Avant Garde Memory Lane

I just remembered something, and wanted to mention it briefly. The first time I recall seeing anyone representing the vibe that would later evolve into what would later be called Emo was in the late ‘90’s in the Williamsburg section of Brooklyn. I went to a show, I don’t remember what band was playing, it was just some weeknight local band at the kind of (probably illegally operated) urban industrial space club where water runs down the walls, but there were two kids in the audience that caught my attention. One was a tall skinny blonde girl who looked a lot like Pris from Blade Runner. Her hair was really short and choppy, and she was wearing weird skinny pants and a striped t-shirt with detachable sleeves (I pay way too much attention to clothes). Her companion was a young guy, probably gay, and he was dressed about the same, only with dark hair and his clothes were kind of floppy and asymmetical. At the time, I had never seen anyone dressed exactly like that, not yet. They just looked really, really different. A few years later, every kid in NYC looked identical to them, but they were just WAY ahead of the curve. Now Emo seems to have fully matured and is even receding in the cultural rear-view mirror, but it’s interesting to look back and think about that evening, like it was a singular anthropological spotting. Another girl who really caught my attention in a similar manner was also very young, maybe twenty and possibly much younger, whom I saw on the subway in lower Manhattan in 2005, right before I moved away from New York. I noticed her on the train at the City Hall stop. She also had asymmetrical short hair, in a modified mullet like the style that was popular in the early ‘80’s. Her hair was light brown, and she had put some lighter streaks in it that were eye-catching, and was wearing really funky eyeliner and black clothes. I really admired the way she was put together. It was a highly individual interpretation of the growing trend, but she had a strong element of original New Wave in there, too. She looked modern, but also would not have looked out of place if it really had still been 1980 or ’82. I love clothes from that era and collect them, but she wore them very differently than I do, and I was impressed with her sense of style. And the first time I ever saw a faux-hawk was in about 2003, on a girl in a Starbucks’ in Union Square in Manhattan. That trend played out fast once it hit big, but, again, she was months ahead of the curve. She was petite, and wearing an enormous black military coat and Doc Martens and she looked fantastic. Her hair was also light brown, and she was very pretty, the kind of model-pretty that needs no makeup, so the overall effect of this beautiful face with the severe hair and clothes was amazing.