In Pattern Recognition, the protagonist, Cayce Pollard created a simplistic style of clothing due to the fact that she is “allergic to fashion” and she can only tolerate design-free clothing. She has become disgusted by large corporations designing “cult” clothing styles. Styles are constantly changing and evolving. In the past few years, a bright and eccentric clothing style has emerged in the urban skating scene. This style of clothing was been titled “Skurban.” The skurban scene began with inner-city skaters purchasing cheap brightly designed t-shirts that cost around 10 or 15 dollars. The style has expanded so drastically that celebrity moguls, such as rapper/producer Pharrell, are starting their own companies, from which a t-shirt can cost you around 90 dollars.
Similar to how Cayce Pollard left the brand name style, to join the more basic “soho” style, the urban movement was leaving the bland, average look to move to bright matching clothes. In a similar way, Cayce Pollard attempted to create an inexpensive style with no brand names, but in the end, the style of her clothing has become the “norm” in many areas, such as SOHO in New York City. This has given many corporations a reason to begin producing the Cayce Pollard style at high prices. Today, people from the respective stylistic cultures would most likely view the others’ style as products of the fashion industry, which in retrospect is the opposite of what these styles were attempting to portray. These styles were originally produced to get away from mainstream fashions, however, these fashions were accepted, and widely copied, to the point that they now represent mainstream fashion. As stated in the novel, “What people take for relentless minimalism is a side effect of too much exposure to the reactor-cores of fashion” (8). In the end, isn’t Cayce Pollard creating additional reactor-cores in the world of fashion? Looking into the past, what fashions went from radical to accepted, to the norm? This concept of change over time can also be connected to other aspects of pop culture, including music, dance, etc. Try to think of examples.
-Kevin McNutt-
November 27, 2007 at 11:34 pm |
One example of change over time that I always think of is music. Not even having to speak of one genre – almost every generation before hates the current generation’s music. In most cases it is too loud or too fast – so what does this say? Music is getting fasted and harder, but maybe not better. Which can be said about the world that Cayce lives in as well because her job is to spot trends but what are “new” trends but sub-sections of previous trends.
So with that said, how is anything ever new if it just a copy of a copy. And this all threads back to the simulacra effect of Cayce’s “Mirror world”. I don’t really think whether something is radical or norm defines it because everything takes a bit out of something else. Take punk music for example, it is hard to say where it really got it’s roots – some say in England and some have other theories. So this uncertain proves my point that unless we are able to dig deep into the time and space we will never really find out tread got started – we will only be able to track how it has changed over time.
Ariana Arancibia
November 28, 2007 at 9:11 am |
I think that are are innumerable amounts of examples to illustrate this idea of fashion trends and how they change over time, but what I found most interesting was the discussion in class about Cayce’s WWII bomber jacket. It never even existed until William Gibson thought it up for this book, and then it became manufactured and produced. Its the perfect example of a similacra in the book because Cayce likes it so much because it is the “perfect imitation of the real thing”. But then it is also a simulacra in real life because it was produced on the notion that it was real in a novel though it never was. It has become suddenly searchable on the internet. I am sure there are other examples of this as well, yet regardless, I just found it interesting that this change that we are speaking of can actually and often does occur when the item never actually originally existed in the first place.
-Maria Grabis
November 28, 2007 at 6:44 pm |
What Cayce does isn’t creating reacting-cores. She’s not making or setting trends, she’s recognizing patterns. She’s not comming up with anything new, she’s picking up on things other people have already put out there. Her own style is quite different from what she picks up on in the real world, but what she presents as “patterns” is not of her own design.
In the real world, very few fashions made the leap from radical to accepted. Most fasshions evolved over time. For example, female bathingsuits didn’t go from the dress-style full body coverings of the early 1900s to the barely there bikinis they have out there now. In the designer fashion world fashions change overnight, but in the everyday person’s life, style is a gradual change. The same can be said for most aspects of pop culture as well.
-Aimee L. Treutlein
November 28, 2007 at 9:18 pm |
One fashion trend that I can think of that has gone from radical to accepted is the jeans with the holes in them. Ten years ago, it was barbaric to walk around with holes in your jeans, but now retailers sell those products widely. Cayce is allergic to certain trends because she is in shock that they are so widely accepted and they have become such a part of society. That is why she develops her own style and refuses to conform to the standards of society. This is ironic because her business entitles looking for trends. I think that a lot of fashions today were taboo ten years ago-holes in jeans, baggy pants, etc. Nowadays, not much is taboo in terms of fashion because we have all grown tolerant to it and it is such a big part of society. Cayce however, is an example of the rejection of this culture.
November 29, 2007 at 3:22 pm |
I think that the change that is experienced in a Cayce’s world along with the current pop culture world is a gradual experience. I think that people in pop culture including Cayce are worried about that is in and what is out. Even though Cayce never seems to worry, I think that she is worrying about not fitting in the fashion world at all and it is to a point that she is driving herself nuts. I think fashion not matter if it is high end of low end they are always relying on one another to survive. Sometimes I like to watch QVC and they are always talking about high end stuff out in the really world but you right now can get the same thing for not a high price. They do this with jewelry a lot.
***KRISTINE MISHAK****
November 29, 2007 at 5:09 pm |
I believe Cayce Pollard is creating additional reactor-cores in the world of fashion, but aren’t we all. If you do not make you own clothes, you are involved in the world of fashion. Every time we get dressed we are making a fashion statement. I believe Cayce wears her simplistic style of clothing to get away from the world she works in everyday. She is fashionable, but on her own terms. She does not follow her own trends. In the words of late Notorious B.I.G, “Don’t get high on your supply.” I believe Cayce is following his example because if she wants to continue to do her job she has to separate herself from the fashion world. An example of fashion that went from radical to accepted would be the color pink. After rap artist, Cam’ron, started wearing pink, all men could wear pink without being laughed at. Pink went from a color that only females wore to a color that all people could wear.
-Michael A. Brooks
November 29, 2007 at 7:22 pm |
I personally think that change over time is something that is completely unavoidable throughout time. Everything must evolve, for better or worse, given the examples of how girls went from poodle to mini skirts, guys went from baggy to tight, sometimes girls jeans, and how moms suddenly got the term MILF put upon them. These all go to show that it is not just our style, music or fashion that is changing, it is the entire outlook of society all together. With music, it went from the different stages of pop, starting with the Beatles, to The Backstreet Boys, and now different groups like Boys Like Girls and Fall Out Boy seem to have equal shares of the spotlight. That is only one example, within the music industry. Pieces of media industry like fashion are constantly changing and evolving on an almost daily basis. I thik that a character like Cayce realizes this, and knows what she’s looking for when doing her job. I mean, now in society, it is almost unavoidable when you see a trend catch on. It is EVERYWHERE. So by staying ahead of the grain, and realizing what society may look for next is not just a job a character does in Pattern Recognition, but its what boys and girls do everyday in our society.
-Theo Jones
November 29, 2007 at 9:30 pm |
The way that Cayce Pollard dresses shows that she doesn’t want to sell an image or a product. She covers the logos on her clothes and defaces the buttons so that she is not a “walking advertisement”. Cayce wants to be known for who she is and not what she wears. The problem with fashion in our society today is that in selecting what clothes to wear, we often choose who we want to be. In other words, people judge us based on the clothes we wear, for example preppy, goth, emo, etc. Cayce Pollard refuses to be classified into one of these groups. Working in the fashion industry and dealing with trends everyday, Cayce recognizes how people can be controlled by advertising. She refuses to be influenced by the messages that the media send out, and this is revealed in her simplistic clothing style. I agree entirely with what Michael Brooks said in that in order for Cayce to be effective in what she does, she has to remove herself from the world of fashion. She understands how the industry works, and this has allowed her to be successful at her job. An example of a radical fashion style that became accepted over time is jeans. When denim pants first came onto the scene, they were viewed as clothes strictly reserved for the working, or lower class. Jeans were seen as clothes that poor people wore. It wasn’t until a president was seen wearing jeans that they became widely accepted by our culture. Today, everyone can be seen wearing jeans.
Christopher A. Pedicord
November 29, 2007 at 10:50 pm |
I agree with the notion that everything over time, such as trends and fads, change. Everything from clothes, music, movies, electronics, consumer products, and more all evolve. If these things did not evolve or we didn’t change the scenery every once in a while, we would all eventually get bored and force a change somehow.
Also, everything lately seems to be working in a cycle. Bands that were popular years ago are popular today. An example of this is Bon Jovi. They can still sell out stadiums. A clothing trend is leggings. Leggings were a fad of the 80′s and now they are everywhere.
So the act of monitoring trends is an obsessive one. It’s arduous and can be daunting because of the fact that trends are always changing, evolving, coming around full circle, and more.
The fact that Casey doesn’t want to be a walking advertisement reminds me of that scene we saw in “The Devil Wears Prada”. Even though we try to not conform to fashion trends or consumerism, everything you wear was once a decision by someone that decided to produce it because it was trendy and appealling in that way at some point. Just an observation..
November 30, 2007 at 1:44 am |
I agree with Lara about trends working in a cycle, history inevitably repeats itself. So it would only seem necessary for people to look back at old successful popular ideas and recycle them to cater towards current market trends. So music, clothing and other consumer goods will follow par in utilizing pass successes to produce marketable items.
So Casey the main character in, Pattern Recognition, her job being to identify new trends becomes a little unclear. Seeing that most of the newest trends are based on old trends what does her job truly entail? In real life could such a job really exist seeing that it would identify information already apparent and widely understood. Her job is still very unclear and confusing seeing that the information she obtains is borrowed and is recognized by most people simply by walking around and living their lives.
November 30, 2007 at 2:13 am |
Trends always seem to emerger in this not popular to becoming popular fashion. All it takes is one celebrity to pick up on a trend, sport it down the red carpet at an award show, and all of a sudden, the style becomes mainstream. We live in a culture wear subculture styles become exploited and worn to a popular degree. Even cayce’s style of covering up designer labels, can be seen on the street. Many popular clothing companies for a long time made the name brand the center piece of their wardrobe. Now it is commonplace for shirts to just have basic patterns, if anything on them. Graphic tee’s and other items of clothing rarely now have company names on them. It is becoming so the trend, that plain white t-shirts are very in style. This is an urban street style that stems from lower class inner city youth not being able to afford expensive clothing. One can go into a bodega and buy a package of ten white tee’s for ten dollars. The new nickname for these shirts is actually “throwaways.” An undershirt that underprivelaged youths could barely afford are now one time wear shirts sported by celebs and the like. This is how fashion works and has for a long time.
November 30, 2007 at 4:09 am |
I feel that while Cayce tries to strip her clothing of brands or logos, it is hard to do that. If you shop at a store enough you learn what you saw on display or the particular style that the particular store sells. You can take away any logos for example anything that says Express or Old Navy but its that style of clothing that people can still recognize. I also feel that trends constantly repeat themselves throughout decades.
November 30, 2007 at 4:28 am |
Like Ariana Arancibia says in the first blog for this question, i think that music is a very big change. Also like Ariana Arancibia says, the prior generation hates the music that is of current. The reason for this is that everybody feels the music they are putting out is the right type of music and that this music is how others should listent to music. I couldnt agree more with what Ariana Arancibia says because if she had not talked about all of that I would have talked about it myself. Out of all of the media forms I feel music i understand the most and that is the best way to compare with pattern recognition.
-Marc Tomasini-
November 30, 2007 at 8:50 am |
I always find it very interesting to see what is classified as mainstream fashion today. It is something can often starts out as a rebellion agaist fashion and branding, but then turns around and is the biggest craze in teh fashion world. I think that Cayce’s simlple approach to clothing and her desire to get away from fashion branding is an obvious example of this. It goies to show that the all mighty dollar is the true priority in today’s society, it doesn’t matter if you have a message or a purpose unless its going top make somebody money, like Pharell selling $15 t-shirts for $90. He could easily sell those shirts for $10 if he wanted to, but why turn away a 90% profit when it looks you dead in the eye?
November 30, 2007 at 4:32 pm |
Brands are a large part of American Culture. For me its interesting to see how many people can’t live without their Starbucks or McDonald’s coffee every morning. there are always lines of cars in the drive through lane at the McDonald’s i live by, and I’m sure there are people out there that go out of their way every morning for that latte or some other kind of drink. If you take away the Starbucks logo or those Golden Arches, I’m sure that people will realize it all tastes the same. Whether it be Folgers, or coffee from Quik Check or the kind you make in your own kitchen. Some people, if they miss their morning coffee feel like they cant function. Similarly with clothing, some people only wear clothing from one name bring store like American Eagle of Polo and I think that producers and companies feed off of peoples obsession with brands and logos and its just ridiculous the money they make by putting the little eagle or polo logo on a plain collared shirt.
-Marina Fishbeyn-