Even though all wearable overtly labelled clothing is trying to appeal to you, the buyer, I think there may be an important distinction to be found in the motivation behind the purchase.

These are tribal identifiers, no different from the bodily tattoos of a Māori or an Aztec or a modern gang member or motorbike gang affiliate. Like meeting someone at a kit car show and they’re wearing a Gas Monkey t-shirt, it lets you know that they’re a volunteer in the same tribe as you. We know somewhat who this guy is, we know we can talk to him about things that use a lot of petrol and make a loud noise.

Brand identification is stupid for things like training shoes, simply because the brand identifies you with nothing but that manufacturer, but merchandise says “we are kindred”, it says to me that we share a common interest rather than a common taste in clothes. When I went to concerts as a teenager I knew we were all wearing the same heavy metal type clothing as the folks we were going to see would perform in, but I didn’t realise that we had in fact all donned a uniform. A good friend of mine went to a Zappa gig many years ago where the man stopped the concert and told the audience “you’re all wearing a uniform”, meaning that he had become annoyed at them for touting their individuality by being Zappa fans, whilst also being so lacking in individuality so as to deliberately dress in what they must have felt expected to wear.

That’s the criticism I’ve heard before, my friend John makes it of the hippies from his era, that they might have been pretending. Thinking that the sentiment they started out with, one that was maybe founded in noble intention, became tainted as they became absorbed into a corporate like organisation of people following edicts and rules. What it was supposed to be was a counter culture with fluid rules, where people could actualise in a singular way, but what it became was yet another club. Another pal, Dave, a man of similar vintage, tells me his view is much the same of punks. Every movement starts as an idea, but becomes a brand of it’s own.

Paul S Wilson