Subcultures and individualism: Harajuku Week 2 and 3

Subcultures and individualism: Harajuku

Week 2 and 3

Subculture and individualism was really interesting to deconstruct and discuss, how we isolated the trends and fads that emerge and subside:

“The cycle leading from opposition to diffusion, from resistance to incorporation encloses watch successive subculture…”

The punks being a prime example, how “catwoman,” the robot and vogue dancers, created enough interest to allow people to adapt, mimic and eventually mainstream their “anti establishment” and “we’re into chaos, not music” ideologies. Eventually the underworlds impact is reversed and flipped, as it emerges from the everyday, being marketed to the public in which saw it as a nuisance, the anti establishment being morphed into a very desirable niche.

The Sex Pistols and their independence from the media, is what made them so interesting to the public, because they we’re abrasive, they created such a frenzy in the youth culture, and it was a movement in which didn’t need nor respond to wealth as it arise from the derelict lower classes. Clothes pegs, garbage bags and deconstruction became their canvas to express themselves.

This would be really interesting to play with, the ideology of subcultures, the exclusivity that transcends financial constraints. Consumer research and dynamics in which focus on certain imagery and marketing that evokes a status and loyalty. For me it would being a stand alone against the mass market, everyone seems to think the most extreme alternative is the most effective, but creating a point of difference that just tripped up, tricked, a slight variable from your competition would be more effective, we forget that the fashion and design world is so set, we NEED TO FORCE a reimagining and if a few slightly pull the preconceived notions, ever so slightly, we will have more of an impact overall. Almost retraining our consumer, engaging them in a less threatening way, allowing them to feel more engaged.