Underground designer is on edge of cutting edge
Byline:   JEANNE BEACH EIGNER
Credit:   Staff Writer
Column:   Fashion Friday
05/21/93
The San Diego Union-Tribune (SDU)
Pub:      UNION-TRIBUNE
Edition:  1,2,3,4,5,6,7
Section:  LIFESTYLE
Page:     E-3
(Copyright 1993)
Underground culture: More than just RuPaul's hot pants and platform
shoes? More than dropping "Ecstasy" after hours in the basement of
Ole Madrid? More than just knowing "rave" is passe?
With the blithe arrogance of the unassailably hip, a club kid
explains it all to those of us mired in the horse latitudes of
department-store fashion.
"It's not for the general public. It's for younger people who are
very fashion conscious. The topics and styles of the underground are
always on the edge, on the verge of what's acceptable," said Shelly
Bomb (nee Reif; Bomb is her nom du club), the designer behind the
Peace Bomb Project and a Style Summit participant.
Take grunge, now declasse'.
"Honestly, to wear grunge now would not be truly underground, would
not be fashionable," Bomb said.
So what does one wear?
Bomb herself designs cotton T-shirts with Day-Glo buddhas, happy face
yin-yang symbols, Felix the Cat graphics and anti-drug slogans.
"I'm a diva, I dress in a diva mode," said Bomb, who's also a
robotics teacher, synchronized dancer and performance artist.
"It's my art, it's what I do. A club kid "is someone who takes their
entire body and what they put on as an art form."