The newest trend in outrage seems to be “The Williamsburg Jean.” It is a super-slim pant from the Gap, named for the Brooklyn neighborhood where pants are so skinny, they need a rehab program.
Williamsburg is often a point of ridicule and / or reverence, thanks to its fauxhemian residents and steady Strokes soundtrack, so a tribute from the Gap is particularly fun. Blogs ripped on the Williamsburg pants last week, and The Post has Micki Pellerano, a sales guy at the Williamsburg thrift store Beacon’s Closet, saying this:
“I don’t think Williamsburg’s this cutting-edge place anymore,” said the clerk at Beacon’s Closet. “The fact that the Gap has latched onto this is a symbol of the loss of the creative spirit.”
With that in mind, here are two questions for you:
1. Shouldn’t fashion grow from the streets up, as well as from the runway down? Isn’t it good that the Gap wants to acknowledge the creative spirit in a bunch of Brooklyn kids? Isn’t this the ultimate fashion compliment?
2. Is Williamsburg really still a “cutting edge place”?
We like the neighborhood, but really…
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Williamsburg has turned into this big ironic farce of itself. It really doesn’t harbor much creativity these days, all that it harbors is emulation of itself, everyone want to be seen as “the cool kid” and thus dresses and acts the part – instead of growing and changing as a creative haven should, it is running itself into the ground.
At this point it has become too expensive for the truly creative to really exist there, as those who still live in the neighborhood and aren’t “lucky enough” to have a trust fund, are spending all of their creative energy by scrambling and working all the time just to make rent and bills. It is rather sad.
…and don’t even get me started on all the new “lux” condos… sigh…
… oh and to address your first question… I guess it is sort of good that the Gap wants to emulate a creative spirit
- in the sense that all Gap clothes have always looked the same and that they need to have a little bit of hip influence in their line (and they need it to bring life back into an already drab line of clothes)
- but really, it is just another form of a major corporation latching onto something long long long after it had hit it’s prime… and watering it down for its own use. I really don’t think launching a new “skinny” jean is truly the epitome of creativity in fashion.
williamsburg is “over” and has been for quite some time
williamsburg is lame and has been lame for a long time. die yuppie scum.
I think the differences between downtown Manhattan and Brooklyn fashion is getting greater and greater. I never saw Brooklyn as “cool”, I saw it as cheap. The ideas of fashion between kids in the two boroughs are way different. It really just boils down to socio-economic issues. When Brooklyn kids go shopping, they will go to Beacon’s Closet. When Manhattan kids go shopping, it’s at Opening Ceremony. I mean, that’s a pretty broad generalization, but I’m sure you can see what I mean.
I was in Williamsburg for the first time in over a year this weekend and I was fairly surprised. I hardly saw anyone I would classify as “hipster” (for lack of a better term). Unless you consider fat dudes in their 20s with beards hipsters, they look more like music nerds to me…or is there even a distinction…? Anyway, I can’t say that I saw one “fashionable” person in the entire neighborhood, and I was there all day on a Saturday. I guess all the interesting looking people moved further into brooklyn, or moved into manhattan. Anyway…what was this post about again?
So you look down your nose at someone who doesn’t buy the same damn ripped up “stylish” clothing for $400 when they can go to Beacons and get it for $20?
see mike… even though you don’t live here – you definitely mimic the attitude which causes the problem in Brooklyn right now… and even further – the problem in Manhattan (which is why “we brooklyn kids” hardly even bother going into Manhattan anymore) and that problem is the snobby attitude from associating fashion and other things that are “good” and “cool” with MONEY. Just because something is from a thrift store, and bought for less than a weeks salary, does not mean that it is not fashionable.
Don’t get me wrong, I love some of the things from Opening Ceremony, but the “cheap” statement from you is so uppity.
It is this snobbishness that unfortunately has infiltrated all of NYC including its boroughs
However I do agree with you on the point that Williamsburg is no longer filled with particularly fashionable people walking around… but thats more because all the wall street i-bankers, and uptown snobs looking to slum have infiltrated the neighborhood (much like they did to the east village and LES).
…sorry for ranting again, but I am really upset about this issue…
Perhaps because Beacon’s doesn’t have (or at least didn’t when I used to go browse on a semi regular basis a long time ago) anything I would ever wear. I don’t wear “ripped up” clothing. I like simple designs with clean lines. I don’t want to wear a D.A.R.E. shirt from 1987 with some ill-fitting brown cords. If thrift stores like Beacon’s Closet actually had “the same damn ripped up “stylish” clothing” that the higher end boutiques do like you say they do, than I have no doubt that everyone would shop there. And if that was the case…than Brooklyn might be a little more stylish.
Well Mike, then you and your “clean lines” will fit right in shopping at the gap. (which was the point of this article anyway).
The point of a thrift Store, and buying fashion on a budget – is digging a bit and being creative. And Beacons closet is not the only place in williamsburg to shop at (it is a bit overrated these days)…
And again, I whole-heartedly agree with you that the style in Williamsburg is gone.
However, I am slamming you for your ill-informed “I rarely ever set foot in Brooklyn” snobby “cheap” comment. Grow up.
Oh is that the purpose of thrift shops? I thought they existed so poor people could keep warm as they slept on the streets during cold winter nights.
Chill out, you can be fashionable and still be on a budget. I am not rich, or even privileged by anyone’s definition, but that doesn’t mean I can’t occasionally spoil myself. There are always sample sales, consignment shops, places like Century 21, etc…
And I fail to see how my post relegates me to shopping at the Gap. Maybe it’s different for women, but as a male, I think it would be extremely hard for me to make a decent outfit using only Beacon’s as a resource, unless I had some serious skills with a needle and thread. How many size 46R suit jackets and little league t-shirts does it take to look fashionable?
meh. its not like we are talking about a Salvation Army store… and I don’t even like Beacon’s Closet, and wasn’t trying to get into an argument defending it… you aren’t even listening to what I am saying.
At any rate… I am going to go put on my size 46R jacket over my D.A.R.E. tee shirt and “bridge and tunnel” my CHEAP ass home now.
Stella, you can totally crash on my couch tonight if you don’t want to make the long trek back to New Jersey :-)
Scoff! You think I would rely on the PATH train? ;)
Brooklyn my friend, Brooklyn.
(Which technically is “bridge and tunnel.”)
Please retire the word fauxhemian. Like I feel a fauxhemian is any artsy type who bathes regularly. Maybe I’m just a hippie??
As for the jeans…
I think the Williamsburg style will backfire for the Gap. The people who understand the Williamsburg reference to the “hipster” Brooklyn neighborhood will think it’s stupid and trying too hard. Besides, those people probably have a better place to buy their jeans.
My guess is that most of the Gap’s customers in the other 49 states will see the Williamsburg style and be confused…Did George Washington wear that style around the historic Virginia community?
I took some photos recently of Williamsburg fashion for site Gastro Chic. I still like it. OK, so it’s not cutting edge anymore, but compared with Manhattan it’s a lot less brand conscious and materialistic.
Read this phrase somewhere this w/e in fashion article about something else: “conformity disguised as nonconformity,” which aptly describes that peculiar Wmsburg style. It’s a meta, meta, meta world.
The funny thing is that a) the artist community has pretty much relocated to LIC, no?, and b) no one is Wmsburg is wearing skinny jeans anymore. Or powdered wigs.