Your fashion style is all about the clothes you like at a particular time in a particular place. Clothing is one of many ways you can express your identity. Distinctive clothing is one of the hallmarks of a subculture along with shared beliefs, values, practices, and sometimes language or jargon.
What is a Subculture?
A subculture refers to a group of people having a separate set of concepts and attitudes about life in general and/or having shared interests like music, fashion, etc different from the larger society of ordinary people they live with. The members of the subculture usually have the same set of beliefs, values, interests, and preferences. Simply put, it is a group of like-minded people.
Subcultures are defined by their distinctive values, norms, and practices that differentiate them from the mainstream culture.
For a long time, fashion belonged to the upper class but when fashion percolated to the lower class, it started to be influenced by the subcultures already present in the society.
A fashion subculture is formed around activities (music, leisure activities, rituals) and interests of this group of people. As authentic self-expression is an important aspect of subcultures and visual appearance is an important part of self-expression, the appearance and fashion style of these subcultures gained a lot of traction in society.
Members of a subculture use their distinctive fashion style as a way of identifying themselves as part of the group.
Over time, when marketers recognize the potential for business, they join the bandwagon and start catering to these needs by creating styles that suit them. And they have become a trend. Eventually, what begins as a fashion subculture challenging social norms becomes a part of society’s fashion norms.
Most popular subcultures
Alternate fashion subcultures
Alternative fashion is a broad term that encompasses a wide range of styles that defy mainstream trends. Alternative fashion subcultures form a major part of fashion subcultures that we see today.
These subcultures are often inspired by art, music, and social movements of the period. Especially music. Each music genre, from grime to rock, has its associated fashion subculture, reflecting its ethos and aesthetic. They have introduced diverse aesthetics and trends to the fashion landscape and enriched it.
Anime core fashion subculture
This subculture is based on Japanese anime outfits. Anime has inspired fashion subcultures, particularly in Harajuku (Lolita, decora, sailor-moon inspired fashion) and cosplay, where clothing becomes a form of storytelling.
Androgynous and Genderqueer subcultures
Fashion subcultures often challenge traditional gender norms, offering a platform for exploring androgynous and gender-fluid styles. Queer punk, voguing culture and drag queen are variations. Fashion has evolved to embrace androgyny and gender fluidity, with icons like Billie Eilish and Harry Styles challenging traditional norms, ignorning gender norms in their selection of clothes.
Bikers fashion
This fashion is for people who are inseparable from their bikes. Read more about this subculture in this post on Biker’s fashion.
Beatnik subculture
Popular in the 1950s and 1960s. This liberal self-expressive counterculture sprang from a movement of anti-society and anti-materialism after the 2nd world war. Clothing adopted by them included black shirts and pants, large sunglasses, berets.
Campcore aesthetics
This style is for those who love camping activities like hiking, sitting around the fire, going for walks in the forests etc.
Chav
This is a style adopted by the British youth to project a look of affluence and included ostentatious gold jewellery and designer clothes. Tracksuit pants, baseball caps, trainers are all staples.
Cosplay
Cosplay stands for costume play and the fashion subculture involves wearing self-created costumes of a favourite character from a book/play/movie.
Counterculture
A counterculture is a radical form of subculture. There are times when you do not want to dress like everybody else, but still want to belong to a group of selective people who think the way you do – rebellious and different. This is what counterculture is all about. It is all about being quite different from the mainstream fashion of a particular culture. Most of the subcultures started out as countercultures.
Crusties
Related terms are New age travelers and crust punk. They are said to be a mix of hippies and punks. The dressing is characterised by rough and dirty clothes, dreadlocks, piercings, and tattoos. Popular in the 1980s.
Cybergoth
This is an amalgamation of futuristic fashion and goth fashion.
Dark Academia
The clothing of the dark academia subculture features cardigans, blazers, dress shirts, plaid skirts, Oxford shoes, and clothing made of houndstooth and tweed, its color palette consisting mainly of black, cold white, beige, brown, dark green, and occasionally navy blue.
Source : Wikipedia
Drag Queen
Drag queen fashion subculture is a vibrant and expressive style of fashion that is characterized by its exaggerated femininity, bold colors, and glamorous embellishments. Drag queens often take femininity to the extreme, using makeup, clothing, and accessories using bold colors, feminine embellishments like sequins, glitter, feathers.
Emo
Short for Emotional Hardcore and inspired by emo music. A teenage fashion subculture including dark tight T-shirts with band names, skinny jeans, hoodies, sneakers, studded belts, tattoos, body piercings, black eyeliner, and flat, straight, jet-black hair with long bangs and punk accessories. Started in the early 2000s.
Read more on emo fashion here
Emo Rap
Emo rap subculture blends introspective emo sensibilities and rap’s bold and assertive aesthetics. Emo’s signature elements, such as tight-fitting jeans, black hoodies, and band tees, are often combined with rap’s influence of oversized streetwear, streetwear brands, and graphic tees.
E-People
Short for Electronic people. This is a tik tok trend with an emphasis on streetwear style. E-girls and E-boys represent a digital era in fashion subcultures, mixing Japanese street fashion with a touch of punk and goth.
Fairy Kei
Fairy Kei is a feminine fashion with girly clothes. In Fairytale Kei, people dress as if they have stepped out of a fairytale. Colors used are only candy colors in pastel shades.
Geek
If you are tech-savvy and interested in science fiction, video games, or animation and pop culture with not much social interaction to the point of being socially awkward you may be a geek. Geek chic gained popularity during the 1990s. Geek subculture involves clothing like slogan/graphic t-shirts usually in black color, casual jeans, sweater vests, horn-rimmed glasses.
This article quotes there are many types of geeks like fanboy, music geek, gamer, gadget guy, hacker, and otaku. You will find many more interesting facts about this subculture there.
Glam Rock
This was a subculture popular during the early 1970s following a style of pop music popular then. In the style that follows this subculture you can dress in bold bright colors, flashy and outrageous styles including heavy colourful fur coats and glitter tops with platform soled boots.
Gothic subculture
Goth subculture, and gothic fashion style is a dark and mysterious style. You do not need to look morbid and gloomy or be interested solely in horror movies to be in this fashion. But you must wear dark clothes, lace, and silver jewelry..
The “trad goth” is a term used to describe a subculture of the goth movement that emphasizes the traditional elements of goth fashion and music. A ‘trad-goth’ or traditional goth followed the styles of the 18th and 19th centuries, including dark veils, gowns, corsets, bustles etc.
Learn more about the different types of goth fashion style and their features here.
Grime
This is influenced by grime music, a music genre that emerged in London in the early 2000s. It has a raw rebellious energy and a gritty urban aesthetics. Tracksuits, hoodies, and T-shirts are staple itemsamong the followers of this subculture.
Grunge
This subculture is associated with plaid shirts, distressed jeans, long hair and a don’t care attitude. Grunge emerged in the mid-1980s in Seattle, Washington, and quickly gained popularity throughout the United States and beyond. Learn more about Grunge style here.
Heroin chic
Heroin chic does not refer to a street subculture – it refers to a look adopted by top-class models of a period (the 1990s) They sported a hollowed drug-induced look with pale faces, dark kohled eyes, and a wane look. Kate Moss was the embodiment of this look. When the models appeared in this fashion this influenced the common man to think that it is ok. Drug use was considered cool during these times and the look was admired and adopted.
Hip-Hop
This is basically the fashion style of the rappers and associated with breakdancing. The loud, bold, and colorful style consists of oversized casual clothing including hoodies, graphic T-shirts, crop tops, baseball caps, and sneakers.
Hippie
You are following hippie fashion if you wear bright-colored, baggy, and sometimes ragged clothes, loud accessories, and long hair. Tie and dye were very popular in the genre. Bell bottom pants, long loose skirts are also a part of this subculture. Popular during the 1960s and 1970s. A Yippi is a politically active hippie.
You can find interesting variations for the term hippie in this website and a detailed history of the subculture.
Hipster
This was the subculture for the followers of jazz music. Started during the 1940s. Also called Hepcat.
Heavy metal
The fashion style of this subculture includes black leather jackets, combat boots, studded belts.
Indie Pop
Short for Independent. This is a popular street wear including black baggy t-shirts with band names, skinny jeans, casual cardigans, loafers, and aviator glasses. Started in the 1980s.
Japanese Subcultures
Japanese Subculteres are loved and followed by a lot of fashion lovers all around the world – Harajaku girl, Shibuya, Sweet lolita, Punk Lolita, Dekora, Pop Kei to start with.
Lolita
This is a very prominent fashion style that emerged as a part of Japan’s street style fashion. Learn more about Lolita style.
Metrosexual
A term that brings together metropolitan and heterosexual. it’s more of a lifestyle or a fashion trend rather than a subculture in the traditional sense. The concept of metrosexuality emerged primarily in the early 2000s. A metrosexual is a modern man who is concerned about his appearance than usual and wears the trendiest clothes at all times.
Metalhead
This is a fashion style associated with Heavy metal music. Includes T-shirts with band names, army (camouflage) pants, denim jeans in dark colors, denim vests, leather jackets with logos, spiked gloves.
Maximalism
Maximalism in fashion subcultures rebels against minimalism, celebrating excess, bold patterns, and a ‘more is more’ philosophy. Bold and bright colors and patterns, over-the-top combinations, statement pieces are used.
Mods
Short for Modernist. Popular during the 1950s. This subculture was popular among people who liked modern jazz music. This is a clean fashion style and dressing in a very neat suave, modern style was mandatory.
Movie inspired subcultures
Cult films often influence fashion subcultures, inspiring trends and styles that resonate with their themes. Their passionate fanbases are ardent followers of the often unconventional themes shown in these movies.
Egs are “Fight club” movie which started a subculture that adopted a minimalist, rugged style, and “Pulp fiction”, Quentin Tarantino’s film that influenced a subculture that adopted the slick, retro style seen in the movie, characterized by sharp suits, bolo ties, and 50s-inspired dresses.
Nazi-Chic
This refers to adopting a Nazi-era fashion style with their authoritarian tailored and structured clothing.
New Romantics
It is a flamboyant and flashy dressing style. Popular in the 1970s and 1980s
Read more about this subculture here.
Oriental
This involves clothing with influence from Chinese, Filipino, Japanese, Korean, Vietnamese cultures.
Punk Subculture
Popular among the lovers of Punk Rock music. Popular in the 1970s.
Punk is inevitably linked with Rock’n’roll music. The fashion style resembled that of the ethnic street gangs and included t-shirts, jeans, leather jackets and heavy boots. Icepunk, Seapunk are variations.
Psychobilly
A subculture around loud rockabilly music . Dressing included leather jackets, mohawk hairstyles.
Rave
Started in the 1980s as a group of those who loved techno music. Raves refer to wild dance parties with good loud electronic music and lots of dancing. This is a subculture for the youth between the age group of 15-25 who dress in flashy skin-tight clothes and neon-colored accessories. Some also wore baggy sweaters and sportswear, coats, matching pants, and loafers.
Rock subculture
Followed by those who loved rock’n’roll music. Clothing included t-shirts, leather jackets with lots of patches, denim jeans, motorcycle boots.
Scene fashion subculture
The scene fashion subculture involves – “bright colored clothing, skinny jeans, stretched earlobes, sunglasses, piercings, large belt buckles, wristbands, fingerless gloves, eyeliner, hair extensions, and straight, androgynous flat hair with long bangs covering the forehead and sometimes one or both eyes”.
Source – wikipedia
Skinheads
This is a group of people (mostly white supremacist people) with a distinctive fashion style – including tattoos, steel-capped combat boots, braces (suspenders), and their characteristic shaved heads. Popular during the 1970s and 1980s.
Steampunk
This subculture is based on Victorian (19th century) science fiction.
Teds
Short for Teddy boys. This subculture started among British youth in the 1950s -they chose to imitate clothing styles of the Edwardian era (1901–10) including stylized hair set in a bouffant, beautifully tailored suits, polished shoes.
You can find some good pictures of teddy boys in this page.
Thrift store chic
This term is used to refer to young urban professionals who dress well. The term was first used during the 1980s. These highly educated professionally successful young men and women flaunted their rich backgrounds and their fashion reflected their financial status. You will hear about other subculture variants like Yuccies (Hipster yuppie), Muppies (Millenial yuppies), etc.
Yuppies
This term is used to refer to young urban professionals who dress well. The term was first used during the 1980s. These highly educated professionally successful young men and women flaunted their rich backgrounds and their fashion reflected their financial status. You will hear about other subculture variants like Yuccies (Hipster yuppie), Muppies (Millenial yuppies), etc.
VSCO Girl
The VSCO girl trend within fashion subcultures is characterized by a relaxed, beach-inspired style, often including scrunchies, hydro flasks, and oversized t-shirts.
If you are a master of something, it is difficult for you to acknowledge the people who come after you – they are never enough. They are like the daughter-in-law who can never do enough for your son. Something like that always happens in fashion. When fashion subcultures are already established, those who come to dilute it are not encouraged by the purists. If you are interested in any of these subcultures, and you want to be seen as a purist, let me tell you, it is not easy. You have to study the subculture thoroughly and absorb all the elements that make it unique
(There are thousands of subcultures all over the world. I have listed only the ones that I love. You can find a bigger list in this post on wiki or on this page on wikipedia)
More interesting references for fashion subcultures
Website of Popular Culture Association – pcaaca.org
Cute self-portraits with subculture photography in this website
Books – Street Culture: 50 Years of Subculture Style
By Gavin Baddeley (Available on Scribd) ;
Subculture: The Meaning of Style (1979) by Dick Hebdige
Related posts : List of Fashion words ; Make a Fashion moodboard with apps
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