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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (Nov. 1, 1990)
The Battalion 4 0t m Thursday, November 1 , 1990 Lifestyles Editor Lisa Ann Robertson 845-33! peace Irriagi d ieSt K 1 s omS' A thci r hl F n reve; lIp jfthis eig^- n< e B ’ve c It’ Cove yOU' bat* 3 ' f , si° n °0 ofW 91 dan^- Bring toge^^ dan^- ^ 0raZ‘;> verb Borro Oiereug 1 fast-p act the i" al thig^ o vtasator The d to been cl Nig ht Latin rh up all ov example ter the c pr oduce and Th Yet, s pumP a trend- 1 Spanish Sally Freeman wears a fashionable quartz crystal and peace earring. fashion Spa Univen “a faddi “The Afro-C; stay aro says, “n- and rel cause tl ular dat The i influent beat, h Story by So fin Mabry (Pfwtos by Mike C. Midvey longer, Salsa. TTc Bingo Barnes sports his hippy fashion inside the Bug Zapper - the shop features natural fabrics and ethnic designs. oday at college campuses all over the nation, including Texas A&M, students are adopting many of the styles they used to laugh at in those old pictures of Mom and Dad. The clothes have continued to make a big comeback following the Brooks Brothers’ era of the early-to- mid ’80s, when most students wouldn’t be caught dead in a pair of worn sandals. Today, however, you can’t walk through campus without seeing fel low students into the “nouveau hip pie” look — long hair for both men and women, tie-dyed T-shirts, beaded and silver jewelry, peasant blouses, bandanas and long, colorful skirts. To explain the trend from a socio logical standpoint, Dr. Stjepan Mes- trovic, associate professor of socio logy, points to a theory called postmodernism. Part of postmodernism, he says, involves looking back nostalgically to the past out of a distaste for the present. “The ‘hippie’ movement, even though I don’t think we are going to go back to the values of it (in the ’60s), is one more thing in this long, long trend to bring back former styles... People are not happy with the way they are, so they’re looking back to the ‘good old days,’ and it has to come back to fashion. ” Wearing a colorful, quilted vest, faded blue jeans, leather sandals, and sporting long hair and a beard, James, a senior parks and recreation major, is the epitome of the ’60s Re vival look. The main reason he dresses the way he does, he says, is for comfort, not for fashion. “I don’t know anything about fashion,” he says. “I dress as func tionally as possible... I like things that are nonrestrictive, that give me freedom of movement and air. ’ ’ notation from C has a ve beat wi Carribe On t rengue, Republi deeper reason, he has adopted ti style. “I like to.xio some things aga« beating the norm because it (the mainstrear Lisa < is not something 1 want to be ider; j e nginee fied with. I wouldn’t want toB 0 f the I compared to the general A&M po) ulation.” Butler also says that comfort isi the only reason she wears her hipp threads. “When I first came to college started dressing like this because saw people on campus that we dressed like it, and I liked the way looked,” she says. “But, on 4 other hand. I’ll also see girls whoa: dressed up and I’ll think that loot good,too.” College students, says Mestrovi sociatio dances traditio dances movenn “It’s where tern. Y body, n your kn Cara! dance < the Spa pie are are more susceptible to these trem The dan Caral because they’re in a transitorypk- of their life. carij sa> “This age group is the mostvu cu it to 1< nerable in terms of power — they’j not children, but they’re not \m ; same j r owning bourgeois capitalists ye They’re right in the middle they’re going to be the most sen: tive.” Rebecca Boyles, assistaf Lave to professor of theater arts, is ' costume designer and a former co lege student who “survived 4 ’60s.” While today she dresses like si just finished raiding Neiman-Mt cus, twenty years ago she was wet ing moccasins, floor-length bellk T, om toms, a fringed suede vest beaded dog-collar necklace. Herte was straight, parted in the mil" and had grown past her waist. Boyles says there is a diffemi however, in what was behind 1 he says clothes twenty years ago and today “It was dressing to make a cal statement,” she says. “Ford ample, many white people hadafc ^P an ish Barnes handcrafts a hematite, silver and skull bead bracelet. If James is the male version of the nouveau hippie, senior Jill Butler is his female counterpart. With no makeup and her hair worn loose and natural, she dresses in a burlap Gua temalan jacket, sandals and shorts. She, too, likes the clothes because they’re comfortable. “As far as my hair and makeup goes,” she says, “it’s a matter of convenience. Also, I think I look my best when I don’t have a lot of makeup on. I look really, incredibly fake with a lot of makeup and all that stuff in my hair.” Mestrovic says “People always say that... When people started wearing miniskirts in the ‘60s they said it was comfortable. How can it be comfortable when you can’t even sit down without everything show ing?” James says there is, indeed. to show their concern for racial!! sues. Today it’s not as much o( protest as it is a fashion statement Mestrovic sees a difference i well. “People were questioning forjif a little while whether modernity« worth it,” he says. “And that pass; Ca ^ over very quickly. Today we’ves the problems, and people arecyi ical, but the political tone is most conservative, and that’s a bigdiffc ence.” ^ Boyles says, however, that ® la * poin reason for the new trend may bei P a rtmei environmentalist movement. . Any “This generation does seemmo J Us t pra concerned about our earth... Sit Sa ys. “V denly, those weird people wholi'i ev eryon through the ’60s aren’t old fossi anymore — maybe they really we serious about things like the enviroi dance vc ment... Suddenly, today’s genet Center i tion is more into natural fibers at Am. a the old way of doing things.” “The says. “Ii ching it In thi basic. B knees, movemi 1 more fc cult, to elaborai Saturd Even dj fice flo movie 1 dancing But, learn is tions. other o people ter all tl Volin helping A Tast 17, spoi o Stu< The play sal and oth Castr to ever) , Ticke fhe R u ma J °urnalist!