Ha ha NOW this I think was at the heart of my original post on casuals...you got it right when you said something in agreement on being diluted by the masses is where it goes wrong...just original stylists doing their thing which gets bastardized by (to be brutally honest) a load of divvies ...from teds to mods and probably to infinity and beyond.

its sort of interesting, the whole thing.
You get that surely. being an advocate of a big picture?

It's interesting, true...

I just lack the need to say it has any merit.

Silly little buggers without an identity assuming one that they've got from the media to see themselves through puberty...

The Originals have merit. The gang joiners may as well have just joined the Scouts.

- And by the time the gang joiners all came along the originals (if they had any salt) would have moved on anyway.

There is no such thing as a 'Minet', for example. Same deal with 'Skinheads' - Both were media creations.  Their names were made up by newspapers.
I think Modernists exist, but not 'Mods'. 

Anyway, this is the time for action...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EE52Dyy0U1o

this person does. They love 0 items apparently.
http://www.etsy.com/people/ivyist

Stylers (To use a London term) don't join gangs. They might initiate them, but are very keen to leave them when others join.

The received wisdom is that youth subcultures are great. Time that was debunked. I think that those who originate cults are great, but not those who join them. Kev Rowland talks great sense when he says that as soon as 'Skinhead' was invented all the cool kids grew their hair after previously cropping it.

Youth subcultures are great, when you're under 22. It's an era in your life when your freedom of self expression is shiny and new and possibilities are endless. It's an essential part of growing up, or it used to be.

That film we're discussing elsewhere makes a good point; that youth subcultures are largely gone. Mass media and instant gratification via the internet has watered everything down to the extent that everyone just does their own thing. Kids don't hang out on street corners much, they're far too busy at home on their play stations.

Poor buggers.