Attack of the Clones

[greengrassia]

i just don't understand the general mentaliy that when someone sees something nice on someone else, and that person immediately want the exact copy. i don't understand that desire at all. for me, it works the opposite. i will genuinely appreciate that piece of clothing on someone else if it looks nice, and will avoid having the exactly same copy. instead i will look for my own version of things. seeing something on other people, especially repetitively, will ultimately kill my desire for that particular item, no matter how beautiful or even flattering that is on myself, cause i will have the weird feeling that i'm picking up something from someone else, and i can't help it.
i guess personal touch and authenticiy is a rare thing in a globalized world which imformaion are being exchanged on such rapid speed. that's why i refuse to have a fashion blog, i guess, cause the world is in no need of my noise about friviloty (strickly applied to myself)

 

[HeatherAnne]

This thread started as the Alexander Wang/Erin Wasson clone attack, and now a few years later I feel like we are seeing a shift to the French girl/Isabel Marant clone attack, at least in Hollywood so it's only a matter of time before it trickles down and hits the masses. It's funny I never thought I'd tire of seeing a closet staple like a striped breton shirt, but I seriously can't stand them now.

ETA: softgrey makes a good observation about the olive colored parka, something else I associate with the French, probably because of the infamous Balenciaga ones.

 

[The_Ida]

I don't really care if I'm wearing the same as someone else...as long as I think I look better

But I'm sick of seeing army jackets. I loved the one I got on sale 1.5 years ago, now they're everywhere. I still feel like it suits me better than all the trend-whores though

 

[Judleberry]

i don't understand that desire at all. for me, it works the opposite. i will genuinely appreciate that piece of clothing on someone else if it looks nice, and will avoid having the exactly same copy. instead i will look for my own version of things. seeing something on other people, especially repetitively, will ultimately kill my desire for that particular item, no matter how beautiful or even flattering that is on myself

I feel this way about Christian Louboutin shoes, their omnipresence on celebs is starting to make me loathe them...

 

[ediewho]

But I'm sick of seeing army jackets. I loved the one I got on sale 1.5 years ago, now they're everywhere. I still feel like it suits me better than all the trend-whores though

1.5 years ago??? I got army jackets all my life... since a baby buying them at street markets that looked (and still looking) on me like coats, from exbf, stores,...

 

[AD092717A]

a lot of girls will probably disagree or jump down my throat but i loathe the jeffrey campbell litas. they remind me of kiss shoes. i think they're so ugly and literally every blogger has em. solestruck just sent me an email w/ the newly released spring colors. i wanted to vomit.

 

[Desi]

Same here. Not a huge fan of the Lita's though I am a fan of lots of other Jeffrey Campbell footwear. The Skates look real cute but I have yet to seriously look at a picture of someone wearing them on the street.

 

[silk skin paws]

It's common for people to gravitate towards a specific trend. This isn't a new phenomenon. I'm sure the new age of technology made trends more universal and compact. Yeah it's possible that someone might have the same outfit as I do since I usually wear basic clothing or mix and match articles of clothing it's not all the noticeable. Plus clothing fits and looks differently depending on body type, style and even complexion. The clone arrive when one or two look(s) becomes a standard.

 

[Menace]

This is why I love girls/women that dare to be unique

Don't get me wrong, I do like my girls that can emulate stylish outfits, but they are no where in the league of women that can challenge the current trend.

Interestingly, it is mostly women who are ~25 years and older who dare to be original. Maybe it's because they've broken out of that teenage "pack" mentality and found their own individualism.

 

[MissAnia]

lookbook.nu... it's a symbol of clones to me. is there any girl at lookbook that doesn't wear jeffrey campbell's "lita" shoes ?

 

[softgrey]

add me to the list of people who dislike those shoes...
i've never seen anyone wear them in real life...
but everyone on there seems to have them...
the only reason i even know what they are is because i spent a 1/2 hour once looking at that site and every other girl had them...

they are really not very nice...imo...
...

*i have asked people why they copy other peoples' looks from head to toe...
and they admit that it's because they wouldn't know how to put an outfit together by themselves...

so- it's true...
clones are people who have no original ideas of their own...

and i'm not talking about being inspired and then doing your own version of something...
i'm talking about seeing someone with really good style and just going and getting the exact same things as them...

that is just copying...
and i don't find it very interesting...

 

[Lapin de Lune]

Another tangent here, but doesn't anyone think that the internet is exacerbating this, too? Or at the very least, making it continuously visible to us? Great for the brands, of course, but an oversaturation of certain styles for those who crave to see more examples of individuality in fashion. I think that the proliferation of clone-like trends merely shows how human beings like to belong to the 'pack'. And it is true that we ought to give a lot more thought to whether an item will suit us, just because it looks great on a certain celebrity or model.

Maybe we have become lazy (not us, necessarily, just a figure of speech!). With so many trends constantly circulated before our eyes via our favourite media, there might be an element here which suggests we may have become just a little bit brainwashed by it all...passive observers (to some extent) exposed to continuous visual stimulation in the form of ads, lookbooks, celebrity pics, etc, etc. I'm of the mind that this clone mentality affects just about anything, though: musical preference, movie choice, places to be seen, and so on.

Also, if people see that a person has achieved some sort of status, popularity or public adoration, it seems to inspire them to imitate in an effort to draw a similar sort of feeling upon themselves - I've noticed this whilst reading popular blogs, where the commenters are literally running out the door to pick up each item that the writer has just worn, purchased or recommended. With some I've even noticed a tendency for the commenters to ask really personal questions of the blogger, as if seeking some secret meaning behind their success, in an effort to understand it, then make it their own.

Sorry this isn't worded very well. Just a bunch of ideas. I feel like i'm getting a cold this morning so articulation just flew outa the window...

 

[StrawberrySpring]

i agree with someone who said that now we'll seeing Erin Wasson copies, and someday we'll see the French Vogue girls' copies.

to me, its just a question of time. now in every magazine you can read that a girl must be chic, classy etc. you can read all these "wardrobe staples" and must-haves. i agree, now everyone at blogs, lookbook, chictopia etc is wearing levis cut-offs, but i really started to notice all these Emmanuelle Alt wannabes. or something less edgy - Victoria Beckham wannabes.

its sad because not everyone can pull off these looks (rock girl/french classy). to me, theyre the hardest looks to achieve. you gotta have an attitude...

 

[HeatherAnne]

Another tangent here, but doesn't anyone think that the internet is exacerbating this, too?

Absolutely! Sofia Coppola touched on this in a recent interview:

“New Yorkers are a little bit more dressed up – they’re closer to Europe maybe, the more east you go. But I feel like nowadays, with the internet, there is not as huge a difference as when I was a kid, when you would see a big difference between places, because everyone is looking at the same references.”

via StyleList interview December 2010

 

[HeatherAnne]

lookbook.nu... it's a symbol of clones to me. is there any girl at lookbook that doesn't wear jeffrey campbell's "lita" shoes ?

Absolutely! The only place that is more of a creative-sucker than lookbook.nu is Tumblr. Let's all reblog the same pictures over and over and think we are being artsy...

 

[Desi]

add me to the list of people who dislike those shoes...
i've never seen anyone wear them in real life...
but everyone on there seems to have them...
the only reason i even know what they are is because i spent a 1/2 hour once looking at that site and every other girl had them...

they are really not very nice...imo...
...

I was at a graffiti party last month and saw six girls wearing Lita's. First time I saw them in the wild too, funny thing is at least three-four of the girls were friends and came together.

 

[Lapin de Lune]

Absolutely! The only place that is more of a creative-sucker than lookbook.nu is Tumblr. Let's all reblog the same pictures over and over and think we are being artsy...

Thanks for saying this out loud. I thought that I was simply intolerant lately!
As a visual artist/illustrator, my experiences with tumblr have really affected my enjoyment of browsing and sharing art online. It is like the experience becomes watered down, too repetitive, diluted. And likewise with fashion. I always wonder why so many people flock to tumblr, the whole experience seems to grind things into the ground, renders them almost pointless even.

 

[Lapin de Lune]

Absolutely! Sofia Coppola touched on this in a recent interview:

So true. Thanks for sharing that.
I also wonder if the web is responsible for the apparent death of sub culture - or at least how we used to perceive it.

And perhaps nobody is at fault, regardless how irritating many people feel about the concept of the clones. I mean, if the nature of the web is to connect us all, then this would simply be a by-product of that. I imagine people will rebel against it eventually, when it comes full circle (perhaps?). There's something about homogeneity that gives me the creeps, gets under my skin, and sometimes I feel that the web seems to encourage this as opposed to actually celebrating diversity. And then again, perhaps all the web can ever do is offer us a reflection of ourselves - and some of it is stuff we might rather not prefer to see!

 

[softgrey]

yes...
i've been conscience for some years of the fact that the internet has made style a more universal thing ...

as we've seen the internet grow, it's gotten harder and harder to tell what part of the world streetstyle photos are from...
everything seems to be the same...

i do think that part of the reason we see so much of the same is that so many of the posters are quite young...
i think that it's easier to copy someone else's style than to try to develop your own...
but as we mature...
i think we are more confident and not so afraid to stand out from the crowd...
in fact...
it's often quite nice to 'show the kids how it's done'...

i often see young ladies checking me out from head to toe...
like they are studying me...
it's funny...
i almost want to tell them...
'take a good look...this is what you're gonna look like when you grown up!'...


*of course...sometimes it's also nice to just blend in and be anonymous...
...

 

[Lapin de Lune]

Softgrey, I was thinking along those lines, too, but couldn't find a way to articulate it.

This reminds me of something that I recently asked in another thread: that basically there are less blogs and trend related sites for those over 26, and especially those over 30. I am also a member of another fashion community, and we were discussing this yesterday - there are so many blogs and style related sites created by (and for) younger age groups, which probably creates that sense of multiplicity (ie, clones), and yet far less (to my knowledge) for the older age groups.

Either older girls are less inclined to care about jumping on the bandwagon and sharing, or there simply aren't enough of us doing it so far to make an impact.

I would love to see more over 26-30 blogs out there, even though I'm no believer in fashion rules (and most of the so called advice sites for style over 30 are kind of patronizing and insulting). Age might seem to be irrelevant, but once I mentioned being in my mid thirties at another community, quite a few more members came out and said they were really glad to find more of us sharing outfits and ideas, because inspiration was a bit thin on the ground.
So although it would be great to see more age ranges in the fashion blogging sphere, it would be interesting to see if that same multiplicity would transfer to older bloggers, too.
Would the thirtysomethings become clones of each other too? Haha. An interesting thought.

I have recently been introduced to a few such blogs via TFS members, and i'm loving the variety of styles and ideas