Here's Lexi, my latest subject captured in the Ubiq window. She's wearing a pair of Air Jordan One shoes, exactly the kind of thing Ubiq sells, along with Gap jeans, and a Hello Kitty t-shirt. Lexi describes her style as "street wear meets scene kid," to which, of course, I had to ask, what does "scene" mean to you? People in scenes, I find, often refer to their own scene as "the scene," as if it were the only one. It can lead to some conceptual confusion. "Well, I guess I mean it in an old school sense" she said, "like emo." I, of course, don't think of emo as "old school," but then I've clearly got over a decade and a half on Lexi. For me, old school is spiked leather jackets and creepers. But what's interesting here is not that she thinks of emo as old school. Of course she would. Emo's like 20 years old now. What's interesting is that she sees street wear and emo as compatible. They used to occupy very different places on the spectrum of styles. But then Lexi's generation doesn't have as much use for such stiff stylistic allegiances. When I asked what kind of music she listens to she told me "R&B. And hardcore." "That's the first time I've ever heard that combination of genres," I told her. We talked about how the old subcultural boundaries are breaking down. We talked about how today, street culture is street culture, and "street" is a broad category that includes skaters, hip hoppers, punks, and club kids in its mix.
