Alternative Fashion - Changes in Availability

Changes in Availability

As alternative fashion can relate to such a diverse selection of styles the acquisition of clothing, accessories and services (such as hair care) can come from a huge variety of resources, particularly as alternative fashion trends become more accepted and assimilated into mainstream culture. Traditionally alternative clothing, shoes and accessories have been largely procured from independently owned businesses, such as the botiques found in bohemian and artistic districts of large urban centers. Though still popular, these type of small, specialized retailers have become displaced much like mainstream retail outlets by the Internet. Also, as fashion trends are co-opted by more and more people chain stores, which may offer a wider variety of product at a lower price and are easier to access in non-urban areas than botiques, began to soak up a large part of the alternative fashion market. This change in the availability and commodification of alternative fashions has encouraged much broader use of styles in the mainstream once only found in niche groups. Items from thrift & vintage shops, altered and DIY fashions have also long held a place in alternative fashion to the point where the use of mismatched second-hand clothing is considered cliche to alternative and liberal ideologies.