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"everyone can look at someone's dress and decide if it's fashionable for their demographic." You may have forgotten where you are discussing this topic. I cert

"everyone can look at someone's dress and decide if it's fashionable for their demographic." You may have forgotten where you are discussing this topic. I certainly have no clue whether something is fashionable. I'd be hard pressed to tell you if two colors go together. I do no know if I dress more or less formally than my coworkers, or if my normal clothes present any sort of image. My style is not a conscious rejection of fashion, it is simply some clothes that I've concluded aren't too far outside what I'm expected to wear and therefore don't make me stand out.

petercooper 14y ago
You may have forgotten where you are discussing this topic. I couldn't blame anyone for this stereotype but I don't think it's true. I suspect quite a lot of people here are into or have a nose for fashion (though not necessarily in the haute couture/catwalk sense).
- vidarh 14y ago
  If nothing else, anyone who visits e.g. Silicon Valley and hangs out with geeks there, will quickly start picking out the "geek uniform". I find it funny when fellow geeks thinks they're clueless about fashion, and still manage to dress in very specific ways that makes them recognisable as a group. That is fashion, even if they're not following mainstream fashion. The first time I visited the Bay Area, I stood out like a sore thumb because I didn't fit into "Bay Area geek fashion" (I dressed too "smart" because it was my first business trip abroad). I see that here in London too - e.g. if a developer comes into the office in a shirt, it tends to elicit comments. There are even small but noticeable differences between how the developers and designers dress.
  - sopooneo 14y ago
    For my own clarification, do you mean that, in London, if a developer comes into the office in a dress shirt they stand out as overly formal? Or do you mean if they come in with only a shirt (ie no tie and jacket) they stand out as under-dressed?
    - pyre 14y ago
      Maybe he worked in the London porn industry, and any shirt is over-dressed.
subsystem 14y ago
Don't confuse fashion theory and the fashion industry. Geek culture, especially in SV, seems to have a quite specific anti-fashion with trickle-up influences. While many swear they aren't fashion conscience, they actually have quite strong connotations to things like suits.
- Tyrannosaurs 14y ago
  I've always found the geek attitude to clothing interesting. For people who in large part claim that clothes really aren't important (a) we can spend a lot of time talking about it if prompted and (b) we seem to establish clothing norms in a way that suggests we're not as anti/immune to fashion as we might like to think. The suits thing is a little different - that's usually a (somewhat reasonable) reaction to the judgemental side of what you wear = your competence. I have concerns when it goes too far (that people assume anyone wearing a suit is automatically a fool, which seems to me to be the same thing only in reverse). But that aside it seems that most geeks use clothing in exactly the same way as most people - express personality, as a uniform, as a way of showing interest in other cultural phenomenon and so on. We're usually not interested in "high fashion" but I'd be very sceptical about anyone saying that as a group we're not interested in fashion.
millennia 14y ago
You've just described how fashion works, and how most people experience it. People who don't care so much follow the lead of those who do, so that they don't stand out from the crowd.
rhizome 14y ago
it is simply some clothes that I've concluded aren't too far outside what I'm expected to wear This is where you agree with the post you're replying to. The entire decision process of "what I'm expected to wear" is exactly what they're talking about. You're soaking in it, as indifferent as you appear to think you are is just one facet of accounting for fashion's role in your life, which, to be sure, is not absent.
- kevinpet 14y ago
  The post I replied to said "everyone can look at someone's dress and decide if it's fashionable for their demographic." I cannot. I think I can mostly decide whether it's appropriate, but I'm not confident in that ability. I am quite certain I can't decide if something is fashionable, something the parent seems to imply is near-universal ability. Acknowledging that I spend some time trying to meet the bare minimum of something does not support the claim that everyone can decide if something is fashionable, and more than my dad saying he occasionally opens the command prompt in windows supports the claim that everyone can program.

petercooper 14y ago

You may have forgotten where you are discussing this topic. I couldn't blame anyone for this stereotype but I don't think it's true. I suspect quite a lot of people here are into or have a nose for fashion (though not necessarily in the haute couture/catwalk sense).

vidarh 14y ago
If nothing else, anyone who visits e.g. Silicon Valley and hangs out with geeks there, will quickly start picking out the "geek uniform". I find it funny when fellow geeks thinks they're clueless about fashion, and still manage to dress in very specific ways that makes them recognisable as a group. That is fashion, even if they're not following mainstream fashion. The first time I visited the Bay Area, I stood out like a sore thumb because I didn't fit into "Bay Area geek fashion" (I dressed too "smart" because it was my first business trip abroad). I see that here in London too - e.g. if a developer comes into the office in a shirt, it tends to elicit comments. There are even small but noticeable differences between how the developers and designers dress.
- sopooneo 14y ago
  For my own clarification, do you mean that, in London, if a developer comes into the office in a dress shirt they stand out as overly formal? Or do you mean if they come in with only a shirt (ie no tie and jacket) they stand out as under-dressed?
  - pyre 14y ago
    Maybe he worked in the London porn industry, and any shirt is over-dressed.

subsystem 14y ago

Don't confuse fashion theory and the fashion industry. Geek culture, especially in SV, seems to have a quite specific anti-fashion with trickle-up influences. While many swear they aren't fashion conscience, they actually have quite strong connotations to things like suits.

Tyrannosaurs 14y ago
I've always found the geek attitude to clothing interesting. For people who in large part claim that clothes really aren't important (a) we can spend a lot of time talking about it if prompted and (b) we seem to establish clothing norms in a way that suggests we're not as anti/immune to fashion as we might like to think. The suits thing is a little different - that's usually a (somewhat reasonable) reaction to the judgemental side of what you wear = your competence. I have concerns when it goes too far (that people assume anyone wearing a suit is automatically a fool, which seems to me to be the same thing only in reverse). But that aside it seems that most geeks use clothing in exactly the same way as most people - express personality, as a uniform, as a way of showing interest in other cultural phenomenon and so on. We're usually not interested in "high fashion" but I'd be very sceptical about anyone saying that as a group we're not interested in fashion.

millennia 14y ago

You've just described how fashion works, and how most people experience it. People who don't care so much follow the lead of those who do, so that they don't stand out from the crowd.

rhizome 14y ago

it is simply some clothes that I've concluded aren't too far outside what I'm expected to wear This is where you agree with the post you're replying to. The entire decision process of "what I'm expected to wear" is exactly what they're talking about. You're soaking in it, as indifferent as you appear to think you are is just one facet of accounting for fashion's role in your life, which, to be sure, is not absent.

kevinpet 14y ago
The post I replied to said "everyone can look at someone's dress and decide if it's fashionable for their demographic." I cannot. I think I can mostly decide whether it's appropriate, but I'm not confident in that ability. I am quite certain I can't decide if something is fashionable, something the parent seems to imply is near-universal ability. Acknowledging that I spend some time trying to meet the bare minimum of something does not support the claim that everyone can decide if something is fashionable, and more than my dad saying he occasionally opens the command prompt in windows supports the claim that everyone can program.