Each group shared cultural as much as sartorial codes, properly known only to insiders. Which is one reason why the establishment reacted so vehemently in the 1960s, because in being exclusionary style tribes also embodied a threat to those on the outside. These tribes gave their members a sense of identity and of belonging. These tribes were original enough, bold enough and just about big enough – yet niche enough not to be considered mainstream fashion – to help shape their eras. All of which explains why, say, ‘hipster’ is not a style tribe. A shared love of lumberjack shirts and complicated facial hair does not a style tribe make.
And yet style tribes, it would seem, are things of the past. Where are all the new style tribes of the last quarter century? They don’t exist. We live in times in which the formation of new style tribes has become next to impossible. This perhaps explains why we keep harping back to the ones that went before, rather than the ones that should be defining the times now. Why so? If video killed the radio star, it’s the internet that killed the style tribe.