NYT Fashion Pub: Skinhead Style is Back
The New York Times鈥� Sunday fashion insert doesn鈥檛 normally cross paths with Hatewatch. But a headline in the Sunday, Sept. 16, edition caught our attention:聽 鈥淪kinheads are Moshing Their Way Into the Style Mainstream.鈥�
According to the brief magazine article, big-name designers like Dior Homme and Heidi Slimane are bringing skinhead style back to the runway. For a movement now largely known for its racist violence, that鈥檚 quite a comeback.
Skinhead researcher and Portland [Ore.] State University professor Randy Blazak says that while he hasn鈥檛 seen a pair of Doc Martens boots in over three years, skinhead style as a mainstream fashion fad isn鈥檛 anything new. As a matter of fact, racist skinheads are often angered to see their style co-opted, whether by anti-racist skinheads or trend-seeking teenagers. 鈥淚t undermines their message when that style is diffused to the mainstream,鈥� said Blazak.
The Times also improbably claims 鈥� on the basis of what evidence it鈥檚 hard to say 鈥� that skinhead style has been not only appropriated, but defanged, by European gay men: 鈥淪kinheads went underground until gays, who have disarmed much of the movement鈥檚 racism, recently began dragging them out of the closet鈥� .鈥�
Blazak says while researching the skinhead movement in England in the 1980s, he accompanied a skinhead into a bar and found himself surrounded by guys with shaved domes, black boots and suspenders. But the pub wasn鈥檛 a hangout for racists or ultranationalists; it was a gay bar. Still, that doesn鈥檛 mean that gays had 鈥渄isarmed鈥� the movement鈥檚 racism. Says Blazak: 鈥淛ust because there are gay skinheads doesn鈥檛 mean that racist skinheads are going away.鈥�
