Hot Topic: Truly mallcore, or just another clothing shop?

[-Resurrected Writer-]

True, many posers shove gobs of Hot Topic gear onto their bodies in vain attempt to rebel, or fit in, or whatever...
but IMO, if someone walks out of the store, it shouldn't mean that walking out of one with a bag makes you automatically mallcore; just like how walking out of Dazzle with a bag doesn't make you automatically preppy.

Feel free to discuss your opinions.  

[VividGreenDawn]

I think it all depends on the person and how they use it?...

I admit, I have bought things from them, only because of their affordable prices. It is near to impossible to find a vinyl shirt here in Canada for less than $90.

Yes, I bought my favourite trench coat from them, but it was ment to be a halloween costume a few years back, and I do not care what anybody says, it makes me happy to wear it. Plus, I have not yet seen another person who has a ankle length black vinyl coat so razz  

[Dante Omura]

Darkness Is My Life's Blood

I like their bad tees thats pretty much all they have thats good here in FL.

Light Is My Deaths Curse

 

[Exquisite Cadavre]

The Vampire Ruler

Darkness Is My Life's Blood

I like their bad tees thats pretty much all they have thats good here in FL.

Light Is My Deaths Curse

Yeah in Florida all they really have worthwhile are band tees.

However, in general Hot Topic is just another store. It happens to be a store that caters more towards people who are 'alternative' but in the end it is just a store.

While it is true that hordes of mallgoths go there, it doesn't make some of their selections any less "goth." Many of the brands they carry are real brands that are sold in other boutiques and have internet sites online. The fact that mall goths go there is because it's easy, close by, and decidedly cheaper than a lot of other clothing.  

[Mz.Wiggles]

Rose Mortem

The Vampire Ruler

Darkness Is My Life's Blood

I like their bad tees thats pretty much all they have thats good here in FL.

Light Is My Deaths Curse

Yeah in Florida all they really have worthwhile are band tees.

However, in general Hot Topic is just another store. It happens to be a store that caters more towards people who are 'alternative' but in the end it is just a store.

While it is true that hordes of mallgoths go there, it doesn't make some of their selections any less "goth." Many of the brands they carry are real brands that are sold in other boutiques and have internet sites online. The fact that mall goths go there is because it's easy, close by, and decidedly cheaper than a lot of other clothing.

Depends on what part of FL.
I need to get everything online because the store is really really tiny or I don't want to take the hour and a half drive to fort myers.

 

[-Isel-]

Yeah, it's just another clothing store.

I don't shop there because there's not one that's close enough for me to want to go there... but if I did live close enough, I'd maybe drop in once in a while to get a patch or something.

It's not the clothing itself, it's how you wear it.  

[xdemonicallyxyours13x]

eternally young...

Mallcore..... evil

 

[Dragonfire Goddess]

To me it's just another store, and just because it caters more to goth/punk/alternative people than other clothing stores doesn't mean that you are automaticaly goth/punk/alternative if you shop there. I've only been there once since the closest one to me is 2 hours away and tiny, but I've seen enough of their clothes to know that I like some and don't like others. I might just be cheap but I'm going to have to disagree about Hot Topic being affordable. I find their prices a bit outrageous since one pair of pants there costs as much as any one of my full outfits. I make or alter most of my clothes since I feel that they are a better expresion of me that way, but when I do shop I either do it online or at various local discount stores (some of them have really awesome corset tops).  

[Henneth Annun]

Some non-alternative culture people shop there because it's so obviouslly an alternative store and a large chain they think they can come off as "goth" if they shop there a lot (and be posers....)

i go there for these reasons:
1) it's close
2) only place i can go to get band merch.
3) they have some good stuff in there i can't get anywhere else because all the other places take an hour to get to and i can drive yet!

it all comes down to that i have pretty much no where else to go....they have some cool stuff at non-specialty shops though. i end up fixing some of it to my liking though...

i make a lot of my stuff myself though, especially wristbands.

it's just a shop. you don't have to be goth/punk/emo/*insert subclture here* to shop there....like said before, we're their main target to sell to.  

[DuctTapeLove]

I think it's just another store even though I love the cloths. The prices are expensive but I save up my money to go shopping there anyways. I’m lucky to have one close to me and also that they always have things on sale. Also some of my friends work there so I get a discount xd  

[Dr. H Quinzel]

You can buy that hot topic s**t anywhere on the internet, it's not like it has it's very own OMG GOTH brand... this is comming from a friends who works/ed there.  

[GilAskan]

I wouldn't say that it's for the mallcore, though, it does largely appeal and market to mallcore. Anyone can shop there, and people of all kinds do.  

[Veruniel]

I've got a bone to pick with Hot Topic.

They used to sell stuff I Iiked. Corsets and gowns and things. They gradually phased them out (at least where I lived) until I only saw them at Halloween, and then didn't see them at all. It was the only source for goth clothes in my imagination-challenged city, so I had to switch to mail order when the place went raver.

So yeah. I'm ticked.

That being said, I won't hold it against people who shop there. If they like it, that's cool... and how they dress doesn't matter to me as long as they're not whiny and pretentious about it.  

[Alice_K8]

If you almost only shop at hot topic and you beleive it is the epitome of Gothic style, you are a mallgoth. But Its ok to buy some things from hot topic as long as you don't completely conform to their style. I mean, I seem to recall originality being an important aspect of goth.
Personnally I am not a fan of hot topic because There is no one Goth style that is 'right', but now with main stream stores we are all starting to look exactly alike. We are becoming a bunch of conformists, and I hate that.  

[Kitten6663613]

Idon't think people should be labeled by the shops shop at, ut by their actions and words and attitude.