One of the odd things I’ve noticed is that on the Internet, when someone happens to have a huge pair of crazy pants, the general reaction is along the lines of, “Oh my God, those are soooo cool!” However, most people don’t know how/where to get anything like them. No normal clothing store would dare stock them, and even Hot Topic doesn’t have anything closer than plain “goth” pants.
Part of the difficulty in finding such clothing in the USA is the fact that the race scene or at least it’s candy side of it is gone or close to it here. It thrives in Australia, and exists somewhat in Europe, but if it’s alive here in America, I don’ know about it. However, there are a few cool people out there that will make custom raver pants for a reasonable price, and even a simple way to make a simple pair of your own.
The first of these people would be Ashley at iSmartypants, from whom I have ordered two pairs of pants from. The prices were reasonable, the design, construction, and comfort levels were damn good, and there’s a great deal of flexibility in terms of doing something custom with her. Pants start at $45 for a plain pair with no pockets, and you’ll likely not have to spend more than $80 or so to get exactly what you want. She also occasionally will make some pre-made which go for less than what it’d cost to do it custom, and often posts pre-mades on eBay. A fair deal in my opinion considering it’s handmade and hard to find elsewhere.
Second up is one that the ninjas out there may not like, but the designs are really cool, though the website is a little overdone in my opinion. Enlightened Libra Creations will do custom work as far as I know, but the majority of her stuff is a collection of random one of a kind items and other articles of clothing she just happens to make. Redhead even made a series of videos on YouTube showing how to make a basic pair of pants, which I’ll get to later in this post. Pre-made pants can cost as little as $30, and more complex items can go for nearly $100, but judging by the quality of the designs I’ve seen, it’s probably worth the price.
Third up is not a currently existing store, but I feel it deserves a mention. This place was the first I had seen of raver fashion, and I REALLY wanted some stuff from this place, but I never had the money laying around until after they shut down to move on to other projects. The place is ZapFashion, which is run by Jade and photographed by Bearz. Ever since the original store closed in 2003, Jade has, shall we say, “disappeared” for a few months a couple of times, but eventually returns with more cool stuff posted in her LiveJournal. She also has a current line of furry hats going right now, which is/was planned to expand to hoodies. In a cool twist, the original store’s webpages are still up and running in their 2003 form right here, with the pants page located here. Pants at ZF started at $70 and peaked at $80 for the especially funky two-toned overalls. The quality of her stuff looks amazing, and I would give up my right pinky to have that place back open for a bit so I could get some stuff from there.
Seeing as there’s only two places in the US as far as I know that will do custom work, and the prices may be a bit high for some out there, there’s the alternative of busting out the (your mom’s) sewing machine. Redhead of ELC posted a series of tutorials explaining how to make the pattern, do the basic assembly, and finish the deal up. Of course, the tutorial is only for a plain pocket-less basic drawstring pair, but the idea is that you go and learn how to do the most advanced stuff through trial and error. Sounds pretty damn fun if you ask me.
Well, there you have it. If anyone out there knows of any other US or Canada-based custom raver pants places I missed or if any of the webmistresses of the above sites needs me to correct some info I may have gotten wrong, feel free to contact me by replying to this post.
Update: I have become aware of another person doing custom work, Spirallectik. Aside from completely custom work, you can start with four different pants designs and request whatever you want to be added. Some of these basic designs can be had for around $30, with any extra stuff pulling the price up a bit. The quality looks good and the site is updated often.
Update as of 02/09/07: Another site has come to my attention, and the above site seems dead. New site is FreedomPants and seem to be of VERY nice quality. I’ll see if I can get some sort of baseline price.
