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Ellen Carpenter over at SPIN.com makes a great point: plaid is so, so in these days. Look at that Robin Pecknold from Fleet Foxes (pictured), Tom Hobden from Noah And The Whale, or J. Tillman! Something about the gentle, guitar-stroking, whiskered man just screams "I'm humble and gruff, yet still empathetic. And I probably smell like cedar, if you get close enough." Riffs Carpenter after a Fleet Foxes show,
I could have overlooked their militantly woodsy ensembles--they are from the Pacific Northwest, after all--if half of the audience hadn’t been rocking the same look. It seemed like a joke, like one of those Improv Everywhere missions. A flash mob: Lumbercon!
Carpenter's calling for the end of this trend. But plaid's in full swing here in the Northwest...still. Even hiphop heads are wearing plaid fitteds. At ReverbFEST, Seattlest decided to scan the VIP area under the Sunset every couple of hours to take a plaid count; out of maybe thirty or forty in the room at any given moment, the highest plaid count was nine. Nine plaid-clad, so-called "hipster lumberjacks." (The lowest count was six.)
This isn't Seattlest's hatred-of-plaid manifesto, though Carpenter cites Seven Brides for Seven Brothers as evidence that lumberjacks are awesome and Seattlest does hate that movie. God knows, we have enough Scottish blood in our veins to appreciate a good tartan, if not a 'good' musical. But do we really want our musical fashion legacy to be the hairy, beary, plaid-clad lumberjack look? And isn't this really just Cobain nostalgia?
Robin Pecknold, sporting the woodsy look; photo by SoundontheSound.
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"Ohhh...I'm a lumberjack and I'm okay! I sleep all night and I work all day!"
I can't believe I was first with that. :O
I'm more opposed to the beard as the new trend than the flannel.
Skinny dudes with beards always remind me of someone begging in Portland, maybe its just me.
As a Seattle native I think I am supposed to be more fond of the lumberjack look than I am.
I don't think I've ever seen Robin Pecknold wear anything other than that blue flannel shirt or it's red counter-part. I forsee a lot of Pecknold Halloween costumes this year.
flannel never went out of fashion in Seattle, just everywhere else. the bearded-mountain-man-with-a-soft-heart was in fashion here before it was even considered a hipster fashion choice. I think in the case of the fleet foxes it seems more to be a fashion non-choice than a meticulously managed choice.
as for it going away... fat chance. one needs only to looks at a some up and coming bands from seattle to see that plaid style is going nowhere. Why just last night I was at the Moondoggies... talk about an atomic lumberjack bomb.
It's not just you, John.
I too am opposed to the beard. But only because I myself cannot grow one. (sobs)
"And isn't this really just Cobain nostalgia?"
no.
saying that would proves one's ignorance of the culture that has existed in the Seattle area for almost all of it's modern history.