Shriya as a teenager
When I turned 17, I was convinced that the right thing to do was shave the side of my head as quickly as possible. I went to Walgreens, spent $10 on a pair of clippers, and shaved 11 inches of hair from my head. The night of the school dance. I knew I looked "edgy." What I didn't know is that I looked exactly like Skrillex.
Photo taken from Girls That Look Like Skrillex
I know this seems like a lie, but it took me over a year to discover this fact. During my first week at school in New York, someone I met on campus asked me if I'd heard of "Girls That Look Like Skrillex." I giggled, told him I hadn't, but I'd check it out. I thought the joke was that girls would knowingly choose to look like Skrillex. In reality, the joke was that I belonged on that blog.
Skrillex, AKA Sonny Moore, AKA the former lead singer of post-hardcore band From First to Last, did a dramatic 180 from emo to EDM between leaving FFTL in 2007 and officially releasing an EP under the name Skrillex in 2010. In both of his musical acts, style played a huge role in his life. In the early 2000s, he was known to MySpace kids as a pioneer of the "scene" aesthetic. Yes, the style that championed flat-ironed hair dyed every shade of the rainbow with Manic Panic, eyes ringed raccoon-like with eyeliner, and as many piercings as your face could fit (preferably in weird crevices like the space between your nose and your upper lip). The internet was instantly obsessed with both his songs and his style and I was no different. I remember asking my mom to take me to Hot Topic to get a FFTL shirt (shut down), and later, if I could get snakebites (also shut down, and thank God for that).
When Sonny left From First To Last, I was devastated, but I could never have predicted what he had in store. The transition from emo boy to EDM DJ was a game-changer. I couldn't believe that one person could have transformed his personality that much in such a short space of time. How did he go from playing tracks off Dear Diary, My Teen Angst Has A Body Count on Warped Tour to winning Grammys for electro house club-bangers? The new Sonny looked nothing like the hardcore boy I'd known, but that didn't mean his new style wasn't instantly recognizable.
Rave attire pre-Skrillex was a lot of day glo and neon, LED finger light gloves, and girls wearing pasties and not much else. It was about lamé, fishnets and furry boots, and of course—glow sticks galore. You wouldn't dare catch a raver without their phat pants, candy bracelets, and pacifiers. Although this style tribe still exists, when Skrillex entered the club scene after his hiatus, his presence helped the scenesters of 2007 merge with the electro kids, creating a whole new breed of festival goer.Skrillex brought the scene fashion to EDM, and somehow, it stuck. Maybe boys aren't into it, but there are plenty of girls who just can't get enough. I know this because Girls That Look Like Skrillex has been consistently updated since April 2011. That's a lot half shorn heads and stolen 3D movie glasses. But I've got to give him props: If anything, I'm impressed that Sonny has been an icon in two diametrically opposed genres of music. Through his style choices he's managed to bridge what was once considered an unbridgeable gap. I wonder what his mom thinks of it all.Shriya Samavai is currently growing out her undercut. Follow her on Twitter - @shriekeliene.Style Stage is an ongoing partnership between Noisey & Garnier Fructis celebrating music, hair, and style.
Advertisement
Advertisement