BTS School Era Concepts - the timid first steps of finding oneself...
ahhhh...yes, the debut years! the rookie period, the years of trials and tribulations, the hip-hop school era, the years of sweet highs and bittersweet lows...or that part that I like to dub in my head as the tween years of their career, that awkward in-between period where you try to define yourself and to find your "voice".
reminder: as I've said in my post for BTS Now...an (awkward) fun concept I LOVE all the boys and this series of me talking about their concepts is just me expressing my thoughts, based on my personal tastes on the stylistic choices... we are here just for the vibes and having fun going down the memory lane.
disclaimer: the photos used are not my own ofc, credit goes to their creators.
so now that we cleared that out...shall we begin?
I dunno how it is for the rest of you guys, but being from an older generation and not having my cringe years blasted all over sm is a blessing that I'm sure our boys will love to have. we all go through it, it's just that some of us have the lucky fortune of having them just in a physical photo album. my personal cringe moments come in the form of facebook memories and having to see again some cringe posts or comments that I made 😬. but, at the same time, I also feel endearment towards my past self - "you were trying so hard,eh?" and I like to think that our tannies feel the same way .
some...choices were deff made here. I can kind of see what their stylist was thinking with the sportswear, trainers, baggy clothes, heavy bling-bling - all hip-hop coded, the make-up choice being to emphasize their grittyer selves, I can even close my eyes to the kitschy gaudy prints (are these versace knock-offs or real versace items?🤔)...but to me it just reads as a hip-hop cosplay, or at least the korean idol version of it. let's not talk about the weird choices that were made regarding namjoon's hair style or covering hobi's face (that man was beautiful then and is beautiful today and I hope the rumours that I've read/heard about this particular thing are not true).
perhaps their over stylized hip-hop look is typical to the korean idol scene...I dunno much about that, bc as I've said in the post of how I found them, I don't know much about the k-pop scene and I'm mainly interested in them. one thing is for sure though... their determination, resilience, discipline, and their passion, their hunger to achieve their goals are unmistakable evident from the first bars they droped. and...just look at them! they have an endearing, precious quality to them - look at yoongi being so loud and showing so much skin (how many thirsty fans have played in slo-mo that part of choreo from we are bulletproof pt 2 when he shows his midriff?🫣), or at jungkook being a shy *coughs* I mean tough looking bean, or at jimin playing so hard the macho card.
n.o. era continues the same thought line as their debut,regarding the styling, with very few variations. unfortunately, imo jimin drew the short straw because there is not one single photo in their photobook album that is flattering to him. 😥
the only good thing about this period visually is that it gave me ginger yoongi with a bandana (so cute and gorgeous)...
....and it also gave me pimp yoongi with a fur coat 😆. hey, no judging for where my mind takes me!
dark and wild era took a more grungier,punk vibe with their styling, less emphasis on bling-blings and more put on form fitted styles, leather, ripped jeans, and generally an emo (jungkook) bad boys kind of vibe, accentuated with very heavy eyeliner (they went a little overboard with it imho). I really digg jimin's look in the bottom group concept foto.
I think that jin embodies the best this concept here, helped also by the aloof cold persona that he is still playing, and I also like namjoon's punk hairstyle (in this instance, bc I've seen a clip of him with an over the top mohawk that didn't look good at all 🙈). the one they did dirty this time around is yoongi,and I've bitched enough when I talked about BTS Now 1 concept about the hair colour, hairstyle and eyeliner to not rehash-it again, but if the stylist went for a bad boy look with him with the face tattoo...they kind of missed the mark and instead ended up playing into a stereotype.
imho they should have gone more for this type of bad boy look. yoongi can tap really well into his bad boy persona you just got to let his natural self shine.btw...I'm not mentioning poor taehyung at all, because those concepts looked really bad on him.
luckily this era also gave us 'war of hormone' which imo is a much better suited style for them, that embodies much better youthfulness, rebellion and the I dont give af rock attitude much much better then what they were going for before.
all of them look amazing!! and I love how taehyung and yoongi were just feeling themselves.
and the less we say about their oral fixation, the better! also hobi with red hair...😗🤌🏻
by the end of their school era, I think it's safe to say that signs of a 180° style and concept change were kind of there, and I can't wait to gush about it.
thank you for your patience in reading this and I would love to hear your thoughts on this era if anybody is willing. also big thanks to @irmi3454 for that pic of jimin in a leather jacket.
🫰🏻💜
