Delco Fashion: Getting “Crispy”
If you take a minute to read the brief article, you’ll see that it is concerning a fad that is supposedly spreading throughout the Philadelphia area in which juveniles are lighting their clothes on fire so the edges “appear to be burned or charred.” The article refers to one specific incident where a young girl from Swarthmore recently injured herself when attempting to do just that to a piece of her clothing and the item caught fire. It then goes on to state that parents and teachers should be aware of this trend as many fabrics found popular clothing are flammable and could result in bodily injury as well as “an out of control situation and structure fire.” The article concludes by sardonically asking if this is a city-wide problem or just a “Delco thing.” The author then calls out our very own Delco Girl for good measure.
Well Philly.com, let me be the first to state that this is not just a recent Delco thing. We’ve been burning our clothes for years. Many outsiders look down upon Delco fashion but we get little credit to being the trendsetters that we actually are. Decades before the hippies at Berkley were burning their bras in protest, Delaware County patriots were burning their knickerbockers so they would look stylish while making bathtub gin. My great-great-great-great-great grandfather, Major Longfellow Chugwallis, fought in the Revolutionary War alongside General Washington and before he betrayed his own troops he lit his powdered wig on fire because he wanted to look cool for the Brits.
Lighting your clothes on fire has been a cornerstone in Delaware County fashion. After reading this article it got me paging through my old picture albums. Yours truly has been sporting the “crispy look” (street name for burning your clothes) since he was in diapers. I want to share some of these pictures with you since they’ll attest to my ahead-of-the-curve style
(Editor’s Note: I had to hide my face in the following photos to protect my identity.)