Street wear in the Philippines
I'm not a supporter of the flexin' culture. Yeah, I like seeing it in photos but I only see its real function in photos. Not in my everyday life. I support my own taste. Things that speak to me. Things that I let represent what I have inside. That's streetwear or whatever wear is for me. I don't flex just to flex. I represent. Myself. A culture I subscribe to. What I do. What interests me. I don't wear something JUST because social media or celebrities wore it. I own a lot of stuff I found myself. People may argue that all of us are influenced by the huge marketing stunts all over the world. Yeah, fine. But I'd like to believe I still have my own voice in my life.
But generally, people flex with fakes because that's what they think will make them look good. And why fakes? Because sometimes money doesn't allow them to look good. You could say they are victimizers as well as victims
Being victimizers in such a way that they are indirectly, victimless-ly, damaging a brand that's made something good. Or so they say. But more on the victim side, they are being victims due to the fact that they feel compelled to wear such specific things just too look good and relevant. And that there is no alternative but to buy something that's not real. That, to me, is cheating yourself bifold. In a sense, this is just simple story-telling. An act all of us are guilty of. We tell stories to ourselves for self-identification. That's becoming a necessity in the ever-growing technological world. But succumbing to fakes, in my opinion, is intentionally giving yourself up to the influence of society. I know, it's contradicting to say that I'm not doing that myself. I may have. But my point here is, I'm "story-telling" to myself that I'm still in control. Or that I may have been defeated by society by my own terms. That perhaps, I just cheated myself once. Supporting the culture and community that I believe am a part of, instead of doing make-believe that I am a part of it and fleeting through trends that do not really define what I am.
Don't get me wrong. Just recently in my even younger days, I was a subscriber of fakes. Due to the fact that I didn't have enough money and I didn't know alternatives back then because I didn't have that much access to the internet. Maybe that's still the case with the youth nowadays. But I can't help but think that they have greater access to technology today, with social media and internet everywhere. Especially when it's nobody but the internet who introduced to them the brands they are now faking.