Few high street retailers are able to claim the rights to an entire look for any stretch of time. But between 2007 and last year, US retailer American Apparel did exactly that — the label was responsible for a trend that could genuinely be termed the American Apparel look.
The American Apparel trend was instantly recognizable and held a vice-like grip on the under-25s — male and female. The sexy-geek look typically comprised of crayon-bright, high-waisted skinny jeans worn with a fuss-free bright T-shirt, a pair of heavy-rimmed glasses and a rebellious pout. Metallic leggings, bright backpacks and skimpy 1980s running shorts completed the look.
By 2008, it was a genuine fashion sensation. At music gigs up and down the country, this exuberant youth-club chic was unavoidable.
Part of the label’s appeal was that it sat outside of fashion’s more prescriptive trends, a sartorial law unto itself. The clothing is logo-free and mostly unisex, so allowed the wearer to style a unique look themselves — although, no matter how creative the outfits, they were always somehow distinctly American Apparel. As street-style blogs proliferated, the trend was documented ad nauseam.
In some respects, the brand became a victim of its own success. Even if you didn’t subscribe wholeheartedly to the look, the cheap logo-free jersey T-shirts filled a gap in most wardrobes. But the rest of the high street caught on quickly. Uniqlo began selling cheap colored denim and Gap stepped up its commitment to decent fitting, logo-free T-shirts.
Then, crucially, fashion overdosed on the look. Although there remains a hardcore band of youths committed to wearing their American Apparel brights with ripped sheer tights, the look is fading as fast as summer. Fashion is now much more enamored with minimalism, camel and grown-up trends. Youthful bright leggings are very much on the sidelines, along with the company that made them its own.
In late October of 1873 the government of Japan decided against sending a military expedition to Korea to force that nation to open trade relations. Across the government supporters of the expedition resigned immediately. The spectacle of revolt by disaffected samurai began to loom over Japanese politics. In January of 1874 disaffected samurai attacked a senior minister in Tokyo. A month later, a group of pro-Korea expedition and anti-foreign elements from Saga prefecture in Kyushu revolted, driven in part by high food prices stemming from poor harvests. Their leader, according to Edward Drea’s classic Japan’s Imperial Army, was a samurai
Located down a sideroad in old Wanhua District (萬華區), Waley Art (水谷藝術) has an established reputation for curating some of the more provocative indie art exhibitions in Taipei. And this month is no exception. Beyond the innocuous facade of a shophouse, the full three stories of the gallery space (including the basement) have been taken over by photographs, installation videos and abstract images courtesy of two creatives who hail from the opposite ends of the earth, Taiwan’s Hsu Yi-ting (許懿婷) and Germany’s Benjamin Janzen. “In 2019, I had an art residency in Europe,” Hsu says. “I met Benjamin in the lobby
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Peter Brighton was amazed when he found the giant jackfruit. He had been watching it grow on his farm in far north Queensland, and when it came time to pick it from the tree, it was so heavy it needed two people to do the job. “I was surprised when we cut it off and felt how heavy it was,” he says. “I grabbed it and my wife cut it — couldn’t do it by myself, it took two of us.” Weighing in at 45 kilograms, it is the heaviest jackfruit that Brighton has ever grown on his tropical fruit farm, located