Being Trendy as Being Empty

I'm not very interested in fashion, but I'm not blind and, believe it or not, my visual memory is pretty sharp. Recently, I'm quite astonished at a new kind of fashionable type appearing in the streets of Barcelona. The guy in the little shaky picture below is a clear example.

How can I explain it? First of all, I'd say that this is the least creative fashion style in the history of the world, besides the fact that it seems there is a factory cloning such kind of guys somewhere in suburban Barcelona. What this trend consists of? A guy, of a patently unclear sexuality, pretty skinny and less manly than a parcel of pink teddy bears, dressed in thin dark denim pants, wearing 50's canvas sport sneakers, though not having practiced any sport ever, not even ballet.

The rest of the costume includes a black jacket, like that in the picture, but most of the times, a shiny dark down jacket, kind of trendy this winter, and a well trimmed full scale beard, which is kind of an oxymoron, like a pacifist wearing a war helmet. Haircut is very particular, and is halfway between a pompadour and a psychobilly: the top is usually longer and has a great toupee, while sides are cut pretty shot, almost like a soldier, from which they lack everything else. Nevertheless, the most distinctive decorative element of such guys is their glasses, retro black frame Ray Ban eyeglasses. Why??? These are glasses for guys like Woody Allen or Peter Sellers, not for the bearded queer sister of Snow White fairy.

Separately, the style takes elements from late 50's and early 60's, and others from beatniks, and I also feel a bit the taste of decadent NYC during the 70's, at least from the movies I've seen featuring the city during that period. However, the ensemble is kitsch and ridiculous, anachronistic and tacky, and what's worst, utterly decontextualized: it is all totally and completely wrong!

What is more ridiculous to me is the uniformity of such "new" and "fashionable" trends, that classify people in clichés, stereotypes, and groups with the same look. They all look like equally, wear the same clothes, speak and move in the same way. The difference between these trends and the old ones is that now, there is no substance (whatever it might be) behind a look. Now, it is just a look, a pose, an appearance! Nothing else. It is completely arbitrary and next season will change and forgotten, like a dry leave falling in autumn. The emptiness of the image, just a reflection on a shapeless and colorless surface. That's the sad part of the story, the emptiness of it all, of this stupidity!