Worth Reading
Youth fashion and looking cool
German sociologist Diana Weis has just published jointly with Berliner Archiv der Jugendkulturen (Archive of youth culture) a book titled “Looking Cool” (Cool aussehen, only in German, 240 pages) where she gives a breakdown of historic and present youth fashion
The book is not only focused on clothing but gives some background on the cultural surroundings leading to youth fashion trends. The publisher has compiled the book with 22 co-authors and the book was based on a crowdfunding platform. The illustration was made available from the Archive of Youth Culture in Berlin (D). Diana Weis is teaching fashion theory at the Akademie für Mode und Design (Academy for Fashion and Design in Berlin) and because of her profession she noted that her students practically had no idea where the roots for certain youth fashion originated. Weis states: “Youth Fashion is fascinating me through its non conformity, thus its identity is much broader than in adult fashion. Youth wants individuality but not stand alone and clothing is a mean to show one’s personality”.
Because the co-authors have autobiographical references to these different youth cultures it becomes obvious that this book offers contemporary evidence. The reader will find Punks, Popper, Metals, Mods, Esmos, Riot Girls or Techno-Freaks and accompanying clothing, such a leather jackets.
There is a description of English brands and their wearers and those can be found among the punk and skinhead scene. Highlighted is also a the cult of sport brands with English youth going to the football stadium every Saturday and they were wearing Doc Martens shoes, once a common worker’s shoe and then advancing to a cult object.