It’s 2018, and my friends and I have been allowed to go into the mall alone for the first time. Our first stop: Hot Topic, long forbidden by our mothers. We gawked at the array of chokers, fishnets, and little frog keychains. I remember lingering over a Korn shirt at the back of the store, and feeling excited over clothing for one of the first times in my life. I suddenly felt like this was where I belonged, and within the black walls, my sense of fashion first took root. Little did I know that just a decade earlier, the same transformation was also happening to thousands of other teens as the store became the birthplace of one of the defining fashions of the Y2K era.
The early 2000s saw a surge in nu-metal and industrial music, with bands such as Korn, Slipknot, Kittie, Rammstein, Evanescence, and My Chemical Romance, and in dark camp cult classics like “The Crow”, “Queen of the Damned”, and “The Craft”. The late ‘90s to 2000s transition also saw the end of most pure analog music production and listening, as the internet, MP3s, and specialized magazines became more common. As a result, it became much easier for people to share and find good music and fashion. With these drastic changes, the commercialization of alternative styles and clothing became imminent. Alternative fashion became much more accessible. Where once you might have had to seek out cities, boutiques, and specific items to curate your look, now you could walk into a store at the mall and find clothes that spoke to you. As a result, mall goths were ostracized by most goths, who viewed the movement as a physical manifestation of the commercialization of their subculture. However, for most of these youth, it became a gateway to a more enduring love of alternative culture rather than “just a phase,” as many people viewed it.
Beyond Hot Topic and the infamous Tripp and Lip Service brands, which were usually out of most kids’ price ranges, the 2000s alternative aesthetic also emphasized DIY. Buying spiked leather collars from PetSmart, using Halloween makeup or eyeliner to do their looks, and ripping apart stockings are just a few of the creative solutions tried by proponents of this aesthetic. While the rise of brands like Hot Topic led to fast fashion, which created problems such as overall degradation in clothing quality and production, environmental waste, and poor labor conditions, it also helped foster a community and a sense of authenticity among alternative people. As alternative culture has always relied heavily on ingenuity and invention, Hot Topic may have, for most people, provided a space for community.
As a kid in suburbia landlocked by a suffocating academic and conservative culture, going into my local Hot Topic and being able to see people who dressed like how I wanted to dress, and who were unapologetically themselves, was so formative for me. It allowed me to know I was not alone in my taste and style in music, which had long been criticized by those around me. And it let me envision a future where I could fully express myself in any way I wanted.
