Thursday, February 13, 2014

Blending in while standing out

Although what I wear stands out sometimes, I actually do care about whether it fits in with my surroundings. However, I care because I like things to fit together aesthetically, not out of any particular urge to conform to social expectations (although I would probably recognize the practical necessity of doing so in some situations, such as visiting a country that has stronger and different expectations of what constitutes proper attire than my home country.)

A lot of what I like actually manages to not clash with my campus (which is where I'm spending most of my time right now), although sometimes it doesn't feel quite right inside of the more modern buildings (with exceptions--STSS is pretty nice-looking, for example, although in more of a sci-fi kind of way.) Casual (by today's standards or by last century's standards), comparatively modest clothing works well here. Anything that exposes too much skin is impractical as well as unfitting because they air condition the hell out of the buildings in the summer. Campus is a good place to look civilized, if only barely.

Older urban settings are similar to campus, although not as grandiose. Even more simplicity works well here--things that might be boring in other contexts become interesting to me because they fit in better and act like an extension of the interest I find in urban architecture and decay. In contrast to campus, vicious works about as well as civilized as far as style goes. Ripped clothes, fishnets, and thick eyeliner blend in nicely with the decay of the older and less maintained buildings.

Newer buildings tend to look cheaper, plainer, and sometimes gaudier. Most importantly, they have not had time to decay sufficiently, so they are not beautiful like their equivalent older counterparts. I try to avoid them, or ignore them when possible. The same applies to suburban areas, which in my experience are usually revolting, so I would rather avoid them than try and blend in (not that I always accomplish this).

Supermarkets are the epitome of suburban ugliness with their nasty fluorescent light, overwhelmingly huge enclosed spaces with nothing beautiful to focus on, and redundant products full of weird chemicals labeled as "food". It is possible to find actual food here, but you have to really look for it and be careful to check all ingredient lists. I'd describe places like this as uncivilized except they're actually a pretty good representation of the values of modern capitalist civilization. I'd strike "civilized" in the second paragraph and replace it with "cultivated" or "polished", but the urge to look that "polished" in the first place is a civilized urge. So, campus is the place to look cultured or polished and all the pleasant things civilization brings, supermarkets are the place to look vicious and wear more fishnets and ripped clothes and eyeliner. That, or look viciously cultivated in over-the-top gothic aristocrat-looking stuff. I prefer to find a way to clash with my surroundings because they are disgusting--I might not be able to change them, but just because I'm sacrificing aesthetic continuity doesn't mean I have to submit to the ugliness around me.

Natural settings or older suburbs that have had more time to decay and sprout enough green things to cover up the ugliness are trickiest, which I guess fits since paying this much attention to aesthetics is a civilized thing. Casual seems best--I find last century's standards preferable. Really just about anything that isn't too fussy fits, I guess, but at the same time if it's not beautiful in some way I feel like it marrs the beauty of the surroundings. Muted elegance might be a good phrase for what I'm thinking of. A t-shirt can look good, but the design on it might not. A skirt and petticoat could work, but the skirt with the bustle and miles of lace won't.

Of course this is all extremely subjective, and perhaps you don't obsess over visuals quite as much as I do. Or if you do, you might have entirely different opinions (which by the way would be super interesting to hear, so please post them in the comments if you feel like it.) Trivial as it may seem, this sort of thing does have a noticeable effect on my headspace. It seems a touch ironic that decayed grandiose manmade things interest me the most, but I'm certainly not the only one if Tumblr and the fake ruins at Pfaueninsel are any indicator. Perhaps its an instinctive reaction against the ways the physical and mental environment we humans have built for ourselves contradicts our nature. Then again, it might just be because it's pretty. 

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