Today I saw a woman in downtown Seattle with a banana clip in her hair. And she wasn’t a hipster. She was probably around 40; just someone who graduated high school and thought, “Hey, that’s about as good as it’ll get.” Yes, the banana clip was coupled with a mall perm and fluffy bangs. She may, in fact, have been from Spokane, or in town from Eau Claire for a conference. I expected to see lavender stirrup pants, high-top Reeboks and one of those flowered/collared shirts with long tails, as well, but instead all I got was a lousy banana clip and no full-on embrace of what I wore for my third-grade picture (along with an Oreo cookie necklace won at the Polk County fair and harbored sneakily in my backpack. Not so sneaky when you get the proofs).
Oh please, please, please, let’s not let this trend come back! But I know it will. Has. Someone in Williamsburg is wearing one out right now. My brother may know her. Or him.
I’m old. But you know what? I don’t wear banana clips. They hurt and make you look a little like a horse.
I think the woman you saw could very well have been from Madison, WI. I used to work with this sad looking woman who wore a banana clip (but I think she saved it for special occasions).
Her day-to-day work ensemble included:
- muumuu dress (a floor length sack with holes for the arms and head)
- tshirt under the muumuu dress
- socks (matching the tshirt) with jesus sandals
- a scrunchie (also matching the tshirt) in her permed hair or, of course, the banana clip!
Another victim of bad 80’s fashion…or just bad fashion in general.
By: Sheridan on July 4, 2009
at 8:40 pm
I know, what gives? You can’t tease us with the awe-inspiring hair and then not deliver on the clothes. At least she wasn’t a hipster. I’m actually rather surprised that you don’t see more banana clips here in Seattle. Behind Willaimsburg, this place is unquestionably the capitol of hipsterdom. After living in the belly of the beast for so long, I tend to view authentic offenders of bad retro fashion as a rare and welcome treat.
By: Albino Cavewoman on December 23, 2009
at 4:54 pm