Comments on: On Striped Rights

By: kai smart

kai smart — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 06:33:02 +0000

The only time I got reprimanded for inappropriate dress at work in the crunchy anything-goes natural foods store that I worked in as a teenager was when I was wearing my black and white striped tights…..

…as a shirt.

By: djeternaldarkness

djeternaldarkness — Thu, 02 Oct 2008 13:55:59 +0000

Good lord, think you’re “old” at 26. I’m nearly 40, as is gothic mrs. manners. She is still only seen in Stripy Tights! Check her out in the newest issue of Bust, they gave her a reader of the month feature.

And quit acting like a crazy kid. Swear, I’ll get my cane…..

By: Miss Tugui

Miss Tugui — Tue, 30 Sep 2008 03:07:12 +0000

Behold, the striped one:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Zeedonk_800.jpg

By: Joseph Francis

Joseph Francis — Mon, 29 Sep 2008 09:21:50 +0000

Goth chicks have been wearing black and white striped stockings since a house crushed The Wicked Witch of the East while she was wearing a pair back in 1939. I usually save my blog for more technical matters, but I made a little homage to the stockings in an MM thread a few months ago:

http://www.modelmayhem.com/po.php?thread_id=305187

By: Person

Person — Sun, 28 Sep 2008 05:01:18 +0000

Uhm, this entry is way over my head. Little girls wear striped tights. I never saw any correlation between goths and patterned stockings.

By: Mary Ann

Mary Ann — Sat, 27 Sep 2008 20:59:24 +0000

i’m 20 and i still rock the stripedeys! i love them, they are a part of me. there is no mary without her stripes. <3!

By: choklit

choklit — Sat, 27 Sep 2008 07:27:46 +0000

Mer & Secretia – I’m 32 and I love my stripey stockings, too… of all colors. Hail, Sock Dreams! Are we some sort of mini-demographic of our own?

And I’m so fervently behind the wear-what-makes-you-happy-no-matter-what ethos. I think it’s equally as silly to discard a look you love because it’s been appropriated by the masses as it is to pick something up because it’s popular. Either way, you’re letting the mainstream dictate how you dress.

Long live stripeys! And long live Neo-Victorian anything-punk style! And long live… uhmmmm… just being yourself?

By: Ben Morris

Ben Morris — Fri, 26 Sep 2008 04:17:09 +0000

There is a damn good reason they have reached iconic status to level of cliche: they are awesome.

I’m 27 and I still find striped tights sexy, especially when worn by someone more or less in my age-group.

Don’t let age restrict your fashion, wear what makes you feel good.

By: Jon Munger

Jon Munger — Fri, 26 Sep 2008 03:41:06 +0000

Mer-
So in short, what’re a few snickers between dorks.

By: Mer

Mer — Thu, 25 Sep 2008 20:57:42 +0000

Consumer capitalism has only won when it can pry both your striped stockings and the very idea of what striped stockings represent from your cold, dead hands.

Amen.

I gotta say… at some point (pretty early on, actually) I realized that anyone who would mock me for wearing what makes me feel good is not someone I should give ANY power. Those are basically the same “cool kids” who sneered at me in junior high.

This is not to say that I have not giggled myself sick over someone’s wardrobe choices many, MANY times. I’m as guilty of “othering” as anyone. It’s just that, more often than not, my giggles are tempered by a sense of kinship. And I’ve realized, any knee-jerk scorn and dismissiveness I encounter from someone who identifies as being “above” expressing themselves with something I love despite its commodification should be taken with a grain of salt, even a large degree of affection! I probably have more in common with them than not.

Shoe on the other foot: I know that’s the case for me with steampunk fashion. I’ve gotten pretty grumbly about that emerging subculture (not so much because of the commercial appropriation factor as because I feel like it’s become a rather narrow-minded treehouse clique of self-described cognoscenti) but even in the throes of my grumbling, I’ll always appreciate that neo-Victorian/Vernian DIY style. I’m not going to stop loving it just because others have claimed it for their uniform.

HA! im only 20 and i already cringe at what i wore in my teens, the coloured tights with ripped black ones over the top, and when it was particularly cold, some stripers too…

I’d love to check in with you in another ten years… I have this sneaking feeling that when you look at pictures of yourself from “back in the day” you’ll be more prone to going “awww, look how cute I looked” than “ewww!” But hey, who knows.

I… couldn’t help but spend a moment thinking about the aging DJ at the local club wearing his black-and-whites every week.

Hee. Judging people who’ve been into something longer than you so easy, innit? Until it starts happening to you, of course. (I speak from painful personal experience, buh-LEEV me.) Circle of life.

After writing all this I kinda want to dig out all my stripies now and wear them at the weekend.

Do it, sweetheart. Seriously, if it will makes you happy to wear them, reclaim them for yourself.

@Secretia WE EARNED OUR STRIPES, GAWDAMMUTT. *hugs*