When the Wall fell, popular culture rose to a new level of social relevance. Wind of Change? More like a tsunami! The Nineties wash up a tidal wave of catchy tunes and cult movies,
TV series and show stars about the increasingly globalized media landscape. FACES rolls up the decade – and publishes an encyclopedia on the age of grunge, girl groups, GZSZ and clack bracelets in loose succession.
In principle, this is a great invention: bang on! No fiddling with the twist lock, no one-handed hooking. If only the bracelets weren’t such a serious style crime…
“Slap Bracelet” is the original name of the steel slats encased in colorful plastic or nylon, invented by a teacher in the US state of Wisconsin, which adorn the limbs of adolescents for a few months – or disfigure them, depending on how you feel. However, anyone who invests their fortune in the long-term survival of these things on their arm will soon be poor. It’s a brief but intense obsession, with some children slapping them around their wrists so often that the sharp metal penetrates and causes cuts. Bans at some US schools are the result. And if the ugliness that has become an accessory still appears today, for example as a reflector on joggers’ legs, then it is more for pragmatic than aesthetic reasons.
