I’ve been writing a lot of Big Bang news lately and the more I write, the less I enjoy G-Dragon’s sense of style. I have no problem with the rest of Big Bang in terms of their style but G-Dragon is bordering pretentious asshole territory. I used to like G-Dragon’s outfits because deep down inside, I enjoy looking at men’s streetwear more than I like looking at women’s fashion, but then with Big Bang’s latest comeback and series of promotions, GD made me want to stick a fork in my eye.
Exhibit 1: The “shocking” hair
Part of the marketing used for the “Stand Up” promotions was that G-Dragon was going to reveal some “shocking” hair, which turned out to be half a mohawk. The shocking hair is actually not that shocking because it immediately reminded me of what SM did to Sungmin’s (Super Junior) hair when Super Junior was going to release their second album. View here:
And this, is where the YG/SM fans are at odds with each other. Super Junior is of “idol” status because idols are what SM Ent. is famous for, and people don’t think mohawks belong on the heads of idols, so Sungmin (and the rest of Super Junior) was immediately the freak with blonde hair. G-Dragon does not come from the idol entertainment company and was the fashionista who took risks. Double…standards? Also something I always enjoy: when G-Dragon wears something truly hideous and gets flak from the media, fans say that it’s the stylist’s fault. When G-Dragon wears something great, G-Dragon is a fashionista.
Okay.
Exhibit 2: The scarves
During the time Big Bang released their first Korean mini-album “Always,” the style trend for G-Dragon was 01) graphic tee paired with 02) skinny jeans paired with 03) bright sneakers paired with 04) the scarf. I cannot express to you how much I loathed those scarves on G-Dragon and how annoyed I was that this was considered “trendsetting.” I can’t find a picture at the moment, but eventually, G-Dragon started wearing a scarf similar to this one:
That is a keffiyeh. Keffiyehs have become quite controversial over the last year or two because trendy clothing places like Urban Outfitters have basically ignored what the keffiyeh is a symbol of and turned it into a hipster, trendy piece of clothing and suddenly, everybody wore it everywhere because everyone else was doing it. (Extra hipster points if you wore it while smoking a cig and got photographed by Cobrasnake!) It’s quite sad that it’s no longer possible to tell a person who’s actually aware of what a keffiyeh is from a person who’s wearing it for looks.
If anyone’s interested, here are some reads on the keffiyeh phenomenon of ye present:
- You say keffiyeh, I say shemagh
- Keffiyeh controversy round 2: Delia
- Rachel Ray keffiyeh controversy
- Scarves, Stuff white people like (just for fun)
Exhibit 3: EVERYTHING
Overall, G-Dragon strikes me as the kind of person who knows all the trends but unfortunately wears all of them together all at once thinking the outfits are really rad, but which just come off as loud and messy. And what I get when I look at how he dresses now is that he needs to pick one style and see how he can trendset in his own way while being truly innovative, instead of mixing loud patterned shoes with loud patterned accessories with over-the-top pieces of clothing just because each particular object may be the “it” thing of the moment. It also doesn’t help that he has a trendy, quotable James Dean-related tattoo across his back that he likes showing off whenever he possibly can.
Posted in: asian pop culture - fashion - ranting | Tags: Big Bang, G-Dragon, Korean pop
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