Introducing... pt. 1

My NGBF. It was love at first sight.

Introducing... Abra. A fashionable and handsome 20 year-old with a penchant for Russ Meyer movies. He came from Alicante almost two years ago and - from what he's been telling me - has been setting the standard in the discerning club circuit with his fashion choices. In his own words, "everyone copies me". As one of the stars of www.icanteachyouhowtodoit.com (Barcelona's answer to The Cobra Snake), anything he wears can immediately become source of inspiration to the hundreds of visitors to the site. He started the leggings-for-man trend in Barcelona when, inspired by MIA and the beginnings of New Rave in London, he strutted his stuff in the most colourful lycra when all around him guys were just about coming round to tight-fitted jeans (ok, that might be an exaggeration and my apologies to the Barcelonian male species, but you haven't given me much proof of your fashion credentials so far!).

Abra Dallesandro

As any true hipster would do, as soon as the spray-on look spread around one too many manly legs, he stopped wearing it and moved on to his next fixation: Joe Dallesandro. For those of you who are not familiar with this beautiful specimen of God's creatures, he was one of Andy Warhol's Superstars, appeared in several of his movies and is a shining star in gay iconography. One of his staple looks was a bandana tied around his forehead, his flowing raven locks cascading from within it. Cue Abra, all chiseled features and asymmetric haircut, channeling the Joe Dallesandro look around the streets of Barcelona. A few months on, and it is now the norm to find at least two Dallesandro lookalikes in the clubs of the city.

At the Bonde Do Role show. Yee-haw!

As before, this was not to be missed by our hero's eagle fashion eye, who swiftly moved the bandana from his forehead to his neck in order to become a cowboy, now together with slightly-too-small denim or leather waistcoats, checked shirts, tight-fitting jeans and to top it all off in the right way, a cowboy hat casually slung backwards as if he had just stepped off his horse. His Wild West Saloons in this case being parties like Maricapop, Club Tropicana and Boombox Barcelona (unrelated to the London one), or clubs like Apolo and Razzmatazz.
A hard look to imitate from head to toe without blowing your own copycat whistle, but as any other fashion trend, if you take small details you can give a little highlight to your overall look. In this case, since every gay moderno's wardrobe already counted with at least one D'Allessandro bandana, it was only logical that this was the detail to be kept and now every other boy (and girl, actually!) has one around their neck.

Trend researchers: take note.

What's next for Abra? He's now opted for a very casual, toned-down look, the kind that is hard to be copied due to its brilliantly achieved simplicity. Then again, he has started wearing bright plastic Hawaiian lei's around his neck...

(all photos by www.icanteachyouhowtodoit.com)