A counterculture from the 1980s still thrives in the fashion of college age students today.
Back in the early 1980s, the second wave of a certain counterculture emerged — stemming from the American hardcore punk scene — and has since been a subset of youth counterculture: do-it-yourself fashion.
In a society where industries took the ideas of the youth, mass-produced them and sold them back, the response was to circumvent mainstream culture and find independence, creativity and uniqueness.
Patchwork denim and leather jackets speak to the mantra of the DIY lifestyle. The creation or alteration of clothes, jewelry and art without the aid of a paid professional sits at the core of the culture.
You’re wrong if you don’t think that this is relevant today. DIY culture is alive and thriving, even here in Athens.
Kelli Oliver, a senior studying commercial photography, is involved in the independent DIY counterculture that has settled in the bricks of Athens. The lifestyle appealed to her, as it applied to other students and Athenians, and drew her to the culture.
“I saw friends that were moving toward that lifestyle, living more intentionally and paying attention to how you’re using products and how often you’re consuming things,” Oliver said. “How they could do it for themselves, how they can take their money and move it somewhere better.”
Living a DIY lifestyle is rewarding on an individual basis. The impact on the world may be small, but the gratification of being environmentally and economically conscious is fulfilling.
As I’ve written previously, we are now in a throwaway culture, where clothes are easily tossed aside and forgotten once styles change, but the recycling of clothes among DIY-ers reduces the impact on the environment and their wallets.
“Something I see most is trading and sharing of clothes,” Oliver said. “There’s constantly people getting rid of old fabric.”
A dress that may not appeal to one owner can easily be traded for a couple shirts or a pair of shorts. Old fabric can be traded and then altered by its new owner into something new and customized.
Let’s not forget the utilitarian style of DIY. Leather and denim jackets paired with heavy boots lend a sense of hard work to the style’s onlookers. Many people chose to add patches to their jackets, personalizing their look even more. This isn’t a wardrobe you can cop online or at the store, because those styles are mass-produced.
“I think it’s really liberating to find alternate ways to dress,” Oliver said. “It ends up producing something that’s a little more unique than buying something traditionally like you’d find on the mannequin or in the magazine.”
Courtney Mihocik is a sophomore studying journalism and a copy editor for The Post. She can be reached at cm674912@ohio.edu or on Twitter at @courtneymiho.
