For example, I remember around the age of 13, leg warmers became an instant fashion must around the halls of my middle school. Regardless of the weather, if you didn't sport these leg warmers- you were nothing. Of course it could be the start of the school year and a whopping 90 degrees outside, but then of course leg warmers weren't for warmth y'all.... They were for solely style DUH! Being the super impressionable middle school Genna that I was, of course I went along with this trend. I wore the hell out of these leg warmers, with no intention of wearing them to keep me warm.
Another example was over about 10 years ago around Thanksgiving at my grandpa's house. My grandpa lives in the tiniest town called Albany, Texas where everyone knows everyone's full name and full business. There may be about 1,500 people overall. Given that, there isn't much to do and my brother and I were a little too bored, so we ventured TL his tool shed/storage unit for some stuff to keep us occupied. Here dj where we discovered both his riding lawn mower and his Hover-Round scooter. We were ecstatic. We took them out into the backyard and began chasing and racing one another on these means of transportation. I was on the Hover-Round while my brother took the wheel of the riding lawn mower. We weren't trying to mow the lawn and I certainly wasn't an old woman in need of an elderly adult scooter, but we did have fun. It wasn't until about 15 minutes later when our fun was busted. We were using both of these objects in a tweaked way, I guess you could say.... So much fun though :)
This is a really interesting point, Genna. Fashion is one of the biggest industries that takes something for one use and makes it a completely different thing. I remember in my THTR 2022 class with EJ, she was telling us how in years prior she made her students use trash to make their "costumes." I also know a girl who constructed a dress out of cupcakes. yes. cupcakes. There are so many examples here and it really clears some things up for me. Thank you!
ReplyDeleteThe thought of wearing leg-warmers in Flower Mound, Texas, is disgusting to me. The comfort/fashion debate is interesting to me because, as a man, I rarely feel like I have to sacrifice one for the other. Historically, the thought of being forced to wear something like a tight corset or a burqa every day of one's life is terrifying.
ReplyDeleteThis is, of course, all assuming that it was only the girls who were wearing these leg-warmers. I'm guessing the boys were wearing basketball shorts and wife-beaters or blue jeans and band t-shirts. If the men were traipsing around in leg-warmers, more power to them, I guess.
That being said, it seems like the historical trend of uncomfortable women's fashion is being bucked somewhat. For instance, I've been told that it is substantially easier for many women to throw on a casual dress than for a man to put on jeans/shirt, let alone something more formal, like a suit. Of course, I'm not pressured to spend 15 minutes putting makeup on every morning, so there's that.
And, of course, I've been known to "tweak" women's clothing if I can wear it well, and I identify 100% as a man--take that, gender performativity!