Today in Jamba Juice I saw a lady with amazing shoes. They were black heels with a strip of some sort of shiny metallic substance near the front. Neat. It got me to thinking about the clothes people wear and the oft inevitable question of, ‘where’d you get that?’ The question seems innocuous on the surface, but there is a deeper meaning at play there. ‘Where’d you get that?’ means where can I go to get that or something like it. Or, in other words, how can I jack your style? This line of thought sent me scurrying down the path of uniformity and led me right back to the question of originality in style. I got to wondering, are any of us trying to create a unique identity in the way we dress or is this all shifting miasma of comfort and conformity?
I spend a decent amount of time at the local skate part watching the talis’ boys three have fun. They don’t dress the part. Most of the other kids are rocking $34.00 Diamond Supply Co tees and Obey skinny pants without getting the point that they’re clothing makes them posers to the culture they claim to be. Or maybe it doesn’t. Maybe we are at the point where the clothing is the culture and entry is gained by buying the right gear and doing a flatground ollie. We see people who we feel are cool or look cool and we all too often decide, ‘I wanna look like that’ or ‘I wanna do that’ allowing our subconscious to seize upon the easy gratification of imitation.
There is a lot to be said for originality. The more I write the more I recognize that stories I most enjoy writing involve creating new things as opposed to finding an exciting angle on something I’ve already done before. Sure, at the heart of it there are only a handful (7, actually) stories any writer can ever tell, just like there are only so many options available with clothing. The key thing to remember is that within those options are a nearly unlimited number of things you can do with clothing (and stories) without being a nameless clone.
If Star Wars was supposed to teach us anything it was that clones don’t think for themselves…(and maybe that light sabers are deeply cool)