Style Idols: Weird War
Issue #26
Michelle Mae and Ian Svenonius have a lot in common, including mad style.
By Marisa Meltzer
Published: December 1st, 2005 | 2:04pm
While most American teens probably spent their high school years in the early 1990s trying their best to look like the casts of Friends or 90210, there was another, smaller group of us who looked to Ian Svenonius and Michelle Mae – and their bands Nation of Ulysses, Make-Up, and Weird War – for style inspiration. And while you may be able to trace your adolescent forays in
"One thing that has changed drastically in the past decade," Mae says, "is that I discovered how wrong it is to wear polyester. It's amazing to look at, but it's not worth it. You've gotta let your body breathe." She also dismisses designers as unaffordable but admits having high standards for jeans – "You can't settle for cheap denim" – and for vintage. She's now wearing a pashmina with her shirt and tie. But instead of looking like an aging socialite, the shawl works as a cozy alternative to a blazer.
Svenonius, for his part, claims that his style has gotten "more remote and insidious" over the years and that his current inspirations include Mick Jagger's circa-1980s appropriation of Russian ballet and ice-skating costumes and the masked fighters of the Sandinista National Liberation Front. This translates to a dapper corduroy suit, commissioned from a friend and worn with a thrift-store purple shirt and tie.
As for the state of underground fashion today, Svenonius, who has finished a book, decries the co-opting of style. "The reactionary square who once would have been immediately discernable by his Dockers pants and duck shoes now plays in a band to pull chicks while the young existentialist anti-capitalist poet finds himself in Diesel jeans as the thrift stores go barren." Perhaps Weird Wear, their clothing and accessory line, will come in handy during this era of fashion emergency.
Mae, who will be at All Tomorrow's Parties in December with Weird Warn and plays on the posthumous Make-Up album, warns that we should "stay away from militaristic fashions, especially camouflage. Choose clothing that promotes a peaceful, compassionate vibration." She is quick to add – though this might sound ridiculous – "to cultivate peace in all that you do, including your choice of style, is just as important as being anti-war. Think carefully about what you wear and how it affects the minds of those who have to look at it."
Comments
Please login to be able to comment on this article.
more