South By Culture: Why'd I bring my cowboy hat?Culture editor Molly Freedenberg hits SXSW for the first time to explore the festival's extracurricular aspects. For Music Editor Kimberly Chun's take on SXSW's tunes, click here.
Often, when I embark on a trip, I assume everyone else around me is going where I’m going. Usually I’m wrong. But sometimes – as with Burning Man and, apparently, South by Southwest – I’m right.
It was harder to tell who was headed to Austin on the first leg of my flight, but it was obvious on the last leg from Denver to Austin. The girl in the beat-up T-shirt, suspenders, and A-line skirt with matching A-line hair? SXSW. The Baby Boomer with surprisingly stylish shoes who was assigned to A-line girl’s seat on the plane (and won the battle)? Not so much. I know Austin’s pretty hip, not just by Texas standards but by anyone’s, but it felt safe to guess that the long-haired, pasty-faced guy with a stylie pattern embroidered on his blazer was headed my way. Same for his companion, with her choppy bob and screen-printed messenger bag.
Perhaps I should've bought myself an ironic trucker hat instead.
As someone who loves to dress up but has no style – a grown-up junior high school dork who could never seem to wear the right thing (I could’ve sworn there was a manual that everyone had read but me) – I’m always trying to assess the scene around me. It’s not so much that I need to fit in wherever I am, but if I’m not going to fit in, I want to know why.
Looking around my fellow plane-mates (when did seats get so comfy and airlines get so stingy?), though, it was hard to come to any hard and fast conclusions. Was I witnessing the uniform of hip Austinites? Of indie kids from around the country? Of indie rock musicians? Or was this simply the uniform of hip indie kid musicians who happen to be from San Francisco and Denver? I knew I wouldn’t find out until later in the week, though as we reached Austin Airport and I headed to the baggage claim, I had the distinct feeling that no matter what I’d packed – and I basically packed everything: two bags for five days – it wouldn’t have been quite right.
Perhaps I’m destined always to be the nerdy girl in the sweat pants and hoodie sweatshirt and overly-adorned cowboy hat that I never quite feel natural wearing. And not just here, at the biggest musical event of the year, but everywhere, all the time. Luckily, tomorrow my sister will show up with her effortless rockstar fashion and knack for accessorizing. Perhaps she’ll be cool enough for both of us.
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