They’re everywhere. Coffee mugs, T-shirts and bumper stickers alike: cheeky phrases. When I was a kid, the shirt phrases available to me were things like “Saw it. Wanted it. Had a fit. Got it” and other attitude-encouraging sayings from JCPenney.
This Fashionista’s outfit is strategically quirky. The denim jacket exudes a casual coolness. The two-tone scarf is tied sloppily. The penny loafers tie the ensemble together in a more polished way. The outfit is made complete by the sassy quote on her backpack, “Other People In The World Do Exist.”
This is not the first time I’ve seen this sort of thing. This trend of sarcastic sayings printed on clothing, hats and bags is increasing in popularity. Its become just as vital in expressing oneself in style as shoes or pants. It says who you are or what you believe in a really clear manner.
In this example, this Fashionista’s backpack implies she may be concerned about social issues like misrepresentations of other minority groups. Look how far we’ve come from the JCPenney days.
Slogans like these reflect the new genre of cool: sarcastic, matter-of-fact and self- aware. It’s cool now to have a political opinion. It’s cool now to be concerned with human behavior (i.e. intentions, tendencies, etc.) It’s now cool to care more about the well-being of others than only the well-being of yourself. And maybe this isn’t such a bad thing.
How To: Hit up a thrift shop in search of a shirt, hat or bag with some kind of catchy grouping of words. Double points if you find something from the 1980s that was meant sincerely but you wear ironically.
