How Geek Fashion is Making a Comeback
How Geek Fashion is Making a Comeback
  • Reporter Gwak Jun-ho
  • 승인 2016.05.04 16:54
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The definition of “geek” has changed considerably over time, and there is no longer a definitive meaning. The term refers to bright individuals who are enthusiastically into mathematics, sciences, and recently being remarked, social sciences. As geeks unintentionally lack social abilities to get along with those who are ‘not’ geeks, they often hang out exclusively in groups. However, as the society has become more heavily correlated with advanced technologies, geeks have become influential intellectuals to be reckoned with, such as Mark Zuckerberg, the founder of the worlds’ most powerful social network, Facebook.
Geek fashion refers to a minor fashion trend which arose in the mid 2000s in which young individuals adopted stereotypically “geeky” fashions, such as black horn-rimmed glasses, suspenders, braces, Capri pants, etc. Especially, wearing glasses with non-prescription lenses or without lenses became a defining aspect of the trend. Even though geek fashion surely was another definitive fashion trend, the trend somehow contained connotations of negative sarcasm towards socially awkward geeky young individuals. Remarked as ‘trying geek’ or ‘going geek’, the trend became considerably popular among media celebrities such as Justin Timberlake and Myleene Klass. In the sports world, the geek fashion showed up among NBA players who occasionally wore horn-rimmed glasses during post-game interviews. However, as many of the other identifying fashion trends such as clip-on suspenders worn with short-sleeved shirts were unsuitable for the business environment into which young adherents were entering, the geek fashion quickly died out.
However, as the world becomes to be more correlated with advanced technologies such as IT, electrical and mechanical engineering, etc. the geek fashion has returned. While not as distinctive as the original geek fashion in which horn-rimmed glasses and Capri pants were compulsory, the new geek fashion surely has its characteristics.
The new geek fashion is abundant especially in engineering colleges. For the top, they wear check patterned long shirts. During early winter and fall, they also wear knitwear over the shirts. Believe it or not, there is even a rumor that wearing check patterned shirts helps the students do better calculations. For bottoms, they tend to go for dark colored jeans, usually dark blue. Until here, the choices of clothes seem fairly reasonable and rather common. For shoes, they wear casual running shoes, even though they dislike running and outdoor activities. Considering how casual running shoes do not go so well with all of those formal tops and bottoms, it is clear that these students are just following the trend, not caring about how they look overall. For glasses, they go for black rectangular horn-rimmed glasses with round edges. Hair style is in fact the finishing point of the entire fashion. They go for a long, tangled hairstyle that is somehow decent in shape. Overall, the new geek fashion is somewhat between businessman-like formal and absentmindedly embellished fashion.