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| Example A |
Recently I was having one of my Wiki Surfing sessions and ended up on an article entitled Wilderness Chic (I believe my original search was The North Face). This is Wikipedia's own definition of wilderness chic:
"Wilderness Chic (also known as Outdoor chic/fashion) is a fashion trend centered around the look of hikers, climbers, and mountaineers. This style is particularly prominent in Japan and on college campuses across the United States and Canada."
I cannot speak for Japan, but I definitely have noticed this on college campuses. Its basically people dressing for their day like they could be going for a hike, but as a fashion choice. The guy might look like a hard core hiker but really he just likes the rustic look. If you are having trouble picturing what Wilderness Chic might look like, picture a guy wearing a North Face jacket, a hiking back pack complete with Nalgene bottle, and Timberland hiking shoes who uses a carabiner for a key chain. Take said imaginary guy and place him on a college campus probably with some sort of scruffy facial hair and this is the epitome of Wilderness Chic (for humorous example see picture). The rise of Wilderness Chic is not only in clothing and accessories but also pop culture (Case in Point: Man vs. Wild and Survivor Man)
The odd thing about people who dress in this fashion is that a lot of them don't spend a whole lot of time actually in the wilderness.
Some people see this rising fad as a good thing, its represents the spread of "the love of the outdoors". Some people see it simply as harmless, just a fad that comes and goes. A small contingency of people are disgusted by these "posers" because they believe companies (like The North Face) pander to this rising customer base while sacrificing quality and authenticity. At this point I don't really have an opinion, but I love looking at issues within sub-cultures so this was interesting for me (hence why I have a minor in Sociology).
Keep your eyes peeled for Wilderness Chic everyone!
I own a good deal of outdoor wilderness oriented apparel, mostly for use in wilderness environments. I try to avoid wearing it around town, and find wilderness chic as a style somewhat irritating, at least on a superficial level.
ReplyDeleteThat being said, you have to wonder what kind of effect the popularity of this apparel has on the availability of quality wilderness supplies. On the one hand, the effect urban users have on demand for these products may affect prices, but it also might allow for companies like TNF or Patagonia to expand and take advantage of economies of scale to do more R&D. I like to think that a large the market for these goods makes more R&D possible, and that hopefully even if there is a loss of authenticity overall, the wilderness users still see some benefit.