Monday, June 02, 2008

People watching

This is mainly a response to those who say, all people in DC dress a certain way, plus something I noticed about the Gallery Place 3-6pm crowd.
Maybe it is where you live and work and who you actually notice versus the people you sort of ignore thing. If I went by what people just around where I work, a good number wear whatever the uniform supply company put out (security, maintenance, and Downtown BID personnel), followed by what can be called business causal which is a huge range, followed by people in suits, and then casual (shorts/jeans and tee-shirts, or what I wear on Fridays to work).
Now let me speak of the Gallery Place crowd. Despite also being called Chinatown, there is a noticeable lack of majority of persons of Asian decent mulling around. Sometimes what's going on at the Verizon Center determines what crowds are seen along 7th and H. If I see a lot of suburban harried looking parents with children I guess the Wiggles or whatever big ticket children's entertainment phenom is in town. Crowds of people in over-sized Caps jerseys, hockey game. But there is another set of people who I must of not noticed before, young African American men and women dressing in a highly conscious urban style.
Not really paying attention, I just probably lumped these folks in with the rowdy after school crowd of kids who look like the kids from my neighborhood. But then, after waiting so many times for the bus I noticed groups of late-teens, twenty-somethings with the big sunglasses and a detailed attention to coordinating their whole look. I noticed the newness and crispness of some of the clothes, ie a total lack of wrinkles. I tend to prefer a more conservative and preppy look. Yet, as I'm noticing this subset of the crowd it was like a little light going off, where, "oh, I see what you're doing. That goes, with that, which accentuates that other thing."
Anyone else notice them too?

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6 Comments:

At 6/02/2008 12:24 PM, Blogger Tom Aloisi said...

yes, I've seen them! SCADS of these young people end up at the Gallery Place cinemas. It's VERY busy there on Friday evenings. It seems very social there as well- with people arriving long before the movies and staying long after.

 
At 6/02/2008 3:06 PM, Anonymous Suki said...

I love that look! Everything so crisp and fresh. I grew up a little white girl on Long Island who went to camp with kids from Queens, Brookyln and the Bronx and was always blown away by how much cooler they were, especially in terms of clothes. The very "put together" look of today definitely has some similarities to the urban prep of the 80s for me. Plus, I think the kids (especially the young men) look so much more handsome than in the white tee and jeans look.

 
At 6/02/2008 11:33 PM, Blogger Washington Cube said...

Chinatown hasn't had Chinese in quite some time. They bolted years ago, long before the rennovations and changes. Being a D.C. kid, I miss the old Chinatown where Ruby sat in the back of her restaurant like the Dragon Empress and I expected to see a large black pearl held between her teeth.

 
At 6/03/2008 11:39 PM, Anonymous bogfrog said...

Sounds like Howard students, or recent grads of the elite HBCUs

 
At 6/04/2008 4:10 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

This post has been removed by a blog administrator.

 
At 6/04/2008 6:18 PM, Blogger Mari said...

I have basic comment rules, Please put a name, initials, some sort of ID with your post.
But to answer your question Downtown DC BID personnel. Left off the DC part.

 

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