Defiance: The Love Language of Old-School EGL Fashion

It can be very easy to fall out of love with the things we were once so enamoured with. A sense of fatigue and exhaustion can set in when you've had a little break from wearing the alternative fashion for one reason or another, We can all feel like that sometimes. Here are some things to consider if something is getting in the way of your love of EGL fashion.

Defiance: Have we forgotten this was the Whole Point? 

I was having a conversation the other day with my friend, a fellow frilly fashion fancier. We were both wearing casual, comfy coords, but EGL coord none-the-less. We got some double takes and eye rolls from people in the area (not many, mind you, since it was an area of our city that is a little more on the quirky side of things). The both of us are 30 years old and have been wearing the fashion for more than a decade.

My friend, who has been wearing the fashion longer than me, mused about how she explained to her older sister that the fashion was not a mere exhibitionist activity for teenaged edge-lords. It was like this: if all the people around her did not exist to see her, she would still be wearing these clothes. That is probably the most simple but effective way I have ever heard to explain the act of defiance wearing EGL fashion represents. The reclamation of the body (especially the femme-presenting body) in clothes that encapsulate a rebellion towards a patriarchal society where certain types of presentation are celebrated and others are scorned and laughed at. And by celebrated, I mean in the form of being leered and wolf-whistled at, or objectified in some other way. 

Defiance, however, can be hard to do while living in the shadow of capitalism. 

Comparison is the thief of joy. It is exhausting and drains the life and love out of things we are passionate about. Yet, living a life on social media seems to be more and more acutely unavoidable for the vast majority of millennials and gen-z. It is especially unavoidable when one is a part of a niche fashion which has been internationally disseminated and developed through the medium of the internet. And that is the main place in which we are now being sold our identity every day. As such, it is hard at times to find the love for the fashion above and beyond the act of comparing yourself to those who wear it who seem to have unlimited access to amenities.

This act of comparison can be very hard to mitigate. This is perhaps because from the moment many of us began to wear the fashion, we looked to others who had been wearing the fashion for longer to mentor and supervise the development of our own personal taste through constructive criticism. ConCrit has its place, for sure. But it can definitely be detrimental and throw you off in your search for where you fit in the whole wide world of EGL.

This brings us to...

The EGL rules - What are they even good for?

It is a fallacy to fully believe EITHER the opinion 1) that the rules are arbitrary, or 2) that the rules are there for a reason, when it is, in fact, possible to believe both are true. Why? Because perhaps going too much one way or the other is destroying the balance or taking away the thing that you fell in love with about EGL fashion to begin with? Limitation by the rules can actually stop you from ever finding your true identity within the niche fashion interest you enjoy.

True enough, the rules are there for a reason in the beginning of any EGL wearer's journey in order to steer towards procurement of higher quality pieces by established brands, whether that be by first or second hand means, and, perhaps more prevalently, to deter from making purchase decisions that are objectively unwise. 

However, what we have seen through the history of Western enjoyment of EGL fashion since around 2010/11 (around the boon of OTT sweet) is that the rules of the fashion go through motions and changes depending on what's on trend at any given time. However, through borrowing from these trends, the rules of the fashion have tended to get a little more broad, all while retaining their original purposes. I would argue that to me myself starting my EGL fashion journey during the 2010s OTT Classic craze, rules seemed daunting - however, that was the flavour of the online community in general at the time. People were quick to cry 'ITA', something which I believe may have contributed to the surge in EGL wearers around that time and in the years that followed leaning more on wearing the entire matching set produced by brands (JSK, Blouse, Headdress, Socks, Jewellery etc. etc.) which now shipped worldwide and therefore catered to this trend within the Western community, causing a sense of soullessness in the fashion. 

The Neo-Old School Boon: An Act of Defiance 

At the time our designer, Katherine Rose, began to conceive of the brand R.R.Memorandum, there was a small community of EGL fanciers in various parts of the world who had already been collecting Old School EGL pieces second hand, at the time, at very reasonable prices since around 2015 or before. The return to procuring pieces of EGL fashion in a manner which felt like curating a collection rather than a 'Gotta Catch Em All' approach, mixing and matching themes, silhouettes, colours, patterns, aesthetics and textures, and striving for imperfection and timelessness really is inspiringly defiant. It brought the fashion back from a space in which both the spirit of the culture and the fashion itself was beginning to feel unrecognizable. 

Image credit: Bon Komera (Official Fanime Staff Photographer)