Rebel In A White Tuxedo

Rebel In A White Tuxedo
Sid Vicious went out in a blaze of ironic glory in the film ''The Great Rock 'n' Roll Swindle'' singing Sinatra's ''My Way'' wearing white tuxedo for this video shoot.

Malcolm McLaren says;

“He single-handedly reinvented the classic Havana tuxedo into an outlaw costume by styling it with a pair of black drainpipe jeans and what would become the ubiquitous Punk garter that he wore so sweetly around his left thigh.”

Sid wasn’t the first ‘outsider’ to sport an irreverent tux. The style of white/cream/ivory Tuxedo that Bogart wears in the movie, 'Casablanca,' is it the typical 'hour-glass' shape with high armpits & fitted waist that one associates with jackets of that era.

In the mid 70's Roxy Music's Bryan Ferry became the louche lounge lizard photographed posing by a pool in a white dinner jacket, for which he was seriously criticized by the rock press.

History Of The Tuxedo
James Brown-Potter, a New York coffee broker, visited England in the summer of 1886 and was introduced to the Prince of Wales at a Court ball. He and his wife Cora were invited to dinner at Sandringham and on enquiring with the Prince what he should wear was referred to the Prince’s tailor who made him a dinner jacket. When he returned to America he introduced the dinner jacket to his country club Tuxedo Park. When various people started wearing the new jacket it quickly became known as the tuxedo or tux and spread rapidly throughout American ‘polite society’.

The 1930’s, became the era when the tuxedo jacket reached a zenith of sartorial elegance. Humphrey Bogart popularized the white tux which he wore in the classic film Casablanca. The white dinner jacket is often worn in warm climates. It is usually ivory in color rather than pure white, and does not have silk-faced lapels. It is worn with exactly the same clothes as a normal jacket, except for the most formal variations (such as a winged collar). In the U.S. and Canada a white dinner jacket is traditionally worn only from Memorial Day in the spring to Labor Day. (This rule applies also to white summer clothes, including shoes and suits.) In the UK, the traditional rule is that white dinner jackets are never worn, even on the hottest day of summer, but are reserved for wear abroad. Some exceptions to these rules are, in America, its use in high-school proms, and in Britain some concerts, famously for instance the Last Night. In other tropical climates, such as in Imperial Burma, the less formal color was desert fawn.”

Union Jack Boys

Form The Who to David Bowie via Johnny Rotten, the Union Jack has been a prominent symbol of Brit rockers for five decades. Bowie's frock coat was designed in collaboration with Alexander McQueen. John Lydon wore the Keanan Duffty flag shirt for the Sex Pistols 2003 American tour.

A distressed Union Jack Flag image appeared on promotional posters and adverts for the Sex Pistols debut single on EMI Records in November 1976, but did not actually appear on the 7" single sleeve. The single was originally issued in a plain black sleeve.
The screen print of the flag is taken from a color photograph of a torn Union Jack held together with safety pins. Sex Pistols Anarchy in the UK is attached by Bulldog stationery clips. This was first Pistols design to use a Union Jack flag and was created by Jamie Reid.

The roots of the Union Jack in pop music goes back to the 60’s when Pete Townshend and John Entwhistle wore Union Jack coats during the Who’s late 60’s pop art days. Those garments have become synonymous with The Who. The Jam re-created this look in 1977 in an homage to 60’s pop fashion


However Flying the flag doesn’t always work in the artist’s favor-Morrissey famously draped himself in the Union Jack at a Madness concert in Finsbury Park in London, only be accused of overt Nationalism by the media. Some say he was misguided, others say it was a joke, but for anti-racists everywhere Morrisey had gone too far.

Yet it seems that every generation of Brit rockers adopts a new permutation of the Union Jack as a style statement. Yes, even Geri Halliwell of the spice girls had a flag moment.

Vive Le T-Shirt

The History of The T-shirt.

There is no record for when the first T-shirt was produced, but there is documentation dating back to as early as 1913 that the US Navy adopted the crew-necked, short-sleeved, white undershirt, to be worn under overalls.

In the beginning t-shirts were worn as an undergarment. However, many working men wore a sleeveless undershirt called a "singlet," or a single-piece "union suit" almost into the 1940's. In the late 1930's Hanes, Sears, and Fruit of the Loom started to market the T-shirt. In 1934 the T-shirt received a setback, hen Clark Gable took off his dress shirt to reveal a bare torso in the movie It Happened One Night. American women liked the bare-chest look, and many men followed Gable's lead by discarding their undershirts in droves.

The t-shirt got a real boost from underwear to outerwear when Marlon Brando showed his form in a tight-fitting T-shirt the 1951 movie, ‘A Streetcar Named Desire’.

Brando's iconic tight T-shirt had to be made specially, as one could not buy fitted T-shirts at the time; a regular T-shirt was bought, it was washed several times and its back was sewn in order to tighten it for Brando.

Marlon Brando again set the stage with his T-shirt and jeans rebel in a the 1954 movie ‘The Wild One’, and his cultural partner James Dean continued the look in 1955 with the classic movie ‘Rebel without a Cause’. Elvis was also making his way onto the world scene with his hip T-shirt and leather jacket.

Rebel In A Gold Suit

“Elvis Presley’s manager came to me and said, make up something real flashy for Elvis and I did. It was a $10,000 suit made of gold cloth. He loved it and I got a lot of publicity out of it”- Nudie Cohn .

Elvis was the most famous client of Nudie, the original rhinestone rebel outfitter. Nudie launched his business in 1947. He trained as a tailor, borrowed $150, bought a sewing machine and worked from a garage for two years. Nudie Cohn was born in Kiev, Ukraine in 1902 and died in 1984. Throughout the 1960s and early 1970s, Nudie created many of the flamboyant, theme-embroidered suits that were integral to the stage personas and images of numerous country performers. Elvis's Gold suit is no doubt his most famous creation.

Since Elvis there have been other rebels in gold suits:British rocker Billy Fury also sported one. In the 80’s this metallic rebellion was resurrected with irony by Martin Fry of ABC. The ever shape shifting David Bowie wore his update of the Elvis look in the early Noughties. Golden years indeed.

Easy Rider Sell's Out

Easy Rider (1969) is the incomic sixties "road film". A tale of a search for freedom and rebellion in a conformist America, in the midst of paranoia, bigotry and violence. Released in the year of Woodstock concert, and made in a year of two tragic assassinations (Robert Kennedy and Martin Luther King), the Vietnam War buildup and Nixon's election, the tone of this 'alternative' film is remarkably downbeat and bleak, reflecting the collapse of the idealistic 60s. Easy Rider, one of the first films of its kind, was a ritualistic experience and viewed by youthful audiences in the late 1960s as a reflection of their realistic hopes of liberation and fears of the Establishment.

The protagonists are two bikers. Their look has become an icon of the counter culture. One is a cool and introspective "Captain America" Wyatt (Peter Fonda) on a gleaming, silver-chromed low-riding bike with a 'stars-and-stripes' tear-drop gas tank, wearing a tight leather pants held at the waist by a round belt-buckle and a black leather jacket with an American flag emblazoned on the back; also with a 'stars-and-stripes' helmet.

The other a mustached and shaggy, long-haired Billy the Kid (Dennis Hopper), with a tan-colored bush hat, fringed buckskin jacket, shades, and an Indian necklace of animals' teeth.

'Captain America Sells His Booty.
In September 2007 Peter Fonda announced that he was planning to auction off a stash of memorabilia from Easy Rider that he'd held onto since the movie's 1969 release. The producer, co-writer, and co-star of the trailblazing film "decided it was time to share some of his treasures." The crown jewel is the American flag from the jacket he wore in the film. The flag is worth an estimated $50,000.

Hard Times Are Here Again

The journalist and broadcaster Robert Elms 'Hard Times' article in the September 1982 issue of The Face was certainly the first major written piece to highlight a trend. So called 'Hard Times' was developing in London's clubs-specifically 'Le Beate Route'- as a reaction against the 'dressing up' of the New Romantics.

One of the main fashion statements of what Elms called 'Hard Times' was the ripped and patched Levi 501 jean. However Elms article was derided at the time for trying to create a name for this look, which was not exclusive to London. In fact ripped jeans had been firmly part of youth culture since the hippies of the 60's and the seminal New York punk band The Ramones had made them part of their uniform. Sid Vicious of the Sex Pistols also wore ripped jeans (he was a Ramones fan) so consequently what is now viewed as an 80's trend really originated long before.

Madonna famously wore ripped jeans and, so the story goes, Simon Foxton, one of Britain's leading stylists and i-D magazine’s Fashion Director was once arrested in London for wearing jeans so ripped and torn that you could see his perfectly formed backside.

In my book 'Rebel Rebel : Anti Style' I look at the influence of denim in the first chapter which is called 'Jean Genie':

"During the 'Hard Times' trend for shredding denim in 80's Britain-to reflected the pretty dismal economic and political mood of the time....in the Fall of 2000, I took a pair of tattered thrift store Levi 501's and inserted a Union Jack patch into the torn seat".

Ray Petri, the famed 'Buffalo' stylist whose work appeared in The Face and I-D in the mid 80's also utilized ripped jeans in many photo shoots. Petri’s style incorporated homo erotic undertones that had certainly been present in gay culture since well before the 1980’s.

What occurred in the 80's was that mainstream fashion companies produced and marketed ripped jeans for the masses and that hadn't really happened before. The distressed jean look went form the clubs to being sold in Top Shop and marketed in Guess Jeans ad campaigns-and that’s when it went ‘over ground’ into mass culture.

Ripped denim hit the stores in a time of economic turmoil-Reagan was the President is the USA and Margaret Thatcher was Britain’s Prime Minister. In the early part of the decade both the US and the UK were in economic dire straits. A bit like the global economy today.

Stand And Deliver: The Jacket Is A Thriller

Adam Ant claims that shortly after the release of his Kings of the Wild Frontier album and videos from 1980-1981, he received a phone call from Jackson asking where he had sourced the heavily-embellished vintage naval jacket worn in the videos.
The ringing of a telephone cut sharply through my sleep. I fumbled for the receiver. 'Hello?' A soft, high pitched voice echoed down the line to me. 'Hello,' it repeated. 'Is that Adam Ant?' The voice had an American accent and sounded vaguely familiar, but my fuzzy brain reacted angrily.
'Terry,' I said, thinking it was one of the Ants' drummers playing a prank. 'Stop p****** about. It's 4am and I'm trying to sleep.'
'No, it's not Terry,' said the voice. 'It's Michael. Is that Adam Ant?'
'Very funny, Terry, now f*** off.' I slammed the phone down, rolled over and tried to get back to sleep. The phone went again.
'Hello,' I barked into the receiver. 'Hi, no, really, it is me, Michael Jackson,' said the funny voice, 'and I just want to ask you...'
'Terry, if you don't stop this I'm going to come over there and f****** thump you.' Bang. Again the phone went down. Again I rolled over. Again the phone rang.
I grabbed the receiver and shouted: 'Terry! That's IT!'
'Er, hi, is that Adam Ant?' This time the voice was deep, sonorous, American and calm. It didn't sound anything like Terry.
'Oh, oh,' I stammered. 'Yes, this is Adam. Who are you?'
'I'm Quincy Jones, calling from LA. Sorry, we probably woke you, but I'm here with Michael Jackson and he'd like to speak with you. Is that OK?' A pause, and then that same soft voice. 'Hi, Adam, it's Michael. Sorry if we woke you.'
'Oh, no, sorry to have been so rude,' I apologized.
He said he had just seen the video for our song Kings Of The Wild Frontier. 'It's great,' he said. 'How did you get the tom-tom sound?'
'Oh, thanks. Well, we use two drum kits and then add loads of other percussion on top...'
'That's great, Adam,' Michael interrupted. 'I really like your jacket. Where did you get it?’.
'Huh? My jacket?' I tried to think. 'Berman's and Nathan's in London's Covent Garden. They supply costumes for movies.'
'Wow. That's great,' he replied. 'How do you spell that? Bowman's and who?'
'No, B-E-R-M-A-N-apostrophe-S and N-A-T-H-A-N-apostrophe-S.'
'Great, thanks. Let's meet up next time you're in America, huh? Bye.'
The line went dead. The rest is HIStory.

Black Rebel Jacket Club

“Hey Johnny What Are You Rebelling Against?”
The Answer: “What Have You Got?”

In the 20th century the black leather jacket achieved iconic status, in major part through film. Specifically Marlon Brando's Johnny Strabler character And his free-spirited motorcyle gang, the Black Rebels Motorcycle Club in The Wild One (1953). The sale of black leather jackets and motorcycles reached new heights after the film's release, and motorcycles became a symbol of youth rebellion. The film's poster of Brando leaning on his motorcycle remains a best-seller.
 Here’s a clip form “The Wild One”:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yCENBce_dls
As such, these all served to popularize leather jackets in American and British youth from the "greaser" subculture in the 1950s and early 1960s. In the 1970’s this style of jacket was popularized by Henry Winkler’s character "The Fonz" in the television series "Happy Days". The Fonz's leather jacket is now housed in the Smithsonian Institution, and the Grease movie duo has also since popularized leather jackets with their T-Birds male clique. In The Who’s movie version of the rock opera ‘Tommy’ the cousin Kevin character wears a black leather motorcycle jacket that is heavily embossed with studs. With the explosion of punk rock the black leather jacket became a potent symbol for many punk stars including the Ramones and Sid Vicious.

The rock star leather jacket
There are many more examples of iconic leather jackets worn in popular culture, such as the one worn by the T-800 character of The Terminator movies and the longer ¾ length trench coat style worn by action heroes such as Keanu Reeves and Laurence Fishburne in The Matrix films. Another example is the leather jackets worn by Brad Pitt in the movie Fight Club, where the antagonist Tyler Durden constantly appears with different variations of his 'red' leather jacket. Other famous leather jacket icons include those worn by members of the Black Panthers in the 1960s and 1970s and punk rock groups such as the Ramones, Patti Smith and Sex Pistols Sid Vicious and Steve Jones. Jones actually swapped his leather jacket with Sid, hence Sid’s jacket has ‘Steve’ written on it a la Marlon Brando’s ‘Wild One’ jacket.
Famous leather Jacket quotes.

-Sid Vicious suicide note:
WE HAD A DEATH PACT.
I HAVE TO KEEP MY SIDE OF THE BARGAIN.
PLEASE BURY ME NEXT TO MY BABY.
BURY ME IN MY LEATHER JACKET JEANS AND MOTORCYCLE BOOTS GOODBYE”

-Nicolas Cage in Wild At Heart:
“This is a snakeskin jacket! And for me it's a symbol of my individuality, and my belief... in personal freedom”.
-Albert Einstein:
“Long hair minimizes the need for barbers, socks can be done without: one leather jacket solves the coat problem for many years”

Rebel Without A Jacket

The classic James Dean image (red jacket with zipper at half-mast, glimpse of pure white t-shirt, cigarette held at waist level) as the ultimate emblem of the Hollywood rebel. James Dean's famous red jacket from 'Rebel Without A Cause' was purchased from Mattson's department store on Hollywood Boulevard. Following his death, the store hiked the price on the jackets to a then exorbitant $22.95. Warner Bros. actually bought two of them for filming. Afterward, James Dean gave one to his friend, composer Leonard Rosenman, who wore it until it fell apart. The other jacket disappeared from view.

The Mutant King.

James Dean was born February 8, 1931, in Marion, Indiana, to Winton and Mildred Dean. Dean Senior was a dental technician who moved the family to Los Angeles when Jimmy was five. He returned to the Midwest after his mother passed away and was raised by his aunt and uncle on their Indiana farm. After graduating from high school, he returned to California where he attended Santa Monica Junior College and UCLA. James Dean began acting with James Whitmore's acting workshop, appeared in occasional television commercials, and played several roles in films and on stage. In the winter of 1951, he took Whitmore's advice and moved to New York to pursue a serious acting career. He appeared in seven television shows, in addition to earning his living as a busboy in the theater district, before he won a small part in a Broadway play entitled ‘See the Jaguar’.
He starred with Julie Harris in "East of Eden" and Mildred Dunnock in "Padlocks," a 1954 episode of the CBS television program "Danger." Dean studied at the Actors Studio, played in television dramas, and returned to Broadway in "The Immoralist" (1954). This last appearance resulted in a screen test at Warner Brothers for the part of Cal Trask in the screen adaptation John Steinbeck's novel "East of Eden." He then returned to New York where he appeared in four more television dramas. After winning the role of Jim Stark in 1955's "Rebel Without A Cause," he moved to Hollywood.
James Dean starred in only three feature films all shot within the span of one year. He was dead before two of them, Rebel Without a Cause (1955) and Giant (1956), could be released.
Although he was in his early 20s, Dean's most heralded roles in Elia Kazan's East of Eden (1955) and Ray's Rebel Without a Cause were depictions of teenagers. He differentiated himself from Rebel's other teenage characters, notably Buzz and his gang, by using rebellion in the name of truth and honesty, not just as a status symbol. He fought the clean-cut social norms fusing a "hoodlum" style with that of the sensitive outcast. Dean became the personification of the restless American youth of the mid-50's, and an embodiment of the title of one of his film "Rebel Without A Cause."

He’s a Rebel.

James Dean’s devastatingly good looks and '50s loner chic often overshadow his intuitive acting style; many look at Dean in retrospect and see a matinee idol, a pin-up, not a craftsman on the exulted level of his contemporary Marlon Brando (whose "rebel" performance in The Wild One (1954) fits the stereotype that Dean was trying to avoid). Roy Schatt's photo portraits from 1954, including the famous "torn sweater series", show a much more complicated persona, removing the preconception that Dean was just a pretty face. But Dean was more than the face of New Hollywood: along with Brando, one of his major influences, he ushered in a style of acting realism enlightened by the Method. Dean said of his preparation for Rebel. "Therefore, when I do play a youth... I try to imitate life."

Teenage Rebellion

Dean's immediate connection with teenagers is largely due to his adoption of the teenage prototype-the neurotic outsider. The very concept of "the teenager" was still in its infant stage in the '50s, having been coined to describe the awkward age gap between children and their parents. Author Jon Savage, acclaimed historian of the English punk movement ("England's Dreaming"), traces the roots of the teenager as an icon in his excellent book “Teenage” ISBN: 0670038377. Delving into film, music, literature, diaries, fashion, and art, Savage documents youth culture's development as a commodity and an industry from the turn of the last century through 1945. Prior to World War II, many adolescents would attend high school for only a year or two, dropping out to start families and secure jobs. Suddenly, the end of the war brought forth a tremendous economic growth and stability, kids suddenly saw their period of adolescence prolonged over many years. Families that once led regionalized existences gradually became part of the modern collective consciousness. The new medium of television allowed the profiteers to market to teenagers the rebellion and fashion of rock 'n' roll music.

James Dean had one of the briefest and spectacular careers of any movie screen star. He was killed in a highway accident on September 30, 1955 en route to compete in a race in Salinas. James Dean was nominated for two Academy Awards, for his performances in "East of Eden" and "Giant." His rebel style lives forever and continues to be re-invented in men's fashion.

New Mutant Kings.

James Dean and Marlon Brando style as featured in British GQ magazine. Mutant Kings were photographed by Guzman and styled by Jo Levin. Models: Callum Turner, Tyler Riggs, Zach Ferry, Oliver Cheshire and Madeline.

The Cockettes

The Cockettes Photo Mary Ellen Mark
The Cockettes were a psychedelic "genderfuck" drag troupe founded by Hibiscus in the late 1960s in San Francisco. This florid and fluorescent LSD-fueled drag ensemble of glitter-and feather-bedecked hippies (women, gay men, and babies) in gender-bending drag performed legendary midnight musicals at the Palace Theater in North Beach. With titles like "Tinsel Tarts in a Hot Coma" and "Pearls over Shanghai", these all singing, all dancing extravaganzas featured elaborate costumes, rebellious sexuality, and exuberant chaos. Rodgers & Hammerstein gone terribly, terribly wrong: Busby Berkeley meets Dr. Seuss directed by Federico Fellini in drag.
The Cockettes first performance took place on New Years Eve, 31 December 1969, at the Palace Theatre in San Francisco's North Beach neighborhood and soon became a "must-see" for San Francisco's hip gay community, combining LSD-influenced dancing, set design, costumes and their anarchic versions of show tunes (or original tunes in the same vein). The chorus line quickly evolved into bigger, wilder, and more lavish productions, and the Cockettes' shows fast became not-to-be-missed events for the hippest of San Francisco's free spirits. The audiences were often as wild as the shows, generating tremendous energy. New shows were created every few weeks - "Paste on Paste", "Gone with the Showboat to Oklahoma", and "Tropical Heatwave/Hot Voodoo", were some of the early titles. The early shows were mostly non-narrative revues, with everybody making their own costumes, and creative spontaneity reigning supreme. But with "Pearls Over Shanghai" the Cockettes produced their first show with all original script, music and lyrics. Combining grand spectacle with the endearing awkwardness of a high school operetta production, The Cockettes thrilled the audiences as much with their unpredictability as with their triumphs.
In anticipation of the televised wedding of President Nixon's daughter Tricia, The Cockettes made a film called TRICIA'S WEDDING, featuring a transvestite Tricia, a drunken Mamie Eisenhower, a party crashing Lady Bird Johnson, and a drag Eartha Kitt spiking the punch with LSD, resulting in a mad orgy. The Cockettes also appeared in the films ELEVATOR GIRLS IN BONDAGE, and LUMINOUS PROCURESS.
Truman Capote and Rex Reed attended a San Francisco performance of "Tinsel Tarts in a Hot Coma", and Reed wrote a glowing review in his nationally syndicated column, calling it "a landmark in the history of new, liberated theater..." "The Cockettes are where it's at!" raved Capote. The Cockettes became national media darlings and were invited to perform what would turn out to be a tumultuous 3 week run in New York.
Reed's review had New York buzzing in anticipation, from upper east side society to the lower east side underground. Diana Vreeland and Oscar de la Renta greeted the Cockettes on arrival and Robert Rauschenberg threw them a party in his loft. The opening night audience included John Lennon, Gore Vidal, Angela Lansbury, and Anthony Perkins.
The Cockettes performed their final show in San Francisco in the summer of 1972, "Journey to the Center of Uranus". At this time Divine, star of films by noted filmmaker John Waters', joined the group, thus making her San Francisco debut. In that show Divine performed her song "The Crab at the Center of Uranus" while dressed as a lobster. John Waters has described the scene as " complete sexual anarchy, which is always a wonderful thing."
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WnZX9vVBxjI&feature=related
Other members of the Cockettes were Link (aka Luther Cupp), Gary Cherry, Rumi Missabu, Tahara (whose parents had been rodeo clowns), Goldie Glitters, "Johnny Cockette", Sweet Pam (aka Pam Tent), Martin Worman, Scrumbly Koldewyn (who wrote tunes to Link's or Martin's lyrics), Fayette, Daniel Ware, Dusty Dawn, Linden, Brent Jensen, Pristine Condition, Reggie (aka Anton Dunigan), Miss Harlow (who had been an original Plaster Caster) and Kreemah Ritz (originally known as Big Daryl) and Chris Kilo who produced a few of the early shows after the Angels/Cockette split. Many other people too numerous to mention performed in only one or two shows.
Among the more famous people of the Cockettes... Tomata duPlenty, an early member, who left the group and went on to sing in the seminal L.A. synthpunk band, the Screamers. Du Plenty went on to play a Cockettes-inspired lead role in the punk rock musical Population: 1. Also 70's disco diva Sylvester. In Cockette shows, Sylvester's incredible singing and rendition of Billie Holiday songs were always sure to get a standing ovation. After the demise of the Cockettes Sylvester became a well-known disco singer during the late 1970s. During the groups last year, John Waters screen diva, Divine became a member and performed in the final show of the Cockettes.

The Cockettes were the subject of a 2002 documentary, The Cockettes. The film debuted at the 2002 Sundance Film Festival, where it was nominated for the Grand Jury Prize. It went on to a limited theatrical release and to play the film festival circuit. At the premiere at San Francisco's Castro Theatre many of the surviving Cockettes attended in genderfuck drag.
^ Tent, Pam. Midnight at the Palace. 2004. pp. 110 - 112.
Tent, Pam (2004). Midnight at the Palace: My Life as a Fabulous Cockette. Los Angeles:Alyson Books. ISBN 1-55583-874-X
The Cockettes, 2002 documentary.

Yamanba in the UK

The rebellious Japanese youth culture movement which makes a fashion statement against eastern beauty, is having an effect British youth.

Yamanba, sometimes written as "yamamba" or Ganguro (ガングロ; "Black Face Girls"), is a fashion trend among Japanese girls. The term comes from mythology and refers to a mountain-ogress. Starting with the bleach-white hair and heavy tan of the ganguro girl, the yamanba adds white lipstick and eye makeup and sometimes blue contacts. The result is a caricature of a blond Caucasian woman. The trend peaked in popularity around the year 2000, but remains evident today. The Shibuya and Ikebukuro districts of Tokyo are the center of ganguro fashion.
The rebellion has now, perhaps somewhat ironically, been taken up by Britain's naturally fair-skinned youth who got caught up in Yamanba after an interest in Japanese culture led them to start researching on the internet, where they came across the style. British youths have learnt to apply the make-up through watching make-up tutorials on YouTube.The British followers of this Japanese subculture are also into the music, which is called Eurobeat, and features dance moves called Para-Para, a form of like line dancing.
Social networks are important for British Manba followers as they have friends in Japan and the US who are also into the style. There is a social network site in Japan called ‘Mix’ and there are a lot of Manba on there.
Ganguro appeared as a new fashion style in Japan in the early 1990s and is prevalent mostly among young women and women in their early 20s to this date. In ganguro fashion, a deep tan is combined with hair dyed in shades of orange to blonde, or a silver grey known as "high bleached". Black ink is used as eye-liner and white concealer is used as lipstick and eyeshadow. False eyelashes, plastic facial gems, and pearl powder are often added to this. Platform shoes and brightly-coloured outfits complete the ganguro look. Also typical of ganguro fashion are tie-dyed sarongs, miniskirts, stickers on the face, and lots of bracelets, rings, and necklaces.
Ganguro falls into the larger subculture of gyaru (from English "gal"), a slang term used for various groups of young women, usually referring to overly childish or rebellious girls. Researchers in the field of Japanese studies believe that ganguro is a form of revenge against traditional Japanese society due to resentment of neglect, isolation, and constraint of Japanese society. This is their attempt at individuality, self-expression, and freedom, in open defiance of school standards and regulations.[1] Fashion magazines like Egg and Kawaii magazine have had a direct influence on the ganguro. Other popular ganguro magazines include Popteen and Ego System. The ganguro culture is often linked with para para, a Japanese dance style. However, most para para dancers are not ganguro, and most ganguro are not para para dancers, though there are many who are ganguro or gal and dance para para.
One of the most famous early ganguro girls was known as Buriteri, nicknamed after the black soy sauce used to flavour yellowtail fish in teriyaki cooking. Egg made her a star by frequently featuring her in its pages during the height of the ganguro craze. After modelling and advertising for the Shibuya tanning salon "Blacky", social pressure and negative press convinced Buriteri to retire from the ganguro lifestyle.
Yamanba (ヤマンバ) and manba (マンバ) are terms often used to describe extreme practitioners of ganguro fashion. Old school Yamanba and Manba; (particularly known as 2004 Manba); featured dark tans and white lipstick, pastel eye make-up, tiny metallic or glittery adhesives below the eyes, brightly-coloured contact lenses, plastic dayglo-coloured clothing, and incongruous accessories, such as Hawaiian Leis (often the Alba Rosa brand). Stickers on the face died out shortly after 2004, and for a while, Manba died. Yamanba is now more extreme, and hair is often multicoloured, and usually synthetic. 2008's Manba has seen a darker tan, and no facial decoration (stickers). Hair is usually neon/bright colours, with pink being a favourite. Wool("dreadlocks"), extensions and clips are worn to make hair appear longer. Clothing remains the same, although Leis are worn less frequently now. Manba and Yamanba are not to be confused. Yamanba has white make-up only above the eye, while Manba has makeup below the eye also. Stuffed animals, bracelets, bells and hibiscuses are worn. The male equivalent is called a "center guy" (センター街 Sentāgai, Center Street), a pun on the name of a pedestrian shopping street near Shibuya Station in Tokyo where yamanba and center guys are often seen.

Elvis Costello-'Geek Chic'

The looks and style of outsiders, musicians artists, rebels and the subcultures on the cutting edge of the visual arts have been the greatest influence on me as a fashion designer. In my book 'Rebel Rebel Anti Style' I have name checked many great style rebels-from Bowie to Pete Dougherty, Amy Winehouse to Soo Catwoman. Beyond the references in the book there are other style icons to consider......

 "Less Than Zero," Costello's first single on Stiff records, was released on 25 March 1977. In May, his debut album, My Aim Is True (1977), was released with Costello appearing on the cover in what became his trademark oversize glasses, bearing a striking resemblance to a menacing Buddy Holly. The 'geek chic' that became Costello's classic look was revolutionary as it provided a departure from the stereotype 'punk' look that had rapidly taken hold in the UK. Elvis rebelled against the rebels.

Costello's look reflected his working life-most famously at a make up factory — immortalized in the lyrics of "I'm Not Angry" as the "vanity factory" — where he worked as a data entry clerk. He also worked for a short period as a computer operator.

 Therefore Costello was categorized as having the look of a ' angry computer programmer'. Not very rock & roll and therefore totally appropriate for the New Wave's understated cool.

Ben Sherman’s recent men’s wear look book contain a number of pictures that showed models in an Elvis Costello look- Complete with geek glasses, Costello hair, trilby hats and drainpipe trousers. Recently Elvis has begun to sport polka dots shirts that are certainly a nod to his roots in 1977.  

Last Fall I interviewed Elvis about his new TV show 'Spectacle'. 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xMNVTAxdjIY