Best Dressed Band #3
I just can’t get enough of Hot Chip’s outfits. Here are five lads who are experimental and playful in their wardrobe as they are in their music. They combine a creative mix of junk shop finds with forward thinking pieces from quirky contemporary designers. Endearingly unconcerned with fit or even the normal rules of colour engagement, they couldn’t give a toss that they look like wee boys left to run riot in the dressing up box at after school club.
But there’s something about their beautifully created and highly finished sound which makes me think that surely they can’t be so haphazard in their clothing choices. As mad professors of pop, their clothes reflect their vocation – their fearless mixing synth beats, guitar riffs and dub rhythms mirrored in the organised chaos of their clothing.
In an interview in The Moment, Al Doyle of Hot Chip explained the method to their madness:
“I think people think we just are wearing whatever, but we all think about what we wear, we just happen to look very different. I think simply because we look a little bit of a ragtag bunch, and because some of us wear glasses, to me, that just seems to be the reason that we’ve been branded as, like, nerds and geeks. It’s all quite confusing to us. But we have discussions probably every six months about unifying our look a little bit. But we just never really get around to doing it.”
But as difficult as Hot Chip’s style is to understand, Debenhams have placed their bets on Hot Chip for the fashion future, by naming a pair of sunglasses after them in attempt to attract more hipsters to their stores. But with culture commentators Hipster Runoff describing the Hot Chip brand of eyewear as ‘child predator glasses’, the dury’s still out.
