Fashion trends come and go — then often return decades later. Today we are witnessing a complex mashup of styles inspired by both the distant and recent past, which includes grunge-era flannels, cargo pants and wired headphones that nod to the 1990s, 2000s and 2010s.
Fast fashion can be blamed for this muddling, but the democratization of influence is also a factor. The traditional tastemakers of culture — celebrities, movies and magazines — still hold sway. But the power of those institutions must now compete with social media reality, as almost anyone can achieve an audience online and shift what’s in vogue.
As the world inches its way out of the pandemic and nightlife resumes, people are emerging with outfits and energy that have gone unused for years. On a recent Saturday night, I stopped by an event where the latest looks can sometimes get their start — or their revival: an underground rave.
Story pitch, photography, and reporting by Brandon Tauszik.
Published in the San Francisco Chronicle.
Name: Emily
Age: 19
City of residence: Berkeley
How would you describe your style? I'd say my style is maximalist for sure. I just love everything. I love clothes! I definitely pull a lot from Japanese street fashion and also the ’90s rave scene.
What are you wearing tonight? I'm wearing a shit ton of candy, which I make. I'm wearing furry boots, and a cool skirt that I found on eBay … this is my friend's shirt that I'm borrowing, and my fish bone hair clip is from Etsy. My favorite piece is probably my USB stick, there is so much nightcore on here. Nobody knows that I have 64 GB of nightcore hanging around my neck!
Where do you shop for most of your clothes? eBay, Poshmark, Mercari, and Buyee.
Name: Kelton
Age: 31
City of residence: West Oakland
How would you describe your style? My style is a ‘90s take on the Urban Gentleman vibe with a lot of feminine expression. I really love the fluidity, the androgyny. A lot of crop tops, a lot of nice colors and long draping pieces.
What are you wearing tonight? So on my feet I have Adidas Cloudfoam, all white with an iridescent label on the back. I have some Ninja Turtles green socks. I'm wearing Run The World sweats; they have a classic taper, nice and form fitting. This is a custom one of one polo long sleeve crop top, with some custom flower embroidery all down the sleeves. My earrings are done by hand by Epiphaunye, she's local in West Oakland. And then my coat is long with fur on the inside and illustrations from Rurouni Kenshin, a very classic anime.
Name: Cy Borg
Age: 23
City of residence: West Oakland
How would you describe your style? Eclectic. It's different every day. Lately I've been in a black and neutral tone phase, so just kind of embracing those colors.
What are you wearing tonight? I'm wearing Demonia boots, a bikini top that I made into a cute little thing. I'm wearing a necklace that says “Cy” and then I'm wearing a thrifted school choir boy shirt and a skirt that's actually assless — it's kind of wild. And oh, white earmuffs.
Where do you shop for most of your clothes? Thrifting and hand-me-downs.
Name: Nolan
Age: 24
City of residence: Concord
How would you describe your style? It's really bad. I hate it. I wanna burn everything I own. This shit sucks. I looked so annoying. Everyone hates my guts. They want me to die.
What eras inspire your style? 2010s.
What are you wearing tonight? My shirt is Gucci. My bracelets are Louis Vuitton. I'm very expensive. Everything is really luxurious, one-of-a-kind. But actually a lot of this is from McDonald's. This was a Neopets McDonald's collaboration. They're keychains. They're very expensive.
Name: Jan
City of residence: San Jose
Age: 27
How would you describe your style? My style is eclectic, all over the place. I guess you could call it GORP. I've been going outdoors a lot lately. My friend Alex takes me camping and stuff!
Can you define GORP? Camping gear, outdoors gear. That stands for Good Ole’ Raisins and Peanuts. What you eat when you're on trails and shit. I'm sure a lot of people dressed like this tonight … there's a lot of people dressed like this tonight.
Do any genres of music or artists influence what you wear? Most days I'm inspired by a lot of like Visual Kei musicians from the 2000s. They’re Japanese rock musicians. It was like rock music with an emphasis on image and style. I have this bucket hat thing — that's kind of what they wore, wide brim hats and stuff. They usually just wore rock star clothing.
Name: Mariana
Age: 20
City of residence: Berkeley
How would you describe your style? My style is secondhand everything, and I either sew it or paint it myself. I'm really big into not paying into consumer culture and just getting your own shit or making it yourself and reusing.
Do any genre or music or artists influence what you wear? When it comes to electronic music, the kind of aesthetic of hardcore and breakcore with these like little meme, anime, cutesy accents, that's definitely a really big inspiration for my outfit tastes. It's kind of big, baggy, formless, androgynous, genderless.
What are you wearing tonight? A pair of youth Air Jordans that I found on the side of the road. A pair of pants that my friends gave me, an old pair of ski socks that are mismatched, a pair of lingerie underwear that I got from Ross that were on sale. This is my dad's old flannel. This is a broken O'Neill sweatshirt I've had since I was, like, 5. I made these necklaces. And my friend gave me the bra.
Name: Fitnesss
Age: 29
City of residence: Los Angeles
How would you describe your style? I like things that are black because they're easy to match with. I used to care a lot about fit, but now I care more about comfort and utility.
What are you wearing tonight? I'm wearing a skirt. I’m wearing some tights 'cause it's cold out today. I'm not wearing a shirt — that's just how it goes — and then this is a crazy synthesizer pad setup on my chest that I use to perform live as FITNESSS that’s fully wireless. It makes me feel like a punk again.
Where do you shop for most of your clothes? Uniqlo and Amazon. Corporate as fuck.
Name: Jay
Age: 22
City of residence: Petaluma
How would you describe your style? I would say my outfit right now is based on inspiration from Fruits Magazine, which is a magazine from the early 2000s in Japan. So I guess my style is ‘90s and early 2000s Harajuku.
What are you wearing tonight? I’ve got a plain button up top that's nothing special, I think I thrifted it. Then my tie is a 20471120 and my skirt/leg warmers/pants piece kind of has a jester look. It's Takuya Angel from the late 90s/early 2000s Japan. And then my shoes are also late ‘90s from Belly Button. They made really cool platforms and these are really hard to get a hold of so I'm really glad I have them.
Where do you shop for most of your clothes? Definitely online, all secondhand. I thrift sometimes, but online mostly. I'm always just looking.
Name: Chris
Age: Timeless
City of residence: Oakland
How would you describe your style? Just gotta go really fast. Yea you just gotta go really fast.
Do any genres of music or artists influence what you wear? When I DJ I play a lot of trance, drum & bass, garage, donk and K-pop. I want to look like a male K-pop idol.
What are you wearing tonight? I’ve got my hiking backpack. I'm carrying my water bottle. I've got arm sleeves. I’ve got big shoes, shoes too big for my feet. I've got ankle weights. I'm working out tonight.
Where do you shop for most of your clothes? Online secondhand. Yahoo Japan auctions.
Name: Yaka
Age: 25
City of residence: San Jose
How would you describe your style? My style is very personal and tries to incorporate subcultures while not falling into those stereotypes. I’m also trying to dress in a way that I feel comfortable, and still feel very self-expressive.
Do any genres of music or artists influence what you wear? Baile funk.
What eras inspire your style? A lot of what I pull from is from 2010s Japanese fashion. Also a lot of the very new styles that are coming out in recent years from Southeast Asia, mostly smaller designers.
What's your favorite piece you have on now and where did you get it? My favorite piece is this Serial Experiments Lain button I have because my friend sent it to me to cheer me up.
Name: Sasha
Age: 33
City of residence: San Pablo
How would you describe your style? Lowkey health goth, as dated as that is.
Do any genres of music or artists influence what you wear? This is stupid, but I have a pair of joggers that say “techno” across the crotch in rhinestones that my boyfriend’s sister gave me. I feel like I just googled “Euphoria Makeup” once before a rave last year, and then I've just been kind of running with that vibe.
What are you wearing tonight? I love this Raiders statement jacket, especially because I knew it was going to be cold out here. I actually have this even stupider “Live Laugh Love” Antifa shirt underneath if you can believe, the brand is called Ion Drip.
Name: Larry
Age: 21
City of residence: Oakland
How would you describe your style? San Francisco unique.
Do any genres of music or artists influence what you wear? Rave! Like New York ravers and Euro ravers and S.F. ravers.
What are you wearing tonight? My skirt is made by my aunt, who is the fashion designer who runs Tashka Design. This is one of her mockups and her intention was to preserve pieces in the garment industry that are usually wasted. In an effort to produce more consciously, she held onto all the mockups and now I have this “one of one” piece. The industry is just very rigid, built on a lot of unethical practices and they're not trying to disrupt any of them. That's what my skirt represents. Then I just got on a Forever 21 shirt — well, it's a dress — and I I stole my dad's suit. Then I got Y-3 Qasa high shoes; my dream shoes since I was a little kid. And then I got some thermal leggings that I got in Sweden to give it the Rick Owens techwear look.
Name: Tara
Age: 21
City of residence: Petaluma
How would you describe your style? Right now I think it's kind of like sporty schoolgirl, kind of edgy.
What are you wearing tonight? I'm just wearing a random sporty jacket and a plaid skirt and leggings and leg warmers. My hair ribbons are my favorite piece because I think they're really cute. I look like a Christian girl. Like a milkmaid that is cute.
Where do you shop for most of your clothes? Secondhand, thrifting online.
Name: Vickee
Age: 22
City of residence: San Francisco
How would you describe your style? Streetwear mixed somewhat with my Instagram explore page; the algorithms got it right. I just try to be myself. Athleisure, mostly all black.
Do any genres of music or artists influence what you're wearing? Drain Gang, Bladee, Yung Lean.
What eras inspire your style? I mean Y2K is pretty big right now. I like the chunky style shoes and the low-rise skirts, but that's not me because I dress more masculine.
What's the favorite piece you're wearing right now? This chain, it's a Yung Lean chain from 2016 in this death metal font. It’s one of his early pieces from when he was underground, and now that he's more hyped now, it resells for a lot. But that's not why I like it. Yung Lean and Drain Gang kind of blew up during quarantine. Now it's like all these TikTok type-people flocking to this underground music group that I'd attached myself to and I'm feeling like this loss of identity.
Name: Quetzal
Age: 25
City of residence: West Oakland
How would you describe your style? Emo cunt bitch goth.
Do any genres of music or artists influence what you wear? There's this one artist Tomasa del Real, a total seductive vamp goth mami. She creates neoperreo music, this weird ass Spanish genre that’s kind of trappy. I like that style and those artists inspire me a lot. Also vampires … the seductive kind.
What eras inspire your style? A bit futuristic, so maybe a little bit of what we haven't seen yet.
What are you wearing tonight? I'm wearing a pleather skirt from the rave shop Toxic Thrilz on Haight Ashbury. These sleeves are also from there too. My shoes are Vans, so that I could be in the fucking pit tonight, and I got on some leg warmers.