This entire post that will follow is taken from Dax & Sarah. Follow the link if you want to read more of their posts. I'm posting this on my blog because I think it is important for the whole Lindy culture, and I hope that more people read this, take it to their hearts, and maybe dress up a little more? When I go socialdancing on Mondays here in Gothenburg, I often hear "You always look so nice!" Well, thank you. But it's really not that hard. It doesn't have to be vintage, or expensive. You can look stylish for a low cost, in clothes that are "sweatable". Buy a top with puffed sleeves from H&M, they cost about 7 Euros. Wear nice jeans to it, or preferably a skirt. It doesn't take longer to get dressed, you'll both feel and look nicer, and maybe you'll be getting compliments too? If you are a guy, there are a lot of nice t-shirts for you as well. A thin, longsleeved sweater with buttons goes a long way. Regular pants or jeans. Maybe a waistcoat if you want to look more stylish? But NO WAY NEVER EVER is it ok to wear sweatpants/UFO pants with a dressier shirt and a bow tie. Sorry.
So, here comes the wisdom of Dax Hock.
“Sweat pants almost killed the lindy hop.”
A really famous lindy hopper once said to me, “Sweat pants almost killed the lindy hop.”
You may be thinking…WTF?
Think about it though, when swing dancing originated, everyone was dressing up and trying to look good. It was a night out, to say the least. Saying “Sweat pants almost killed the Lindy Hop” may sound completely ridiculous, but I’ve been thinking about it recently.
Let me bring your back to my beginning. I vividly remember the first dance I was invited to. I had learned a few moves at my High School swing club and now it was time to go out dancing. However, there was a big problem. I couldn’t go cause I didn’t have any vintage clothes. How funny is that. I actually didn’t go, and that next week I was compelled to go buy some dress pants, suspenders, and some shoes. Ridiculous…………..ly Awesome, now that I think about it. Not the suspenders, but there was a time where you actually had to think about what to wear. Fashion mattered and peer pressure combined with the image of Swimg made people care about what they went out in. Then everything changed.
If you have been dancing for a while, you might remember years back when people were wearing sweat pants to social dances. I remember, cause I used to wear them!
It was right around the time when social dances were being moved to dance studios because real venues were kicking Lindy Hoppers out for bringing water bottles. I am surprised that we didn’t end up with yoga mats and stretching sessions by the end of the night talking about how the only important part of the dance is how it feels.
What Happened?
Why did many people stop dressing up? Why did I stop dressing up? Obviously many continued to keep swing stylish, but those aside. What tipped the decline of swing fashion? How did all this happen? I don’t really know, but I speculate that maybe workshops, with 5 hours of classes a day, caused people to start dressing in athletic gear. Fair enough, but this sort of “comfort first” mentality started to trickle into the social nights. Soon the line between what was appropriate blurred when it came to style. Personally, I know I also started to focus more on just the dance, and not what the dance was part of. I think this happened for many people. We became so focused on Lindy Hop as only a dance and forgot the bigger picture of Jazz Culture, Music and Fashion and History.
I really think this affected my dancing, and probably a lot of other people. With this more casual approach to what we wore, came a more casual approach to how we danced, how we looked while dancing, and the tempos we preferred to dance to. Groove music soon took over, the stretched swing out died, charleston was “not cool”, and live music wasn’t worth the extra 5$ cover charge.
Is Fashion Part of Understanding the Dance?
I wish I got my act together much sooner when it came to fashion. It all started to click when when I realized that Lindy Hop was part of something bigger…that there was more to the dance then just learning how to dance well.
Lindy Hop, if removed from the influences that were present when it was originally developed, is awkward and lacking. As I get better at dancing, I enjoy listening to better dance music. As I listen to better music, I get better at dancing. As I move better and swing harder, I want to dress more vintage. As I start to dress more vintage I begin to move better and swing harder. Funny how this all comes together.
My Lindy Hop is so much more complete now that I am 1) dressing better, 2) playing swing music on my guitar, 3) listening to better dance music and 4)watching more old clips from the 20s, 30s and 40s. I can finally see how it all works together and feeds the rest. Over the past few years, I have seriously become more interested in all things that swing; looking beyond just the dance technique.
So, in case you missed the message going round town; Classy Is Cool. Vintage is cool. I even feel it may be a critical part to understanding the dance better.
If my wardrobe progressed along side my dancing over the past 10 years I would be set, unfortunately it hasn’t and now I am having to catch up. I wish I could go back in time and dress well so that all the pictures floating around didn’t look so silly.
More and More People Are Dressing Well!
Over past few years, I see more and more people bringing style to their Lindy Hop. I am also starting to recognize the people who have kept Vintage Influenced Style alive over all the years and taken it to respectable levels. I am not saying you should dress vintage, but if you think that lindy hop looks better in a T-shirt and Jeans over being decked out is some classy attire…I am asking you to think again. Would the Nicholas Brothers be a legend if they wore sweat pants? Would the Spirit Moves documentary look so badass if they were wearing polyester comfort clothes and Adidas shell toes? Hellzapoppin in jeans and t shirts? Seriously…?
Förord på svenska
Hela detta inlägg som följer är hämtad från Dax & Sarah. Följ länken om du vill läsa fler av deras inlägg. Jag lägger upp det här inlägget här på min blogg eftersom jag tycker det är viktigt för hela Lindy kulturen, och jag hoppas att fler människor läser detta, ta det till sitt hjärta, och kanske klär upp sig lite mer? När jag går och socialdansar på måndagar här i Göteborg, hör jag ofta "Du ser alltid så fin ut!" Jo, tack. Men det är egentligen inte så svårt. Du behöver inte äga dyra plagg eller bara ha vintaegkläder. Du kan se snygg ut för en låg kostnad, i kläder som är "svettbara". Köp en topp med puffärmar från H & M, kostar cirka 70 kr. Bär fina jeans till det, eller helst en kjol. Det tar inte längre tid att klä på sig, kommer du att både se och känna dig lite finare, och kanske du kommer att få komplimanger du med? Om du är kille, så finns det en massa fina t-shirts för dig också. En tunn långärmad farfarströja räcker långt. Regelbundna byxor eller jeans. Kanske en väst om du vill se mer elegant? Men ALDRIG NÅGONSIN är det ok att bära träningsbyxor /UFO byxor med en snyggskjorta och fluga. Tyvärr.
Kan inte hålla med mer!!
SvaraRaderakurs är kurs....men socialdans är ju en utekväll!! Börja piffa säger jag bara :)