Alternative fashion beyond the trends!

I’ve always been interested in the process and personality behind getting dressed in the morning. Why did they choose those shoes? How did you know those tights would look good as a shrug? Which belt lost the chance to be worn? These questions are always followed up with “Where do you shop!” I’m always trying to figure out how to make my personality shine through my clothes the same way I see alternative black people in the street. Skirts are used as shirts, a cut-up tie as a choker, or even as simple as a bowler hat on a streetwear outfit. 

Alternative fashion has always been seen as something that only the white community can participate in. Time and time again black teens, young adults, and even adults are seen as weird and “white-washed” for dressing and listening to what they want. But what about now? With the popularization of alternative fashion through tiktok and Instagram, we now see a renaissance of black culture and fashion. While we still have the blueprints of hip-hop culture, baggy jeans, tight dresses, and crazy hair, black people have also made alternative fashion their own. 

Atlanta is the hub for fashion, and the community for alternative fashion in the city is rich. Taking inspiration from scene fashion and rave ware, we look towards fashion influencers like AliyahsInterlude. Aliyah is an Atlanta-based black alternative fashion icon who has soared in creating her style called ”Aliyahcore”. Aliyahcore was created by an amalgamation of different fashion styles and trends with the addition of adding “core” at the end to show that anything with this style setup is in the same inspiration.

When asked about her fashion Aliyah stated in a video call with CNN, that she described #aliyahcore as a style mixing aspects of 2000s Y2K fashion and streetwear with Japanese-inspired Harajuku and Gyaru culture.” Aliyah also went further into her experience with fashion as a dark-skinned black woman, “It transcends fashion,” Aliyah said of the movement. “It starts with not caring about how you’re being perceived, not caring about who or what anyone has to say about you because you know who you are, and you carry that energy with you in your day-to-day life.”

Colorism in the fashion community is rampant and creates a divide. People who are light-skinned or white can participate in the name of rebellion and are found to be looked at as more creative in spaces, even if someone darker did it first. With influencers, there is always a community of people who already have been practicing alternative fashion in their own way.

Aliyah speaks to that as well in her CNN interview by saying, “#aliyahcore also speaks to the issue of Black girls, specifically dark skin girls, not feeling welcome in the fashion world due to colorism and other negative stereotypes. We don’t really see dark-skinned women in fashion spaces that often,” Aliyah continued. “I’m glad to be an influence to darker-skinned girls.”

While Aliyah is a bigger influencer on alternative fashion on pop culture apps like TikTok, there are others who aren’t influenced by anyone but themselves. I turned to local Atlanta students who also participate in alternative fashion for their opinion. Interviewee Kayle Lewis, a video game design major at art school SCAD Atlanta, came in with their own style with inspirations from rave wear, scene wear, and the early 2000s. Her accessories are always to the max and match her vibe. “I would consider myself an alternative I guess. I don’t dress like everyone else, but I do at the same time. I take inspiration from the things I see, of course, but I still make it my own with how I accessorize and put it together. Just because I have a jean mini skirt and a white T-shirt on, doesn’t mean it’ll be the same way as someone else wearing it. I’ll have a bunch of rings on, an earring, a tie as a belt, my fuzzy leg warmers on, some tights, maybe even gloves. I accessorize down and that’s what makes my outfits along with maybe one or two pieces.” 

When listening to her describe her process I got a better perspective on dressing for you and not for the sake of following a trend. When asked about where she shopped she answered with excitement, “I either thrift or buy what I like. Usually, when I have a cart full of things on any website, I imagine myself in them and wait a couple of weeks to see if I really want them. I don’t want to buy duplicates of everything I already have.”

EDC Coissiere is another student who creates their own style beyond the trends. They thrift, cut, flip, and create their daily fashion with the quote “Everything Done Crazily” in mind. They start their day with a vibe. Whether it’s a color or a verb like “flowing”, they style around that vibe and an outfit is manufactured out of it! I asked what their inspirations were and this is what they responded with, “Whenever, or I guess if I ever get inspiration from someone else's look, it never looks like theirs. I probably have been inspired by other people's looks that I've seen previously, but like, it's not at that moment that I’ll wear it. It's like probably years later when I fucking finally put that shit on and wear it MY way.”

EDC is someone who I see on campus a lot and they dedicate themselves to their fashion style. While there’s no name for it or any “core” attached to it, you will always know when they wear it that it’s theirs. I asked more about how they get dressed in the morning and the process wasn’t anything less than systematic chaos. “ I just ask myself what do I feel like wearing today? Do I want flow? Do I want stiffness, do I feel like wearing jeans? Do I feel like wearing a skirt? Then I just reach into the closet and those bins. I know my pieces by heart because I have a photographic memory, so I know what they look like for sure. My bins are clear for a reason. I can just look at the bin on the sides and it'll move faster, but that's if I know what I'm looking for. So, if I don't know what I'm looking for, we’re pushing through the closet there. Looking and seeing what calls out to me, what I'm feeling like.” 

Looking around Atlanta, and interviewing different students, I gained a new perspective on alternative fashion. It’s more than a TikTok trend or some fashion list that you need to follow. It’s whatever you decide to put on and make your own.