For many fashion is a confusing and confounding aspect of life. What was fashionable yesterday is rarely fashionable today. But what will be fashionable tomorrow can often indeed be what was fashionable in the past. Different people react to this dilemma in different ways. Some remain consistently relevant. They inhabit the forward cusp of what is hip and stylish. Others with less sartorial savvy plod along a few steps behind the vanguard. They cling to the status quo until what is hip and stylish has been thoroughly amalgamated into the mainstream. And then there are the mavericks, those hearty souls for whom what was worn yesterday will be worn today and again tomorrow. They exist outside of the existential struggle to remain viable and current. And perhaps more importantly they are quite comfortable with themselves.
The Lobo presents himself as just such a maverick. He is proud of his pared down wardrobe. He boasts of a closet that has remained strikingly constant for more than three decades. He wears trunks, or jeans, and a cotton polo shirt. What he neglects to mention, however, is that for at least a small period of his life he rode that forward cusp of fashion with tastemakers and trendsetters alike.
One can only speculate as to the reasons he might keep this era a secret. Perhaps it doesn't jive with the other maverick aspects of his lifestyle. Maybe he feels that the image of a fashion conscious individual might confuse those that look to him as a beacon of unwashed and rugged manliness. His reasons are his and his alone.
The fact remains, however, that this era existed. And while it is true most people who enact a wholesale change of character skate into their new lives without a reckoning of the past, it is also true that those same people have never faced the wrath of the Badger.
Once again the Tejon has ventured deep within enemy territory and using the latest in East German microfilm technology, amassed this collection of photos from Lobo's golden days of fashion. Join Tejon on a trip back to an era of sartorial innovation and invention. An era in which Lobo didn't just socialize with the fashion elite, he was the fashion elite.
Daisy Dukes and Hiking Boots? Check!
Still Life With Speedo
Not a Tan Line in Sight
What one will do for fashion and a tan!
ReplyDeleteI must say, without shame or embarrassment, I particularly enjoyed the photographic composition of "Still life with Speedo". The bright light runs counter to Lobo's dark inner self, while the strength of his pose is clearly reminiscent of Michaelangelo's David. Thankfully, the Speedo was in play, as a full nude would have felt contrived.
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