So You Wanna Be Indie...Start With the Right Clothes

So you wanna dress Indie, huh? Then get these two rules through your head: 1) Uncool: Pretty much everything currently sitting in your closet unless it’s old, battered, and/or handmade that you bought at a thrift shop, and 2) Cool: Anything old, battered and/or hand-made that you bought at a thrift shop. Here are some specifics in case those rules weren’t clear enough...square:

*Jeans MUST exhibit some form of distress or reconstruction. Pleated or starched jeans are unacceptable, as are new jeans. But if you buy new jeans, you can cheat by bleaching or shredding them yourself---just don’t tell anyone you didn’t buy them second-hand because admitting so will definitely earn you a one-way ticket to Uncoolville.

*Adidas running shoes? Ewww. You cannot be Indie without owning at least one pair of Converse. It's like a beach without the sea---it just doesn't happen. Bonus points if you scribble band names all over your shoes. Also consider buying a pair of Vans or Doc Martens (commonly referred to as simply Docs---so get with it). Vintage shoes are always rad, especially if they have holes in them.

*T-shirts are cool if they fit into one of the following categories: 1) You made them 2) They have band names or a really thought-provoking quote on them 3) They came from a thrift shop. If your T-shirts do not fit one of these categories, you must discard them because they obviously have a corporate label and corporate labels are evil. The only exception to that rule are duds from Urban Outfitter', which are always hip to the max.

*Every Indie girl should own a skirt---but it must make a statement. A plain pencil skirt, for example, is not true Indie material until you draw a portrait of Ché Guevarra on it in permanent marker, obviously voicing your politically views. You could also cut up strips of plaid cloth and messily safety pin them on to the skirt in a cry out against bourgeois organization.