Cool to be Emo

In Sydney and Singapore it’s becoming more cool to be depressed.

Depression is sweeping teens and now is aspirational – for some at least. Middle class well off kids find imperfections in their lives and make a melodrama out of each episode of rejection. All this is played out to Emo music too.

Male and females are derided by many but still persist in their misery. Recognise them by their dark clothes, right sweat shirts, scarfs in summer.

Not just sensitive new age guys but a subculture that thrive on the mantra

‘no one understands’.

Emos fit perfectly into INSIDE STORY’s ‘Still Waters’ segment a segment not as much targeted by marketers but showing increasing interest more recently. We are now seeing a lot of fashion spreads in magazines like Frankie and Russh..see the May Russh fashion spread – ‘back in the USSR…go underground this summer’. Rip Curl experimented with the depressed and even played very subtly with the death wish for a while in their shop window in Sydney - though this seems to have disappeared.

The dark mood is reflected in a lot of the top designer ads for Prada and others who use the greyed out tones for their fashion shoots only highlighting the product in colour. Seemingly a smart way to maximise product impact but also a subtext which is a bulls eye to the emerging emo target. Poses are almost always reclining – metaphorically symbolic of DOWN, PASSIVE, BACK. Many of the top designers featured reclining models in their depressed states in windows in Orchard Road in April.