More Dude Values: Fashion

Please see The T-Shirt or The Dude Uniform (below)

MULTI-FORMs

There is another Dude Fashion thing which may be termed the Dude Anti-Form, or Multi-Form. This is basically the technique of lots of layers of oddly gotten clothes (homemade, secondhand, altered, street) and pieces of clothes poking out all over one’s body, can be charming or grimy. Often tight, for functional reasons. Kind of co-opted by hipsters and malls but also very functional in a basic survival fashion. Post-apocalyptic.

Finally, we have to acknowledge that one kind of dude we saw in your neighborhood. Stubborn Dresser, or Amalgamator, or the Patently Weird: a dude who combines specifically striking and contrasting “fashion” elements in the same outfit (possibly on daily basis, for local notoriety). For example: Spike studded birkenstock sandals AND fedora AND… oh god, what else?34

This is another arena where the designation “Hipster” (see Authenticity) comes into play - the term has become a kind of broad signifier tacked on to a wide swath of dressing choices - though there is more a penchant for exaggerated visual aids that veer towards the ridiculous, blatantly eye-catching, divorced from meaning or reason, a flag alone that doesn’t really say anything; likely multiple (contrasting) flags [see Fixie under Dude’s Dudes]. (Perhaps Hipster Hate is a blowback from the great “sell-out” fervor of the 90’s.) Please note there is a great deal of room for here for individual integrity; this is often a label given at a distance, thrown (perhaps jealously) at high style that varies from the flattering to the ridiculous.