Creation, independence, uniqueness, achievement to name only a few. Customising your own private fashion collection, your own house products and even making art by following your own rules. DIY is here to stay and not only because of its today’s world important financial aspect.
CREATIVITY AT ITS BEST
You ‘d be happy to know that as a subculture it kicked off with the punk movement of the 1970s. Even though now it has a more settled character, back in the day, it was all about living on the edge of society. Zines -one of the first self publishing DIY methods- the equivalent of today’s DIY blogs, taught punk youngsters how to pin their shirts and dye their mohawked hairstyles.
But let’s put things in order first people. Yes upgrading your household, your wardrobe, your car into your own personal sense of style is DIY. Whether you do it because it has broken down or because you simply are bored of looking exactly like everyone else in this world, putting your skills in motion or even challenging your self – can I make my own Balmain rip off jacket?- is considered DIY. Today DIY has also a technological aspect. More and more of us are interested in technology and design so creating our own small bots is essential. With the help of the internet boundaries do not exist so web sites and blogs break the code and introduce to even the most unfamiliar of us internet coding (aka designing your website the way you want).
DO IT FASHIONISTAS
Fashion has an essential DIY character. Big fashion houses scout the streets and try to pick up the next trend by observing the styles of ordinary passengers. Tie-dye shirts (a trend that kept coming back since the 70s), jeans and dresses have been spotted as a basic hippie/bohemian trend, in the 90s part of the grunge scene and more recently in catwalks. Hordes of fashionista youngsters stand out and set trends by being simply creative, with either the use of a glue gun or a sewing machine or even a pair of non blunt scissors. Bejeweled sunglasses and denim shorts with variable lengths depending on how much skin girls want to show, have a huge presence on the streets. The tools are simple. All you need is some old pair of boring glasses, jeans and imagination.
The internet has helped of course people to present their creativity and to demonstrate how to look cool and unique with a few simple steps. Blog after blog has blossomed through the years with tutorials on hairstyles, makeup and fashion. All you need to do is simply google what you are looking for and a huge list of videos or sites will pop-up.
THE ANSWER TO CONSUMERISM
But it’s not only fashion that has made a breakthrough in DIY. Maybe because of the economic instability, people have shown interest in other creative outlets. T 1895 is a cheap answer to a Tiffany lamp, that designer Bernardita Marambio has introduced to the public. A cheaper solution to a highly respected and priced artifact. Iartistlondon is a brand that brings highly respected contemporary art from acclaimed and pricey artists in a deconstructed form to your household. All you have to do is just buy the kit – costing only a few pounds- and you can yourself create your masterpiece by customising worldknown artifacts. Who wouldn’t want to paint or redecorate the famous skull by Damien Hirst or spray your city walls with Banksy art?
The Ikea-hackers present alternative and useful ideas to standard Swedish produced household items and give them a rather interesting twist. On the contrary, studiomyfirst gives the opportunity to build your own hollow plastic objects with “myfirst roto moulder” diy kit. A process that enables everyone to replicate the manufacturing procedure, with the use of moulds and resins, by simplifying the method, the size and cost of the actual rotational moulding machine.
The hardware store the common starting point of all, has made ordinary people into the future designers of the world. Instantly knowing the tools needed for each job after several trips to its huge and friendly aisles, they can make creative decisions and build things for a much lesser price.
LIMITED FUN
The recession and austerity measures have taken DIY to a whole new level. Even huge corporations and networks have expanded into the creation of either websites or channels dedicated to diy methods.But are there limitations to a man’s free spirit? Should we be able to censor someone? Now that DIY has become a much more mainstream lifestyle than its original character into the underground culture, where does it start to lose its essence? The video tutorials and blogs only share ideas that can help improve your lifestyle with a low budget. They share original ideas that make DIY a world phenomenon. But of course even when we feel the urge to create something on our own there are sensible limitations. Yes testing your creative skills just for yourself faces only your potential and how far you can go with it. Taking other people’s creations even though you made them yourself, and trying to make profit, faces the legal fact of copyright. Many believe that because they put in the labor work they can claim it their own.
CULTURAL SELF MICROCOSM
The DIY movement only serves to satisfy lifestyle improvement needs and not to gain profit. The ethic remains the same as when it culturally started in the punk movement, anticonsumerism and rejection of mass-produced goods. Using whatever material and objects you can find and build your own cultural self microcosm is what diy stands for. The allurement is that everyone can be an artist, a designer or a general creator. The reason we proclaim to be creators is simply because we can and it is through our creations we transcend our entities into the universal eternal artistic pantheon.