There were plenty of similar themes in crazy style at Snowball this year. Among them: SpiritHoods, onesies, and fuzzy clydesdale leggings (I made that term up. Seems apropos). Side note: I only saw one person wearing a cowboy hat, despite the fact that there was a vendor selling nothing but cowboy hats. Someone do the math on that and report back to me.
Anyhoo, Bella wasn't coy when we asked her why she thought everyone wore such strange outfits at Snowball. "A lot of people are reeeeeaaally fucked up," she says. Allie thought that wearing a cool outfit was a good way to meet friends and get people to talk to you. It's a conversation starter. But why the leggings? "They're warm and they're fun to dance in," Allie says.
The weirdness at Snowball wasn't just restricted to fashion. Some folks brought fandom to a whole new level. We were super psyched about Madison, 16, and her amazing cat sign. Madison is a huge Pretty Lights fan, so she made a photo sign of one of Derek Vincent Smith's Scottish Fold cats, Minx. Pro tip: Derek maintains an Instagram account for his cats under the name kitty_lights. It's exactly as adorable as it sounds.
We weren't but about two feet past the giant cat sign when a crash test dummy and a dude who looked like he was attending pajama day at elementary school strolled by. Admittedly, in the steadily dropping temperatures, I was starting to feel a little jealous of Kendell in his fleece Batman onesie. "I'm actually getting a little hot," he said. At a festival called Snowball? Sounds luxurious.
Crash Test Dummy, alias Ryan, theorized that the anonymity was what made people gravitate towards costumes. "If I didn't have this suit on, you could see me," he said.
Cassia, 24, had a logical explanation for her technicolor skibunny garb: "We went to Snowball two years ago, and it was in the snow. It made sense. It's called Snowball. It's the opposite of Coachella. Coachella is in the desert and everyone's wearing bikini tops." At this, her companion piped in: "Well people here are wearing bikini tops, but they're gonna be cold."
When we met Jeremy, 23, a software developer from Seattle, we finally got an explanation for all the onesies. "Have you ever heard of Polish Ambassador? He says wear your onesie to a show and dance! I really connected with that. It's about dancing and being comfortable." Jeremy was drawn to our fair city by Pretty Lights, who he's a big fan of. As for why so many folks were wearing day-glo tutus and the like? "It can be summed up with this phrase: let's keep it weird."
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