Emo and Mop

Le Mai informed me today that Wheesung calls himself "Real Slow", for some reason that escapes both of us. Thanks to Fly to the Sky's recently-released 8th album, Decennium, which means there is new jib fashion, we now have Real Emo and Real Mop. 

I think it's pretty obvious who's Emo and who's Mop. For two guys who have been in the music industry for 10 long years (and announced they were splitting - more on that later) and have grown from squeaky-voiced kids into fine men (half the time), you'd think their fashion sense would have matured. Alas, no. 

This new jib fashion, complete with leather jackets, dark backgrounds in half of the pictures and awful clothes in perfs, throws us back into the hellish period that was Transition, aka 6th jib. That jib was awful (from the beginning and ending with Brian's solo album) because the boys overdosed on angst. Any good writer knows angst must be administered in moderate doses at appropriate times. Apparently FTTS stylists were not privy to such common sense - the same stylist who 'spruced' the boys up in Transition was back again for Decennium. Brian looked marginally better in Transition's official photoshoots, as he did again in Decennium; both times Hwanhee looked like he'd been mowed over.

Leather jackets are not my thing because you need to be really savvy with them and it takes a lot to carry off anything leather with style. I don't know what sort of style they were trying to achieve... that they could bond with black and leather? That leather stuff is the best thing since sliced bread? That their shiny faces stand out in all that emo-ness? Isn't there anything else besides leather?

Oh, apparently there is. Red streaks and hairpins. Mmm... that'd totally... kill my sex drive if my man came to bed looking like this:

70s hippie with shiny hairpins sticking behind his ear. I even sense a touch of ahjumma-ness. Brilliant, Mr Hwang. 

Or worse, this:

Reminds me of a slimmer version of Andre Kim. Y'know, the Korean designer whose freaky fashions are only suitable for the runway? Yeah. Mr Joo's getting there.

As if that were not bad enough, we had Hwanhee accidentally sticking one arm into a pot of black ink...

No, that was really his outfit - one black sleeve on an otherwise nice white shirt. What was he thinking? What the hell? This offends just about every sense a human possesses. White and black are very powerful colours when used effectively, but fucked up like this, you just look wrong. Hwanhee looked awful.

If Decennium's cover art had looked something like this, I wouldn't have been so pissed:

At least the people at Yesasia's marketing section had some sense. Maybe it was just as well they weren't part of the FTTS 10th-anniversary "screw-up fashion" team.

Why do certain people want to look bad when they know just how good they can look? That will probably be the million-dollar question that will never be answered, especially since FTTS announced they're splitting up. But oh no, let's not misquote Mr Joo now, he's real touchy about it. Sorry, they're "taking a break", they won't be pushing out anymore albums, but hey when they feel like being nice, they'll do a project or two together, maybe after Mr Joo is free from his oh-so-busy Hollywood filming schedule.

Please excuse me for being snarky. I am no longer a kid and I don't need euphemisms about a group disbanding. I'd have respected you more if you'd just come clean, instead of releasing news like this, then backtracking on Facebook and making it seem you've been grossly misquoted. Le Mai has her own thoughts about this, but we've discussed it, and it's safe to say we're both disappointed with how this has been handled. 

Hwanhee hasn't said much, but really, he doesn't need to. Brian's said it all.

le jun