August 14, 2013

Athens Stage Style

We'll be honest: this photo feature was designed as a gag. "A fashion spread," we laughed, ensconced in our marble-plated conference room, "featuring a bunch of Athens musicians." Like you, perhaps, we were under the impression that most local noisemakers just threw on a T-shirt and a ratty pair of jeans before they ambled onstage. What better way to welcome a new class of UGA freshmen to town than with a tongue-in-cheek "fall preview" featuring the most characterless trends in Classic City fashion?

But as we set about to choose the artists who would pose for our vulturous cameras, we quickly realized the error of our ways. As it turns out, it's not 1993 anymore, and in 2013, the Athens music community is a deceptively stylish bunch. So, we struck out instead to determine the nature of this shift, and what it all means.

What we found was that local creative set is not defined by any one visual style. (This came as no surprise.) Like music, the Classic City is a furiously bubbling cauldron of influences when it comes to personal style. Blame it on indie rock or the Internet, but fashion is no longer the exclusive province of Saint Laurent-toting socialites: now, even the punkest of punks dress to impress. Sure, thrifting, not haute couture, reigns supreme—this is northeast Georgia, after all, not Paris—but what these locals can manage with a few bucks may surprise you.

To give you a taste of what we're talking about—not to mention a source of sartorial inspiration for the newbies who may be reading—we gathered six local acts together for a shoot with a fashion-conscious local photographer. In addition to completely disproving our myopic original theory, the results, we think, speak volumes.

Which is all to say: We were wrong. Get it, rockers. That's some serious style.

All photos by Tobin Russell Brogunier with help from Production Assistant Farrah Johnson.