The Fashion of History (Germany Edition)

Continuing with the theme of cold and depressing videos, this week he head off to Berlin with the rookie group History!

Their new music video is called What am I to you? Check it out!

The video was released on November 25, 2013 and had 2,161,792 views by December 10th. 

For added fun, watch the video with Air- Sexy Boy playing in the back. They make some exceptional faces. 

What is the point of this review?

Ruby: So this video sits comfortably within the grunge category. It spans scenes filmed in Berlin, which tend to be more street and everyday clothes and a dance section which has a more fashion take on some of the outfits from the video. The color palette is muted and dark, which fits nicely in the setting and song. There was nothing ground-breaking but its a clean video with a good mix of street and fashion represented. And it’s nice to see history go back toward their cleaner, darker concepts, which have always suited them well.

Dance Sihyung, sleek and classy 

Grunge Sihyung and their filming location in Berlin

Em: There were some fairly simple, black-and-white dance costumes, which were nice and full of contrast, and then some fairly every-day clothes for the angst scenes. Aside from one rather distinctive orange jacket, there wasn’t a ton of color, adding to the somewhat darker theme of the video. There wasn’t as much detail as we tend to see in women’s fashion, but the details we did get had the advantage of being nice and clean, such as the silver earrings paired with the red hat.

Add a dash of color, for the christmas spirit 

Going on vacation? If you’re a college kid, going home for winter break? Wondering what to pack? Don’t worry, History packed up and headed for Berlin and they’re here to offer advice on what to bring in that suitcase! (And some tips from the writers might sneak in there too…)

Kyungil - That cover all black leather jacket. It’s warm. It’s versatile and it never goes out of fashion. It’s great for any occasion, like breaking up with your girlfriend, getting drunk alone at a bar and dancing in odd places! Definitely pack multipurpose pieces, less space for more use!

Kyung-Il looking appropriate for all occasions in his spiffy leather jacket. 

Dokyun: Neutral accessories. Committing to different shoes and jewelry every day is way too much for the savvy travel packer. Little bits everywhere are easy to lose. Pack a pair of simple, sleek black shoes and pick some great neutral jewelry, like diamond studs and wear those. You will only have to keep track of one set of earrings and they’ll look great with everything. Never know when an impromptu angsty photo shoot will come up. Gotta look good.

Simple jewelry that still looks really classy 

Sihyung: Don’t forget to pack some workout clothes! They’re great for working out on the go (like in old warehouses) or just chilling with your friends. Make sure you include appropriate accessories, like a good knit hat,  if you’re headed somewhere cold! (This includes a good pair of sneakers for walking/exercising!)

Exercise clothes for keeping in shape 

Jaeho- Bold graphic tees are Jaeho’s recommendation! They’re great for layering (even underneath that snappy leather jacket) and can be used for sightseeing or chilling. Graphics are especially nice since they’re bright and eye catching. Which is great for spray painting in fields and other tourist activities. No checked baggage is no excuse for no fashion statements.

Jaeho, making a lovely face, in his graphic tee

Yijeong- Even if its the only thing you pack, pack underwear. NEVER FORGET THOSE WHITEY TIGHTIES.

but I might recommend bringing other clothes next time Yijeong

Can someones KINDLY take the time to tell me why NO ONE CONSULTED ME ON THE MAKEUP?! I spend hours, no, days, WEEKS on outfits and you just take acryclic paint and SMOOSH IT ON HISTORY’S FACES?!?! HOW IS THIS MAKEUP?!?!?! All my hard work, RUINED! I cannot believe this was allowed to happen. I was all excited to see the finished mv and then THIS. It’s distracted and uncalled for. Its not even makeup. This is not performance art. MY CAREER IS STAINED LIKE HIS FACE WAS.

#sogrungyiwantabath

#birthdaysuit

#siryourpantsareTHEPANTS

#sogrungyiwantabath both this week and last week we talked about grungy fashion. It’s usually very urban, with cool jackets and tight jeans. What Am I To You was cleaner than Tasty’s Day’n Night, but they appealed to a similar aesthetic preference. It’s not grunge in the purest sense, but rather grunge inspired, and its nice to get a variety of influences like this. One interesting choice that channelled the mismatch aspect of grunge was the sweatshirt under leather jacket look [2:20] At least he probably wasn’t cold during filming.

#birthdaysuit well one person WAS probably cold during filming...you guessed it, that was the naked one. Yijeong did the same thing CL did two weeks ago (well, CL was even more naked, but still). Apparently its a trend to look really cold in the winter, or maybe to just expose a whole lot of skin. I will say that it had a somewhat different effect when Yijeong wore whitey tighties and angsted around an apartment as opposed to when CL sat dramatically in a steaming bath (also angsty) and then sat on freezing cold stone. These poor idols.

#siryourpantsareTHEPANTS and that’s okay with us. The pants, referring to ripped black skinny jeans are a staple in the kpop world of mens fashion. It was one of the first things we ever noticed and they just never seem to go out of fashion. Everyone is wearing them, there are a million variations. Sometimes there are zippers and chains, sometimes you can see the whole leg and sometimes just a few patches of skin. At any rate, Yijeong and History, welcome to the club. Now you’re the cool kids too.

Taemin of SHINee stage performance, Juilette Era

Dara from 2ne1 during Fire (Space Version) MV

What am I trying to get at?

Ruby: Finals are right around the corner and this week I really wanted to write a happy review. We had the chance to review some REALLY INTERESTING fashion choices this week, but decided to go with something simpler. The clothing in this video is on trend and wearable, but still takes risks. Some of them work while others don’t. That orange suede jacket was cool (that leopard print shirt not so much). Aside from a few of these little details, the video was really well put together.

It's simple and clean, but nice, which is kind of a change.

Leopard print button downs are not going to happen.
Stop trying to make it happen.

Em: Yup, this video is about as simple as I wish my life was right now. YAY FINALS WEEK. For all its lack of decoration, it still looked pretty good, and as far as everyday fashion goes it was definitely wearable. I wasn’t exactly enthralled by it, but I also wasn’t deeply and personally offended...YAY. Hope to see more from History soon….go rookie (ish) bands!

That is a dang cool jacket, and someone could ACTUALLY wear it

Simple and clean 

You okay kyungil? Absinthe is a bit bad for you.

Everyone wearing matching white socks. Because what stylist goes MAKE SURE ALL THEIR SOCKS ARE WHITE?

Let us know what you think about the dark grunge trend? Where are the christmas videos? do you miss them?

Leave us some love!

Ruby and Em <3

Fashion Every Day and Night

This week we looked at Tasty’s Day’n Night, which was a departure from their usual fancy fance suits into the land of casual grunge. It was posted on November 27th, 2013 and had 219,167 on December 3rd, 2013. Take a look!

What's the (Tasty) scoop?

Em: I’ve always liked casual grunge, and in this video the long loose shirts paired with shorts or jeans and well-worn sneakers creates an interesting aesthetic. There were two distinct groups of outfits, for either dancing or acting out the story. The dance outfits were fairly monochrome, but they were quite detailed. On the other hand, the more prominent outfits (including the ones on the female actress) were an interesting conglomeration of pieces that looked artfully careless and very personable. There were old t-shirts, lots of flannel, and some playful ‘glamour’ dresses.

Artfully careless of just plain lazy?

Dramatic scene reminiscent of Troublemaker's Now

Ruby: For me this feels like how not to do grunge for fashion summed up in one video. I appreciate grunge fashion and a lot of the clothing in the video would be cute everyday wear, but even then it feels a little bit thoughtless to me. I like grunge fashion, but the key word being fashion. The dance outfits felt mismatched with the mv for me, and they were so busy with too many pieces and patterns that even understanding what they were wearing was hard. I guess I felt like rather than looking carelessly artsy, it just looked careless. Even down to the hair, which just looked unkempt and half-finished, it just didn’t ever really pull together for me.

Dance outfits with just a bit too much detail

Did you shower this morning? 

Oh dearie me! You kids need to get some well-fitting clothes! All these big sweaters are making you look even more like children, and they probably drag on the ground or through food all the time! Back in my day we would try to MATCH our clothes, not mismatch on purpose! The lace jacket was quite pretty on you, sweetie, and at least the flannels looked warm, but then you go wearing shorts the size of handkerchiefs and I just don’t know what to tell you. The trench coat was nice, very classic. You need to eat more though, sweetie, you’re looking very thin, and you need to bulk up for December! I’ll send some cookies.

Love and kisses,

Granny Kimchi

Pretty lace is pretty

Eat more! And cover up for the season you look freezing!

Fashion on Budget!

Do you have a job in a small cafe? Even if you love the work, are you just not making enough money to dress like a kpop star? Well Tasty begs to differ!

This week we’re discussing the perfect look for almost no money! How is it done? Well it’s important to remember a few key tips:

Don’t forget, the season is more of a guideline. Wearing leather vests, fur coats and tank tops at the same time of year is totally fine.

This is a-ok in the dead of winter

Always accessorize! You can find awesome earrings or a pair of funky shoes at a good price, and they can class any outfit up! That cross necklace is a great example!

so that's an eyeball necklace...

keepin' it classy

Shop the sale racks. That ugly yellow sweatshirt? All you need to wear that is a bit of confidence. Remember: No one can pull off banana yellow like you.

Does this make my butt look banana-shaped?

If all else fails, just throw on a big t-shirt or one of your boyfriends shirts or sweaters!  No one will be able to tell. I promise.

No one will notice

#casualfriday

#comicallycostumed

#spangledandsparkled

#casualfriday or any day really, since lately some kpop has had a trend of looser, more casual clothing. Day’n Night has some lovely weathered jackets and old tshirts that seemed a lot more human than some other fashion statements. We’ve seen this in Troublemaker’s Now and the even more recent History’s What Am I to You. So much flannel.

STREEETTCHHH

Casual flannel...so casual why bother?

Looking casual in History's What Am I To You

#comicallycostumed even though its not halloween? Kpop is. We’ve seen an uptake in costumes being used in kpop videos recently. “Love Options” by BESTie comes to mind along with an older video, Epik High’s “Don’t Hate Me” from last year. Costumes are fun and quirky. It’s good to laugh, especially in tense music videos.

Ah, so classy

Maid outfit from Bestie's Love Options

Cutest joker costume I've ever seen from Epik High's Don't Hate Me

#spangledandsparkled because you can never have enough shiny (read: SHINee) things in kpop! As much as sparkles are always a trend, winter seems to bring them out, since the more fabric you have to be wearing the more sparkles there can be. We saw plenty of spangles on last week's Missing You by 2ne1, and we've also seen them in the past in MVs like SNSD's Galaxy.

ITS RED AND SPARKLY

Mr. Bedazzled Hood reappears from 2ne1's Missing You

Girl's Generation being shining stars

Time to say Goodnight, Tasty....

Em: As much as this wasn’t a complete departure from everything we’ve seen before, it did have an interesting aesthetic that complimented both the artists and the location. I like artful messiness myself, and it’s nice to see in an MV. It wasn't super high fashion, and the dance costumes didn't really speak with the rest of the outfits, but I thought that the hair and makeup worked well to create the characters.

Dramatic acting

Yes I am fabulous

Ruby: It’s not that i disliked every part of the mv. I really did like a lot of it. The flowered camo jacket is right up my alley, and I could not live without flannel in the winter. But there just wasn’t enough fashion mixed in. I felt like, in parts where they really could have played with fashion, like her party dresses, they really missed out. If they were going for the ‘cheap’ look, thats fine, but there is a way to do that where it still looks like there was conscious thought behind the clothing (See TroubleMaker’s Now, for a recent example.) It was refreshing, on some level to see a deconstructed look, but it went a little too far for me.

parts of the mv were really pretty and very nice...

Coat is cute. The rest of the outfit...........

Waiters look confuzzled

I’m developing an unhealthy obsession with their homemade chandelier. Like, it’s actually really cool looking. The whole restaurant scene has a cool vibe to it.

Actually the whole scenery was wicked cool.

Let us know how you feel about the super casual grunge look, do you love it? hate it? indifferent?
Leave us some love below...

Ruby and Em <3