Rockabilly or poser?

In reading this short piece, I don’t quite know what to make of the fact that, “One of the key looks to emerge from the men’s runway shows of Milan for Spring 2012 was Rockabilly…” The rockabilly crowd certainly has a penchant for retro fashion and many of us go to great lengths to dress to the nines when we hit shows. Some of us do it all the time regardless of where we’re going. So, it’d be wrong to say that fashion is silly to us rockabillies.

But “the men’s runway shows of Milan?” Something about that doesn’t sit well with me. Yeah, I’m sure there are a lot of “posers” who dress rockabilly simply because they thought it was the latest trend they could jump on. But those people usually wash out and move on to the next trend pretty quickly. On the other hand, those of us who are into rockabilly for the love of the music and the retro fashions, cars, and so on don’t do it because we hope someone will think we’re “trendy.” They do it because they feel it.

How deeply do those sitting alongside the men’s runway shows of Milan feel it? I’m guessing not too deeply at all. Slapping on a leather jacket and piling up a pompadour doesn’t make you rockabilly. Loving the music, the look, the cars, the clothes, the people, the attitude…that’s what makes you rockabilly. If you’re sittin’ around cheering the rockabilly fashions of the guys walking down those runways, but you can’t name one rockabilly song by someone other than Elvis or Johnny Cash and you think that maybe Sam Phillips is the guy who invented the Phillips-head screw driver, well then you are just a poser.

Maybe it makes me a rockabilly snob, but I’d prefer they left rockabilly off the runways of Milan unless they really feel a connection with the music which it all goes back to.