Dress Like Your Dad? He Rocks

By RUTH LA FERLA

DEBORAH DEJAH, a New Yorker and the mother of two, has long shared her daughter's tastes in music. Now she shares her dress size too. So it was probably inevitable that Mrs. Dejah, 48, and Olivia, 14, would find themselves at Marsha D. D., a Third Avenue store specializing in children's fashion, squeezing their diminutive frames into identical Doors T-shirts, the image of Jim Morrison emblazoned on the front.

The Dejahs' infatuation with the accouterment of classic rock 'n' roll does not stop there. Olivia makes regular forays into her mother's closet, ferreting out the old T-shirts, frayed jeans and weathered cowboy boots that were once the emblems of her mother's renegade look, hoping they will lend a subversive edge to her own.

Mrs. Dejah is thrilled. "These clothes resonate from your childhood," she said. "That you could share them with your kid is really wonderful."

It is also fashionable, perfectly in tune with the current revival of an old-school aesthetic founded on the relics of classic rock's glory days, an era roughly from the mid-1960's through the early 70's. In the last year or two, the trappings of that raucous era have acquired a mass appeal, recycled or reinvented for a candidly nostalgic age.

Rock's funky, flamboyant aesthetic has been part of the cultural landscape for so long that to some it may not register as new. But the look is now being revisited simultaneously by a young generation enchanted with rock's golden age and by their parents, many of them seeking to reconnect with their past lives.

A high-low roster of retailers - including Fred Segal, Bergdorf Goodman and Barneys New York; vintage shops like Cherry and Resurrection; and youth-driven chains like Urban Outfitters and Hot Topic - have added components of classic rock style to their inventories. That stock encompasses original and contemporary variations of Rolling Stones, Pink Floyd and Led Zeppelin T-shirts; biker and cowboy boots and winkle-pickers; low-rise drainpipes and patched and shredded denim flares; Sergeant Pepper-style marching band coats; glitter tops; and faux folkloric tunics worthy of Janis Joplin or Stevie Nicks.

"Rock 'n' roll is part of everybody's uniform right now," said Jaye Hersh, the owner of Intuition, a popular Los Angeles boutique and Web site selling rock-inflected items like studded belts and newly minted concert T-shirts, even baby onesies imprinted with an AC/DC logo.

Aspiring hipsters of any age can buy their rock paraphernalia from mass marketers like H&M, which is selling skinny black velvet jackets reminiscent of Mick Jagger's; companies like Trunk, a maker of reissued concert T-shirts; or catalog merchants like Worn Free, which publishes a promotional gazette styled like an alternative newspaper, advertising a "heritage line" of clothing bearing images of Frank Zappa and John Lennon. "This is rebellion made ready-to-wear," the catalog copy boasts.

Those who like their look raw and authentic flock to shops like Resurrection in the East Village, a purveyor of used concert shirts, leather jackets and accessories priced from $200 to several thousand dollars. For older shoppers, high prices are no hurdle. "They are buying all those things that they wanted as a kid, that they didn't get to have," said Katy Rodriguez, an owner of the shop.

Others turn to eBay, which reports a recent run on vintage pieces like hardware-embellished hipster belts, motorcycle jackets, leather wristbands, old concert T-shirts and Nike sneakers customized with a portrait of Bob Marley.

Last month Cherry, a boutique in Greenwich Village and Los Angeles that sells vintage rock clothing to the fashion set, opened an outlet at the Virgin Megastores in Times Square and in Los Angeles, an indication that the music emporium, which sells new band T-shirts and accessories to teenagers and young adults, has made a commitment to the old-time style.

Ed Baker, a student from England, strolled inside Virgin's Cherry shop in Times Square on Tuesday and gazed longingly at an olive drab field jacket, an artifact from his father's time. "My dad was a Mod back in the day," Mr. Baker, 23, said. "He rode scooters and stuff, and he was fond of the Beatles, the Stones and the Who."

That his father might have worn one of the styles on display "is definitely part of the appeal for me," he said.

Shoppers partial to more lacquered rock interpretations can wait until early next year, when spring fashions from houses like Comme des Garçons, Undercover, Balenciaga and Dior Homme begin trickling into stores. In her men's show in February, Rei Kawakubo, the Comme des Garçons designer, introduced a procession of suits and shirts gaudily done up with the Stones' famous lips-and-tongue logo. Undercover, an influential women's line by Jun Takahashi, includes playful riffs on the concert T-shirt, sliced up and reassembled as A-line dresses, tunics and hip-wrapped skirts.

Rock's stylistic revival comes at a time when the signature music of the 60's and 70's reverberates in the popular consciousness by way of made-for-TV movies and books, the latest including "The Autobiography of Donovan: The Hurdy Gurdy Man," out this week from St. Martin's Press. Boomers with families in tow have packed a recent run of concerts, including the Stones, who performed in New York City in September, and Cream, who reunited for a three-night blockbuster at Madison Square Garden in October. A Times Square billboard trumpets the 1971 "Concert for Bangladesh," now on DVD.

It was only a matter of time before the wholesale commercialization of classic rock would find a new outlet in fashion. That old-school style is "valid today," said David Wolfe, the creative director of the Doneger Group, which forecasts retail trends. "It is very much a part of our time, being adopted by a younger generation looking for a way to rebel within the boundaries being set by mainstream society."

Lisa Koenigsberg, an adjunct professor of arts at New York University and the founder of Arts Initiatives, which organizes conferences on the arts, observed that rock's raw style is just as potent a magnet to the middle-aged. "It conjures an Arcadia, a time when the boomers felt they could change the world," she said.

Ms. Koenigsberg, who will preside at "Dressing the Part," a New York University conference that runs today through Saturday and addresses the allure of rock style, added that for parents and children alike, that style "represents a narrowing of the bridge between the generations, a visual argument that both are on the same page."

The appeal of rock fashion lies primarily in its authenticity. "It's not about taste," argued the aptly named Mick Rock, who has been photographing rock bands since 1969. "It's more about energy. These are people very involved in their own style. Quite often they are self-styled. They are pulling together unlikely elements, and it's their attitude that makes them work." An exhibition of Mr. Rock's photographs opens today at the gallery in the Soho Grand Hotel in Manhattan.

Paradoxically, a denatured, stylized version of the look prevails on the runways and in fashion glossies. This month Harper's Bazaar features a homage to the likes of Patti Smith, Jimi Hendrix and Janis Joplin using designs from Yves Saint Laurent, a look that is anything but gritty.

"Rock is not destroyed anymore," said Julie Gilhart, the fashion director of Barneys, where best sellers include glamorized versions of the classic biker's boot. "It's cleaned up. Everything is done with such precision that you're going to look as if you thought about it long and hard."

At Bergdorf, which does a robust business with Chrome Hearts rock-inspired accessories, shoppers have embraced the tough-as-rivets look as a complement, or sometimes an antidote, to the prim runway fashions of the last several seasons. It appeals to "luxury customers who do not necessarily want to look as if they are conforming," said Robert Burke, the store's fashion director.

Mrs. Dejah, the mom who shops at Marsha D. D., is among those likely to incorporate the look into a more refined ensemble, pulling on a Stones T-shirt, for instance, to punch up a fastidiously tailored blazer and black pants. "Rock is not my whole look," she said. "If I have to do something grown-up, I'll make some adjustments."

And Bergdorf's interpretation of classic rock will not be literal, Mr. Burke said, but will highlight hard-edged elements from the collections of Alexander McQueen and Dsquared, a mix intended for customers who want to roughen up and lend ballast to the season's wispy doll-like looks.

Today rock style is increasingly pitched to an audience grown comfortable with its casual if somewhat mannered appearance. "Formality doesn't really exist in everyday fashion like it did in the times of our parents and grandparents," said Cesar Padilla, an owner of Cherry. "That's why the things we take for granted - denim and leather and boots - which were embraced by the rock movement, have become part of modern street chic."

Nor will the sight of a baby boomer tricked out in leather and flares raise many eyebrows, Mr. Padilla added. "In the 60's, if you had a record executive walking around in a Sonic Youth T-shirt, you would have thought he was out of his mind.

"But today it's O.K. for a 50-year-old to wear a Sonic shirt, because everybody in Sonic Youth is 50 years old."