User blog comment:Mmpratt99 deviantart/A Question About the 80's/@comment-26425680-20160317042743

I gotta agree with Banning on this one. You really had to find the independent clothing shops for that kind of stuff. Often you had to leave the suburbs and head into the city to do so. Record stores and thrift shops were good choices as well. Hot Topic is the easy, corporate version of this. And to be honest, it isn't really comparable to what you had to do in the 80s. I may be off base here, but it seems that Hot Topic appeals more to the people who, had they been around back then, probably wouldn't have put much effort into actively seeking out alternative fashions and sounds. So you really have to ask yourself what kind of vibe you're trying to create with this character(s). Are they trying to dress different just for the sake of being different, or are they doing it because that's what they naturally feel comfortable in?