Buffalo Subculture

You guys must be wondering about what Buffalo is. I'm not referring to a type of animal here. I'm talking about a fashion movement, which acknowledges in 1980s. This movement is my chosen subculture as my starting point to create a style look for a project. The word ‘Buffalo’ came from Caribbean expression to describe rude boys and rebels. This movement was brought up by Ray Petri who was known to be the first fashion stylist. He was born and raised in Scotland. He had traveled to India and Africa for a living and eventually settled in London. He expressed his experience and knowledge about various cultures on his styling look. Not to mention Music of R&B, Motown, punk and reggae as part of his reference.

Petri always did street casting for his models. He brought black and mixed race kids off the streets to his editorial style. He styled men in skirt. He casted girls as boys and boys as men. what he did was controversial and wasn't done by anyone at that time. As Jamie Morgan said to Dazed (2005) in an interview, "it (Buffalo) was about the attitude, mixing genres and the idea of gender and models and turning it all around."

I adored the fact that Petri was being bold in his terms. His styling references were distinctive. I drawn into the lack of stereotype of gender should be dressing on his styled look. For example, the image of where men styled in a skirt. One of the shots was taken with Felix Howard as the model in a woman’s leather skirt. Petri matched the skirt with unbutton black blazer on a white shirt underneath that is only button done on the top. He completed the look by wearing a porkpie hat and high black boots with black socks showed. The silhouette of the strong arms and a bit show off the upper body of Felix, are giving a sexy of a masculine look. While there is a sense of vulnerability of him in the skirt he is wearing and so does his facial expression. The overall look seems to suggest gender equality. Men can also be vulnerable as a woman.

I reinterpreted the styled of Ray Petri by putting my cultural background to the style of Buffalo. I’m applying my culture heritage, represented by batik fabric that I styled as a trouser. I applied the same term as Petri did on his editorial image; he made use of Scottish kilt, which originate from his hometown. I presented the Buffalo style with a twist by utilizing the military jacket in velvet garment, ma1 flight jacket in oriental pattern and the clean cut blazer with a sporty cut.