There are the knackers (not my term) who are unwavering in their determination to make the tracksuit an outfit for all occasions-- shopping; eating fast food; weddings; running drunkenly into oncoming traffic; celebrating 14th birthdays with tall boys on the top story of a Dublin bus; cursing; pick-pocketing a woman in broad daylight and then denying it when that woman and her friends follow her, demand the wallet back, and finally call the Garda (this really happened to someone I know); and probably, in a tasteful black, funerals.
I do not, as a rule, wish to make sweeping generalizations about a population. "Knacker" began as degrading term for "travelers," those living in mobile homes and trailer parks and generally viewed with the same disdain as the Romanian Gypsies are in Italy. I don't like using it (though the Irish pull it out without censor) because it is, in essence, a discriminatory slur. There is also the more severe term "scumbag," which was developed to describe a smaller subset; those who might pull a rusty needle out of their own arm and stab you with it if the heroin isn't doing its job yet.
Things have become a bit more simplified.
Knacker = any boisterous, drunk, track-suited person with a gelled mullet (man) or scrunchied ponytail (woman) who is openly breaking the law (e.g. drinking in public, running against a traffic light, screaming at the Gardaí who pulled them kicking from the restaurant where they were causing a stir); age does not make a difference, but the majority seem to be between the age of 13 and 20; annoying, but generally harmless (just watch out for the purse-snatchers).
Scumbag = junkie stabbing. You do not want this.
It's a bit of a square, rectangle situation. A scumbag is a knacker, but a knacker isn't necessarily a scumbag.
So I've moved to Ireland, learned some degrading words for the locals, noted that track suits really aren't a good look on anyone (I felt this way several years ago when J-Lo popularized the pink velour version); drinking is not an organized sport, folks, you don't all need to look the same.
No!
Not everyone here is strung out or an alcoholic, so how to explain the overwhelming bad taste? When the GD first moved to Ireland, he was working in A&E (that's Accidents & Emergencies, a.k.a. the E.R., for all y'all Americans), and I think, for a time, he did believe that every Irish person had a serious addiction problem. But those were the only people he ever saw. And I, despite seeing people shooting up or smoking heroin on our street on nearly a daily basis, know that this is not everyone. Just the ones who think that a doorway is a secret hiding place to do drugs.
What's really to blame? Well, I think peer pressure is always a part of bad fashion choices, but the cyclical nature of the fashion world is always what astonishes me most. I remember when I had to stop wearing leggings because they were not cool anymore and I had enough other reasons to be picked on (I know you can back me up on this, J). So yes, I am moving away from the tracksuit, and on to Ireland's secondary fashion crime: a full return to the 80s.
I know that hipsters in the States have been moving in that direction for years-- the skinny jeans (guilty) eventually had to lead back to the source, right? A return to leggings was inevitable. People really started re-embracing them around my junior and senior years in college, but only the really cool, skinny girls could pull it off, and I secretly thought they looked ridiculous. I will wear skinny jeans. I will wear leggings under a dress. I will not wear leggings with a tee-shirt that exposes my bum and makes me feel as though I'm wearing nothing at all.*
I think the irony of the whole hipster movement was lost long ago, really as soon as it because a cultural phenomenon and Target started selling those fake leather stretch pants (the worst!). But in Ireland, there is no irony. There never was. There are just throngs of teenage girls who maybe never saw Sixteen Candles and don't realize that what they are doing has all been done before. The neon colors are back and the bad, bright make-up with it (though I think the orange shellac as foundation never went out of style in some circles). Some of the more daring girls have "edgy" haircuts-- short! asymmetrical!--, salon-styled and product-filled as ever. The longer-haired ones make sure that their ponytails are good and frizzy; no one thinks you just rolled out of bed, honey, your eyeliner would be on your chin if you went to sleep like that.
So maybe I sound mean, or just plain bitter. Maybe I am longing for my own days of legging innocence, before I tried on my first pair of jeans and thought Horrible! Stiff! Who would wear these? The result? Years of wearing wide-leg jeans (again, long after they were in fashion), more awkwardness and being ostracized by peers. Or maybe I just want these young women to realize that they don't have to wear a tracksuit or leggings to fit in and be cool. In fact, it doesn't really look cool at all.
*I may some day eat these words.
It's official. You're old. First sign is tsk tsking at what the next generation is wearing . . .
ReplyDeleteleggings may be back "in," but that doesn't mean the purple floral leggings I wore in 6th grade would be considered cool now. maybe unless it was worn with a matching purple floral headband (which i also had).
ReplyDeleteOoh, yeah. The transition from leggings to pants was hard on all of us. Also, I refuse to wear leggings except underneath jeans for occasions when it is especially cold. And I'm still apprehensive about skinny jeans although I own a pair. That is all.
ReplyDelete