Nu Rave: Stupid Weak Babies

I know those hoodies with the oversize prints of teddies and whatnot are waning as far as popularity goes, but I never did a post on them, or this whole subset of "juvenile" fashion in general, so I think it's time.

Of course these items are inspired by both the overpriced Japanese streetwear line Bathing Ape and Japanese streetwear in general. Back in the day, Simone and I were obsessed with looking for weirdly printed Japanese clothing on eBay, particularly from the fabulously named clothing line Hysteric Glamour, which I guess now makes more horrible "Andy Warhol"-inspired clothing (ie, a t-shirt with some stripes and a banana on it) but really came through with t-shirts covered in stars and nonsensical ramblings at the time. I remember one of my great regrets in high school was not buying this button-down shirt that had squirrels printed all over it, as well as this t-shirt with sloppily drawn multi-colored skulls on the front.

Of course, things have changed, and now skull prints are so ubiquitous if I see another one I might vom, and wacky novelty prints are all the rage (even though they're never printed on good fabrics or nice clothes like they were in the 40's) and every other damn person had some fugly, pineapple-strewn hoodie on last year. I remember standing behind some thuggish kid who was wearing a hoodie with, like, purple baby bears all over it and thinking, "Boy, this trend is basically to dress adults like babies."

This whole graphic, cartoonish Nu Rave thing, with it's primary colors, copious use of balloon-like sweatshirts, and rompers a plenty, as well as it's deep and yearning nostalgia for such times as 1992, seem to be saying "Weren't our childhoods great? Remember Nintendo and cross colors and neon? Look at my oversize glasses and this 'blouse' I made out of a children's sleeping bag!" As I've pointed out many a time before, there's no wit in "irony" that just points out how we all remember the early 90's.

Plus, hello, the early 90's were hideous. Look at the color-blocked sweatshirt of the girl in the second photo collage! Just look at it! Ohmygod, it's so ugly!