GIVE ME GLITTER, OR GIVE ME DEATH?

I’m a hockey fan first, a peacemaker second, and perhaps a clothes-horse third. I love my J Brand skinny jeans and Alexander Wang knits as much as the next chick, but I would wear a hockey jersey every day of my life if I could. If such a thing were acceptable and practical in mainstream society (in America, in Los Angeles), I actually might.

Prepare for a semi-girly post here, though I will keep the glitter graphics and Taylor Swift song quotes to a minimum. If the only couture you care about is Randy (or Logan... SJ reference), you’ve been properly warned. Here we go: the latest women’s merchandise offerings from the NHL are getting quite the buzz for being quite awful.

To be fair, I’m not offended by any of the women’s merch put out by the NHL, (not even by the description that promises to show off my “feminine curves”, for some of us the only curves we’ve ever had were by Blackberry). That is silly. If anything, I just don’t buy it, like I don’t buy white-rimmed sunglasses. Plus there is a lot of women’s merch on shop.nhl.com not to hate, like this American Apparel-esque tee, and most of it is athletic wear. Whoever is in charge of some of the merchandise at the NHL isn’t trying to offend women, that was never the aim, I chalk it up to someone who just doesn’t know much about fashion as designer, and someone who doesn’t know that much about fashion as buyer. As much as I tend to embrace a masculine spirit, I love fashion. I don’t see it as a frivolous interest, or status symbol, but as a way to express oneself. Anyone familiar with names like Rodarte or Alexander McQueen especially know that fashion is a form of art, art that is presented to us to interpret how we please; that is the beauty of personal style. When you think about it, at most given times in our lives, the clothes on our backs are all we’ve got, so why not make them something you feel proud wearing?

After college, I never had much interest in pursuing anything in the fashion business (“school” had me focusing mostly on the finer points of urban living, parking garages, and BMW ownership).Writing is where my heart is, especially writing about hockey. BUT I want to help the NHL, and I want to help out my fellow fans. Put that fashion degree (and ¼ of a graphic design degree) that is gathering dust to good use. Make all those European fashion magazines worth the hardcover-like prices I paid (also gathering dust next to my pristine Fourth Period issues). I feel it may have been the simply the wrong approach at marketing. Taking open suggestions from fans seems like a good way to get a grasp on what all women want out of a hockey jersey, but in my experience too many opinions, and different ones, gets you right back where you started, and maybe even gets you to a bedazzled mutant with a painfully out-of-style color scheme and bad graphics and font. This is my open message to the NHL and hockey fankind: let me defy the stereotypes, and break down this Berlin wall of genres, one fine-jersey-knit thread at a time. Hockey and fashion can co-exist, why not? It has in my life for years.

Sometimes I wonder how many other chicks have had to take a pair of scissors to some men’s NHL merch and hack it up into something that would make Sid Vicious proud. While I will always support that kind of creativity and ingenuity, maybe hockey fans just want something, I don’t know, real (but not boring). All women are different, and all women have their own style, but the one thing I know about hockey fan style is this: we want to wear our team’s colors. Isn’t that the point? And really aren’t there more women, just in general, who would rather wear the traditional team colors rather than like pink, or like baby blue (I don’t even like the word “baby blue”)? I’m not a feminist and I have never in my life claimed such a thing, but I know this: the only hockey fan women that want to feel separated from the primarily male-dominated fan base, are the ones that label themselves “women fans”; because in the grand sense, we all love the same game, and each fan is as authentic as the next. Personal style is an important form of expression to most people, and in this case, women want to achieve that and show their support for the game they love, and maybe actually look cool while doing it.

Until then ladies, do what I do: cram your “feminine curves” (or whatever) into the neck-hole of an XL Devin Setoguchi name-and-number tee and tie the sleeves around your back. Abbra-ca-tubetop.
(See photo at the bottom of the last post for this example.)

Speaking of, I can already tell you what piece of clothing is going to make the next mark on the hockey-world zeitgeist:

Just the mock-up for now, but stay tuned for updates on the DGNB merch we’ve got in the works

But now hockey fans, I’m feeling the need for some testosteronie n’ cheese- I’m going to catch The Expendables at matinee.

Peace.
(photo and design - Lauren Belfoy)