Clowny Clown Clown

                   Legitimizing clown fashion and mentality.

 People go a few different ways on the clown idea - you're terrified, not impressed, creeped out, or you think it's hilarious and totally awesome. Looks great, duh! Alternately, you're a Juggalo and you're totally and completely down with the clown, for better or for worse, but that's a story for another issue...

Clowns are always the fall guy, wild enough to play the stupid jokes we all love to laugh at. Clowns can also be terrifying and creepy, like Pennywise the Clown from "IT". That's the thing, you never can be too sure who it really is under all that makeup, who is hiding inside that grotesquely exaggerated costume. People are afraid of clowns because they exhibit the unknown. You never know what you're going to get.

Clowning also shows off the absolute "do-not's" of fashion. For years we have been called clowns. Clowns are all about exaggerating shapes and emotions and ideas, as is fashion. People were trying to be rude, but we're reclaiming it. We mix our patterns. We clash our colors. We wear things teeny tiny or hugely over sized in rainbow colors. We're clowns.

Clown fashion is becoming mainstreamed and legitimized also. There are currently $435 Gaultier/Levis denim harem pants available from Bergdof Goodman that are so rodeo clown it hurts. Wikipedia says about clowns: "stereotypically characterized by their grotesque appearances: colored wigs, stylistic makeup, outlandish costumes." Sound familiar? 
Lady Gaga is such a clown, what with her wigs and publicity stunts and insane makeup and costuming. Worldwide, her debut album has sold over 12 million copies. Clowns are the future, and the kids are buying. 
Clowns are also just so brain-numbingly stupid and goofy, we love them for it. Fashion takes itself too seriously. We can hide behind the costume and face paint and therefore revel in the sanctuary of anonymity. We are free to act outside of our self inflicted boundaries of normalcy. In costume we feel liberated to go into the "forbidden" and pie some motherfucker in the face. Why do you think everyone gets so wild on Halloween? It's all just an excuse to be more ourselves. We can abandon our identities, and with them, the feeling of accountability behind our actions.

We invite you to adopt just a hint of this mentality into the everyday. There are subtle ways to work it into your daily look. You don't have to rock the white face and gap tooth look, although we'd be so impressed if you did. Go ahead, put on that pair of garish striped socks with your cropped pants, your friends won't shun you for it. How about some bright red lipstick with a big hat? How about you boys start wearing bowties and wild suspenders, or even just a flower in your lapel? Embrace these small clown symbols as a small inspiration to banish those inhibitions and break free. I bet you'll like it.
We wanted to try out the more extreme end of the clown spectrum. What better way than with a Clown Pin-up shoot?
Photos by Melissa Mankins

 

your clowny authors

Published in the 2nd issue of BANG!