Stand for…

What do I stand for?  Silence.  Awkward laughter.  "Errrr‚Ķ.. " Well in all honesty, any answer I give to such a loaded question is going to sound contrived, lame, or both.  How to sum up a life/work ethos into one snappy sentence without sounding a little ridiculous.  There aren't that many brands that I would attempt to answer that question for but in the case of  Dr. Martens, who have decided to use #StandForSomething as their campaign slogan for AW 13, I thought I'd make an exception.    

Excuse the bore-off nostalgia trip but as some of you might know, Dr. Martens was one of those coming-of-age brands that really anchored my style when I was a teen, as it was for a lot of people.  It's strange to think that the sort of people, who scrimped and saved for their first pair and when they got them, proceeded to scuff them up and lace them up in a myriad of ways, and wear them with different socks either with their customised school uniform or their offbeat mufty day outfits, are more than likely to be in my kindred circle of friends.  The days of hanging out around that specific Dr. Martens shop in Camden Town – the one next to the tube exit on Kentish Town Road that looked really grimy – yearning and dreaming for my first pair of DM's because their singular design represented a beacon of freedom and rebellion, were genuinely the beginnings of my personal style journey.      

The AW13 campaign therefore features a diverse cast of thirteen people, who probably had similar experiences growing up.  The point being that they're meant to be people who stand out from the crowd and Dr. Martens are indicative of that trait.  Perhaps it's a tad simplistic to tie rebellious mavericks to one shoe brand but I'd venture to say there's some truth that hardcore DM wearers, all harbour at least some desire to not run with convention.  I'm old enough now to know better than to trot out the "I'm oh-so-unique card because I wear Docs" line but it sure feels good remembering how a pair of shoes could mean so much, how they made me feel when I did finally get my first pair and what effect they have had on my style outlook further down the line.