Exactitudes
IN THE HISTORY OF STREET STYLE,SOME PLACES ARE BIGGER THAN OTHERS. LONDON LOOMS LARGE, MANCHESTER IS MASSIVE, TOKYO'S HARAJUKU DISTRICT IS LIKE DISNEY WORLD, BUT NOWHERE IS QUITE SO HARDCORE CENTRAAL
AS LATE NINETIES ROTTERDAM. THIS IS THECITY OF THE EXACTITUDES.
Photographer Ari Versluis and writer Ellie Uyttenbroek have been documenting fashion trends, youth culture and social groups since 1994. This is the cover of the first edition of Exactitudes. The twelve empty panels make it easy to differentiate from later editions (with people in them) but no easier to find. It is so scarce.
No.55 Fly Girls. They are brilliantly described as... "Shoppin' girls flippin' the script from ivory to ebony style." We have to say, Uyttenbroek is the Joan Didion of fashion writing! The economy of her prose is only matched by Versluis' no frills straight up photography.
More great copy-writing. '...expensive braces for a better and brighter future." Of course, it is straight teeth rather than Polo Ralph Lauren that are the true sign of class distinction. Every edition of Exactitudes bar the latest one is sold out. We recently sold a third edition from 2007 recently in Dover Street, as referenced on Exactitudes' Facebook page.
We have seen our fair share of Chillers before, on every platform of the Hoek van Holland train from Amsterdam. Getting on at Vlaardingen Ooost for a Friday night in Vlaardingen West! Uyttenbroek's description is super succinct: "Young outkasts love hanging with an older posse to learn the tricks of the trade."
This is the three by four panel formula of Exactitudes (here showing Teknohippies). It suggests the minimum number of any identifiable sub-sub-sub tribe is twelve, which is a fair rule. The grid is so recognisably Exactitudes, they turned it into a Fred Perry shirt.
Are you hetero or homo? Geneous, we mean. This image above from Casual Queers. A page of twelve individuals wearing checked shirts. That's what Exactitudes is all about: individuals who all look the same. And apologies if that thought is deeper than those we normally trouble you with. If it's too much you can just look at the pictures like we do!