Leather Jackets and patched jeans

Why do clothes immediately change the way we feel about the people we interact with?

The other day a friend of mine took me along to experimental music night. Lots of punks there, or people that share that aesthetic I guess. Leather jackets -covered in patches and painted on imagery - adorned the shoulders of many of the people there.

Skinny jeans, multicoloured from different fabrics to cover all the repaired holes, reminded me of Japanese Boro fabric. The ship of Theseus is a thought experiment concerned with how the identity of an object changes as all of its components are replaced over time. I think these jeans gain identity through their constant repair and replacement. I’m sure smarter people than myself have commented on this before.

It’s hard not to feel like an outsider in this space. To be fair I am one. Not in a way that is ostracising, people are friendly and chatty and I’m never made to feel like I don’t belong. It’s almost like visiting your immigrant friends family, everyone is incredibly welcoming, you have a great time. But there is a clear cultural difference. These differences are often felt in language, food, mannerisms etc… but the most interesting one to me is clothing.

‘Yohji ass looking fit’ I believe were the words used to describe my aesthetic on the day ✨. Clothing often identifies shared belonging to groups, it carries its own language. Badges replace slang, phrases are formulated from fabric and silhouette. I don’t know what my outfit said to them, for me a punk in a leather jacket, shaved head with a pride flag patch is definitely friend shaped. I’d like to write more about this at some point.

anyway, the music was certainly experimental. The first person on was using a lapel mic covered in steel wool to generate noise and feeding it through various synths and guitar peddles. I was pretty wrecked so I didn’t stick around for the rest.

The fit in qestion