Tuesday, January 11, 2005
Hanging out in LA
Can ordinary folks start fashion trends?
Here's an LA story I forgot to mention in my travelogue. I went to my favorite coffee place, Groundworks a/k/a Gourmet Coffee Warehouse on Rose at Lincoln Ave. in Venice, where they have the second-best iced coffee in the world. It was my first cup of the day, and my first transaction outside my own abode and, not having had my first cup of the day, I was a bit groggy as usual.
On my way out of the store, I felt something tapping against my butt. It was my belt. We've all experienced having our own clothes turn on us in petty acts of betrayal, but this struck me as taking a good joke too far. Apparently, in getting dressed that morning, I'd forgotten to hook up my belt, and it was threaded through the loops only halfway around my jeans to the one in the back. The front half of my belt (the end with the holes) protruded from under my waist-length jacket, hanging down my backside like a large rat tail, in full view of anyone behind me.
The guy working the register is the one who is way too cool for school and who looks like a young John Cassavetes wearing an LA Dodger hat. He didn't say anything, but I could have scripted what was going through his mind:
However, if in six months or so, you start to see hip young guys wearing their belts undone and hanging down behind them like an ass necktie, remember: you read it here first.
Here's an LA story I forgot to mention in my travelogue. I went to my favorite coffee place, Groundworks a/k/a Gourmet Coffee Warehouse on Rose at Lincoln Ave. in Venice, where they have the second-best iced coffee in the world. It was my first cup of the day, and my first transaction outside my own abode and, not having had my first cup of the day, I was a bit groggy as usual.
On my way out of the store, I felt something tapping against my butt. It was my belt. We've all experienced having our own clothes turn on us in petty acts of betrayal, but this struck me as taking a good joke too far. Apparently, in getting dressed that morning, I'd forgotten to hook up my belt, and it was threaded through the loops only halfway around my jeans to the one in the back. The front half of my belt (the end with the holes) protruded from under my waist-length jacket, hanging down my backside like a large rat tail, in full view of anyone behind me.
The guy working the register is the one who is way too cool for school and who looks like a young John Cassavetes wearing an LA Dodger hat. He didn't say anything, but I could have scripted what was going through his mind:
Nice look, dude.To which, had he said it, and had I been clever enough, I'd have made this snappy comeback:
You're laughing now, my friend, but in six months you'll be wearing one of these.When you think about it, is the rat-tail belt-down-the-butt so different from wearing your pants pulled way down below your baggy boxers? No, but the problem here is that the answer to my opening question about ordinary folks is "of course not!" What makes us plain folks so plain is precisely that we cannot start fashion trends. You have to have either a hunk of fame or else some societally-imbued edginess.
However, if in six months or so, you start to see hip young guys wearing their belts undone and hanging down behind them like an ass necktie, remember: you read it here first.
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