“Really love the studded coat that closed the show, it just reminds me of ALL my friends growing up and their leathers. As much as it makes me laugh to see our teenage looks adopted into the fashion world everywhere, I’ll never tire of seeing it because I’ll forever think it looks hot as hell.”
Who else but Gnarlitude could have written those words? I have yet to discover a person so full of their own punk street cred. Whoever you are, she is cooler. You’re probably just copying her. She wore that shit first. She cried harder when Dash Snow died than any of you lame asses.
Normally I can find pleasure in displays of pretentiousness. Why does her persona torture me so much?! Is it the proprietary way she says she’s “so proud” of any designer, musician or artist, like she has something to do with it? Is it the non-stop mention of Ksubi and bikers?
In this fawning interview, Gnarlitude pays homage to her vintage monkey fur coat but inexplicably forgets to bring up her Old Man. The very best and most gnarly part of the interview is this closing exchange:
BN: Describe your look in three words or less
JH: Miserable Mornings, NeverEnding Nights
~
Feel free to weigh in on this and/or complain about my surly nature. Unless you’re from Dallas.
This is amusing.
Reminds me how much wank is out there.
I think the reason why she’s so infuriating is because if you read enough pages of her blog, eventually just being exposed to so much of that way of thinking will kind of convince you that she actually is better than you. Until you realize that “real punks” don’t reminisce about how much they miss the shredded up leather jackets and sneakers of their youth, and then run out and spend $1000 on the disingenuous interpretation of one…is it just me or does that seem really fucking backwards.
That said, I think you went too far when you criticized the way she grieved over Dash Snow. Not criticizing the way people grieve extends to everyone.
She doesn’t sound much older than me, so that probably means her “punk” days happened in the mid-90s at the earliest. I didn’t know there were actual punks in America that long after the 1970s. Can anyone enlighten me on the subject?
As for grieving her friend’s death, I can sympathise. I lost a friend too- not to an overdose but to murder- almost three years ago (his death anniversary is tomorrow), and it still feels like a knife in the chest to think about it. Let the girl cry if she wants to.
Oh you are so surly, like an never ending homage to the notion of surliness so woefully embodied by the pretend perfect pair of black jeans. In fact black jeans surely they are yours, did you not get born in a pair? Will this provide you with a pretentious platform to engage with the fresh youth who invent everything. A point where you can all laugh together over the saggy backside issues of black jeans.
MDS – Sister Wolf describe your look in three words or less
SW – Godammit I’m Mad!
Angelica – Oh wait! Of course if she was truly a close friend of that guy, then her sorrow is genuine and I am really really out of line to dis her for that. In my version, he’s a notorious hipster junkie who makes crap art, and her response was just another way to elevate herself to uberhipster. He certainly didn’t mention her much. It just seemed self-aggrandizing.
By all means, anyone who needs to cry should do it, and they can cry on my shoulder if that might help.
I’m not sure I’d ever pay any attention to someone who has voluntarily given herself the moniker of ‘Gnarlitude’.
MDS – I’m. A. Cunt.
Penny Dreadful Vintage – And you’re a better man for it! I should try to follow your lead.
Class, please compare and contrast the following:
Queen Michelle’s description of her Meadowlark ring design:
“Inspired by my mother. It’s a reminder to never give up hope even when the odds are stacked against you.”
Gnarly’s description of her Meadowlark ring design:
“My inspiration for the ring was my fucked up punk rock youth. My friends and I were young teens wearing studs and all that long before it was the trendy thing to do. So in lieu of wearing patches all over my jeans, growing my mohawk out again and wearing a studded jacket, this is paying homage to my youth and how it shaped me into who I am today. And it looks sick.”
See the rings themselves here: http://www.meadowlark.co.nz/shop/index.php?page=catalog&categoryid=14
This “gnarli-whatever” is to punk as Sarah Palin is to patriotism. Sick.
When I was young I wore a Little Mermaid Sheet as a toga. I invented that shit! I was wearing togas waaaaay before the Greeks. If you were really so “punk” show us your vinyl collection and bad tattoos, and shut the fuck up!
annemarie- compare and contrast, indeed. I know mothers aren’t always great to daughters, or even half-decent as mothers, but Queen Michelle loved hers and I thought it was sweet to cite her as inspiration.
Again, Gnarlitude is a twentysomething, is she not? I’m still wondering if ‘punk’ was possible in the late 90s or whatever time she counts as her youth- apparently yes, it seems.
Dru– I agree, QM’s explanation of her ring is understated and seems sincere, and although I’m generally not a big Michelle fan, I love the ring she designed. It has power.
Gnarly’s ring, on the other hand… hahaha! Her description is, as Sister Wolf says, soaked in self-aggrandizement. Also, the punk thing– yep, she totally missed that train, but at least she got to play dress-up. Maybe she even ripped up some of her Mommy’s D&G.
Did she actually know Dash Snow or is she just a fan?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xe1a1wHxTyo
– in our house all it ever takes is one raised eyebrow and the words four yorkshiremen …..
p.s. she is 27 I think, I read the first two lines of an interview with her a few months ago before getting bored and I’m sure I read she’s 27.
So she’s 27, eh? Kind of young to say you had a ‘punk rock youth’ unless you believe in reincarnation and think you were a punk in your previous life…
I mean, come on. I was obsessed with mods as a teenager (partly a result of Paul Weller, I admit) and even wore the parkas and winklepickers and listened to the music, but it’d have been rich beyond belief if I’d dared to call myself one. It’s ok to identify with stuff that happened in the past, but still, this seems a bit off.
The only thing worse than being pretentious is being pretentious while having nothing to be pretentious about. She epitomizes that concept.
Sisterrrr, I just found this article about Sea and mom, thought you’d like it because it says they are ‘Sick of Buying’ HAHAHA, what a joke.
Opps, here is the article: http://nymag.com/daily/fashion/2010/09/sea_of_shoes_and_her_mom_are_s.html
Heart Make Do Style. I think I stopped giving that lady any credit when she argued against F21 using iconic punk artwork on tshirts because they didn’t grown up loving the bands (unlike her friends at Obesity and Speed who clearly LOVE punk and should therefore be able to use any artwork they please). That one had me rolling my eyes.
I grew up around the same bullshit heroin punk 15 years ago. I had my studded leather jacket, combat boots and manic panic hair, went to shows, lost friends to junk, and then grew the hell up. It’s was poseur shit then and it’s poseur shit now. My old friends who held onto it so tightly back then are struggling to find a decent job with their neck and knuckle tattoos now.
Look, I’m not trashing the scene. It’s just that when you’re young and so into it, you never think about being taken seriously in the future. If you do, you’re a sellout. There are a few lucky ones who manage to find their passion and succeed in life. My ex husband’s still holding on so tightly to his drugs and his punk that at 40, it’s like looking into the dead eyes of a bird. Jen’s been very lucky but goddamn, it’s getting so old!
Lara you really summed that up pretty eloquently.
She has a vocabulary of 3 words.
Oh, and I have a question – when did the Hells Angels/motorcycle culture, old heavy metal and punk become synonymous?
I think there’s just a giant confusion and big obsession with anything black, dirty, counterculture, and subversive. That’s all. A true punk wouldn’t be caught dead in any of those expensive clothes.
Never mind the fact that she thinks one of the biggest fashion houses (and, for that matter, all the original punks in the 70s) copied her, she can’t count either.
PS Fern, thanks for that link. I love the nutter who tries to defend them in their comments, waxing poetical about their ‘relationship with the clothes’. It’s unhealthy. They should spend more time united in mutual love for the seamonkey dogs, Carol and eachother, not some weird shoe or fuzzy jacket.
1. Dru and Lara are dead on
2. We will never be as cool as she thinks she is.
3. Pretentious people annoy me but pretentious posers who’ve been alive five minutes and think they’ve seen it all annoy me more.
I don’t give a shit about what anyone is wearing. I just wanted to send you something funny to look at.
awkwardfamilyphotos.com
Enjoy.
I really dont want to be rude here, but didnt she said at some point she’s an ex-model ? How could this be possible ? The picture SW posted is self explainatory…
Also, anyone knows what happened to her dog ? He’s probably not cool enough anymore: the Boston Terrier trend is gone, she should get a Shiba Inu. That would be rad.
Just went to Gnarlitude’s heinous blog. Couldn’t get past the fact that she doesn’t even write her own post titles; Jim Morrison does.
Oh, the famous ex-model who’s “into” “opiates”.
I can’t believe someone can take themself as seriously as this chick – she makes me cringe with embarrassment. Blogging about Aus-Rotten (which is one of my favourite bands) and then about mindless, pretentious consuming is just about the funniest thing ever. Did she ever listen to their lyrics? For those of you who don’t know the band, here’s a quote from wikipedia: “Most of their songs had strong far left sociopolitical stances, touching upon direct action, consumerism, the Christian right, LGBT rights, radical feminism, third world countries, AIDS, American immigration, animal rights and other topics.”.
And then that hilariously desperate namedropping… It’s just too much. I go to her blog occassionally to get an annoyed laugh when I need it. I guess half of her visitors do that.
It’s truly amazing you waste your time with this shit.
I don’t know if this is a Boston-local thing or more widespread, but bikers and punks hate each other here and actually have lame little “turf wars” about it. (“Hey this is OUR bar!” “Nuh uh, it’s the perfect punx dive!!” Mini-brawl ensues.)
Can’t understand the crossover in her blog.
She’s really horrible. Five minutes on her blog was long enough for me to gather how incredibly cretinous she is.
I mean.. it is titled “stories of my bullshit youth.” What did you guys expect?
Gnar Jen – But it only took 5 minutes for me to write that post! And maybe another five to look at your blot and read the interview! A total of 10 minutes!
I’ve got the time!
E- Hahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha! In my house, we say “You had it lucky!”
Gnar Jen – Oh you’re back! I expect a sense of humor, for one thing.
I don’t have too much text so it’s not so much you I was talking to but everyone else here.
The post about seeing our leathers end up on the runway was total humor… come on, you can’t really think I thought my friends or I were the first to wear studded leathers!!!!!
& you guys, I’m 28 as of July and my boston terrier is 2 and is as wild as ever.
Wait – Gnar Jen – so because it’s called ‘stories of my bullshit youth’ does that mean it’s all bullshit stories? My youth of bullshit stories? So is it bullshit that you are an ex-model, because there aren’t any pics of you online anywhere so that’s very weird, unless you’re a trap or something?
What’s bullshit too is the people you call friends are just people you’ve internetted with and emailed. That’s not real life. So just be honest and say ‘I jock this guy super hard and since I sent him so many emails he said hi to me on his blog and now… now we are just people who know each other from the internet.’ Not ‘we’re super tight bros from way back’.
Lovely to see all these replies that say exactly what I think/have thought about Gnar Jen. This is why her comments are shut off, I suppose.
BTW – Dash Snow was a junkie intermittently but he was also an extremely sweet guy, sometimes people self-medicate, this was the case with him. No reason to talk shit on him but no reason to worship him either, he was just a guy who fucked up. His friends don’t build shrines to him, they just miss him being around. There’s a difference. I don’t think she did know Dash Snow, I would really like to hear how they are connected. And if her grieving is real so be it but it kinda takes away from the real friends and family he left behind to have posers making statements about ‘long live dash snow’.
I don’t usually read the blog. It’s not my general aesthetic. There does seem to be a glorification of trashiness amongs the youth of today and this appears to be another trendy part of the phenomenon.
I am going to take a stab at saying that this is why it comes across as phony and pretentious perhaps trying a bit too hard to fit into a niche ?? I would guess in particular when viewed by those older than you who actually did live in those times you claim to have invented. May want to work on your sarcasm/irony so as to come across more tongue in cheek.
OH F – this is the girl who defended puke ass Terry Richardson by trashing other women isn’t it ??? aaahh noo!!! iredeemable – female misogynists are the worst.
@Lara – I wholeheartedly agree with your second comment (I live with a man who feels the exact same way)
@Dru – not really. It’s more post-punk than punk after 1985 or so. And then that spunoff into about 7 other things that are lumped into punk for everyone who really wasn’t part of the scene….and now that I’ve typed that as if I was there to see it firsthand makes me part of the problem…then again, dudeguy was actually a part of the scene, so I will give myself 1/2 credit & credibility for living with someone who did actually see it firsthand.
=D
“come on, you can’t really think I thought my friends or I were the first to wear studded leathers?”
Actually, we think exactly that because you believe that. You haven’t said or written anything that would make us think otherwise. Coming here (where do YOU get the time?) to back-pedal is not going to change our opinion of you.
I just wish dear Gnar Jen wasn’t so originally punk/dark/mysterious and would share with us some high art pics from the time when she modelled so I could enter this contest http://tinyurl.com/2d5tpym
THANK GOD this hag does not do outfit post.
This picture was enough to make me want to gouge my eyeballs out.
Yawn, what a boring cunt she is. Like anything she has to say is new or interesting. Self aggrandisment at its finest. SW stop pointing out this nonsense! LOL.
Elise – that’s a tad harsh, don’t you think? I don’t like Gnarlitude’s blog at all and I’m all about humorous mocking on the internet but I think there’s a line, plus that photo was taken with a fisheye lens which makes everyone look warped.
I say this as a normally pacifistic feminist optimist who does not use profanity and tries to avoid judging people I do not know
but
fuck you, “gnar jen”. honestly, just burn your laptop, abandon the blog and move to the australian outback and scout for new kinds of hemp to make into ksubi denim.
oh and annemarie . . . i really clicked over to that site and read the ring descriptions because i thought the comparison you posted was a joke 0_o
CR – Even annemarie couldn’t make that stuff up.
To boast about wearing the accoutrements of “punk” before they were trendy, you had to do it in the early 70’s. They were “coutured” pretty darn early too, did you ever hear of vivienne westwood? I lived in London in those days, and have to say had a good laugh at those nit wits standing in the rain with beer and soap holding their mohawks up, and spending 20 minutes to lace and unlace their million eyelet boots when they went off for their free food at the hare krisna temple. I don’t think it was all that even then. so there.
Also, miss gnar, stories of your bullshit youth means stories that reference your youth that was filled with bullshit. If you want to mean that you are making up the stories, you need to call it bullshit stories of your youth. I think.