actually has some advantages, that is, you can introduce yourself to others as quickly as possible. What clothes a person wears often reflects how he wants others to see him, as psychology says: it is not a person who takes off a mask to recognize him, and sometimes we can also understand him by what mask a person wears. In any case, people cannot avoid fashion or social symbols anyway.
Birds, birds
Personally, I prefer to be a fashion spectator than a fashion practitioner. I like people who appreciate beauty to try things nice, and there are some very fashionable people among stand-up comedians like "carnivores" Oki and Akira. Once I met Akira, he tied a lot of colorful flowers on his beard, and I asked him a lot of questions at that time, because it was really beyond my understanding. The beard is an extremely masculine symbol, and the colorful flowers are very cute, and when he combines the two elements, I think this idea is really special.
Yingning also has a good dressing style (although I can't wear it myself, but I can also see who can wear it), she often wears a little sporty, a little Japanese casual clothes, has a handsome and sunny feeling, because she herself also likes sports and is full of energy, so it makes people feel particularly appropriate.
Manga duo Carnivore and stand-up comedian Yingning
Fashion is not just about looking good, but also about showing your inner character. And there is no need to pursue big brands as a goal, but to do everyday dressing as an aesthetic practice, those daunting prices may not be the original intention of fashion. I think the pursuit of fashion ultimately falls to the self, not just follow the fashion trend to complete the purchase.
To become fashionable, the most important thing is to spend a lot of time in front of the mirror, thinking back to when I was in middle school, I always had to secretly put the mirror in my pen bag, take a secret photo in class, and always have to stab it immediately when I got a pimple on my face. After that stage, it feels like looking in the mirror is an inefficient task.
Birds, birds
In addition, I always feel that winter is a difficult season to fashion, there are fewer clothes to match, and buying clothes is always more functional than aesthetic. Every winter, my mom knits me a new sweater, and in the bookcase are two old crochet books. Inner Mongolia produces wool, Hohhot has a woolen factory, my mother bought back a few new balls of wool, always fluffy and soft, with the smell of camphor balls. Then my mom unwrapped the yarn and asked me to wrap the yarn around it again so that I could put the yarn on my arm when I crocheted.
My mom's desire to knit sweaters was mainly influenced by my aunt. My aunt knitted one for my cousin every year, and my cousin wore it when she was young, and she wore it for me the next year. Although the sweater is knitted by itself, it is very aesthetically ingenious. One year my cousin gave me a sweater with a lion on it, the main body of the lion is a needle hook pattern, only the tail is made of a small handful of yellow wool, very real, I often want to brush it when I am in class. The sweaters my mother knitted for me were generally not so complicated, they were pure pink and had a little twist pattern; My mom used to weave halfway through, calling me to the living room while I was doing my homework and asking me to try it on my head, and I would carefully pass my arms and face through a few sweater needles, and my mom would say knitting strategies that I didn't understand.
My mom knitted the sweater so long that I could wear it for a few more years, and I had to use a school uniform jacket to cover the hem. Later, my mother was also more Buddhist, and took me out to buy sweaters when winter came. But the sweaters you buy are often cotton knits, such sweaters are heavy and not warm enough, unlike wool, although tied to the neck, but the warmth effect is amazing, making people drowsy in class.
I feel that part of the reason why I am far away from fashion is because I live in Inner Mongolia. The climate there is relatively cold, there are sandstorms in spring, large temperature differences between day and night in autumn, and bitterly cold winds in winter, and only short summers are suitable for the pursuit of beauty. Fashionable people either migrated to the south, or they could only shoot at home, and they wanted to shoot on the street, not to mention that they could not find fashionable people, not even such dedicated photographers. This is why you always see Shanghai street photography, Shenzhen street photography on the Internet, and rarely see Hohhot street photography. Looking at Shanghai's street photography often shows a kind of leisurely, street cafes, young people riding bicycles, there are few street cafes in Hohhot, and cyclists often have a difficulty in making a living, it is difficult to be leisurely.
Recently, I have followed some minimalist bloggers, they have a fashion proposition, called capsule wardrobe, in fact, the logic is also very simple, that is, they all use black, white, gray and camel color items, you can match each other. I looked at my wardrobe, there was a big logo on my clothes, no black pants, no white pants, only five pairs of jeans, I couldn't help but sigh, a really fashionable person, even minimalism does not hinder her fashion, and my dressing style is still chaotic and monotonous.
Birds in life
The pursuit of fashion often has a degree of difference, everyone has a more inherent perspective, that is, people who dress less fashionable than themselves are old-fashioned, and people who are more fashionable than themselves will cause hipster phobia. Hipsters actually do not hinder anyone, they just dress themselves according to their own aesthetics, just because they are different from our inherent cognition, which makes some people feel uncomfortable, but the most important quality of a civilized person is to respect the existence of others. I saw a discussion on the Internet about whether people should wear yoga pants outside, and one of the hot comments said that freedom to dress is to wear the right clothes in the right place, and many people praised it. But I believe that among all the likes, what they each think is "appropriate" cannot be exactly the same.
It seems that women always fall into such a double dilemma when they wear clothes, either because they have no desire, or they are judged inappropriately because they confidently show their sexuality. Women who are harassed will also have two evaluations, either to belittle the victim as a woman who is not enough to make people desire, or to say that since you are dressed so attractively, you must have been prepared to be taken advantage of. This dilemma always makes me feel helpless and confused, how does a woman have to live to be considered attractive and respectable?
Bird Bird talks about the pressure of women's appearance in the program "Send a Hundred Girls Home"
Ten years ago during the Spring Festival, I went to my aunt's house for the New Year, my cousin had a wound on her face, we asked what was going on, my cousin said that she walked at night a few years ago, because she wore a necklace and earrings, and carried a very good leather bag, so she was robbed by the speeding party, took her bag away, and dragged people down. In the end, the whole family came to the unanimous conclusion that people need money at the end of the year, don't show their wealth, don't wear jewelry, and don't walk at night. Last year's New Year, my cousin still loved beauty very much, not only dressed herself up very well, but my little nephew was also dressed up as a trendy man by her. I think fashion may have the power that once you have this aesthetic and creativity, you can no longer hide it, even if it is risky to show your charm, but the pursuit of beauty itself is so fascinating.
Compared with food and clothing, the freedom of clothing is a somewhat hypocritical issue, but I still envy some people's thirst for beauty, and even the willingness to take some risks to pursue individuality. It is not easy for people to have self-expression and self-style, so the people around them should not only cut off their branches, but protect their sharpness, after all, this is the meaning of social development, isn't it? That is, people can not only survive in it, but also live beautifully.
In addition, I think that in addition to positive freedom, that is, people can dress as fashionable, youthful, and show their style as much as they can, it should also contain a negative freedom, that is, they can not try a lot in fashion. My ideal freedom to dress is that I have the freedom to be fashionable and the freedom not to be fashionable, and I can neither be humiliated by a slut for dressing fashionably, nor be criticized as "not a woman enough" for being unfashionable.
Bird Bird also ridiculed this hot search photo on his Weibo
Although I don't plan to be a hipster myself, I hope that there are more and more hipsters around me, and I hope that they are becoming more and more hip. Because only if they can freely wear yoga pants, I can freely wear jeans; Only if they are free to wear big earrings, I am free to wear small stud earrings.
The freedom to dress conservatively doesn't have to be fought for, so you don't have to scoff at other relatively niche dresses because you have chosen a safer style of dress. I have a narrower view that the more fashionable a society is, the more secure people are in self-expression and the more vibrant their cultural life is.
This article was originally published in the February 2023 issue of Harper's Bazaar
Editor: Li Jin
Typesetting: Miffy
Some pictures are provided: Xiaoguo Culture, Bird and Bird Weibo, and the program "Send a Hundred Girls Home"