Ouch: Buffalo Named The Least Fashionable City in America

This is NOT surprising. Just look at all the locals who go outside wearing pajama pants, outdated Bills attire, flannel shirts, dirty clothes, greased out hair, scrunchies, and so on. .....Do these people know they can go to Target, Kholes, Conway, Rainbow and spend the same amount and end up looking 100% better?????? I've been told this area is too poor to care about looking good, but come on folks, DISCOUNT clothing that is up to date and decent can be found here!!!!!

I find it interesting that Buffalo always counts as a "large city" when someone wants to put us at the bottom of a list.

Rankings like this are completely worthless, and rather insulting.

What this "ranking" means is if I buy my designer tie at T.J. Maxx, where it's going to be 50% cheaper, I am somehow "less fashionable" than the guy that paid twice as much at a "high-end" retailer?

Same piece of clothing, same label, yet somehow because it's purchased someplace where it's more realistically priced makes the purchaser "less fashionable".

Who even deemed this garbage worthy of posting here?

An insulting piece, with no basis in actual facts.

"Remarkably, even kindred spirit Cleveland has 3 times as many households that have made high-end retail transactions as Buffalo."

Hmmm... could that be because:

1. As of the 2010 Census, Cleveland proper had a total population of 396,815, and the Cleveland-Akron-Elyria Combined Statistical Area, which has a population of 2,871,084

-and-

2. Buffalo itself has a population of 261,310 (2010 Census) and the Buffalo–Niagara–Cattaraugus Combined Statistical Area has a population of 1,215,826.

I'd say we're just smarter consumers... But that's my opinion.

Proud to be unfashionable.

You could say the same about a lot of major retails chains, including coffee shops, restaurants, etc. Buffalo, the city, is a land of independent retailers. Look at Hertel and Elmwood. If we continue to shop locally then we will never be on a list that is decided upon by the number of people who shop at national top-end designer merchants. Also, osiris is right - a lot of those small Buffalo boutiques carry the designer merch - but that doesn't count because they are locally owned and operated. Which is fine with me.

Do we even have any national top end designer merchants? That would be a start. If its even a desirable thing to begin with.

some folks are fashionably conscious.
I'm fashionably unconscious.

Manhattan is the only truly fashionable place in the US because the fashion industry is based there. It's easy to follow the trends and learn about the quality of clothing/fabrics when you're exposed to it on a daily basis. It's also a great place to get deals on quality clothing.

I don't think Buffalo is fashionable for a number of reasons that are difficult to control: income levels, weather, lack of retail.

However, any survey that ranks the dullest city in the country, Irvine, California, as number one in fashion, should indicate how flawed this survey really is. Shopping at overpriced malls does not make anyone a fashionista.

Hey at least we're a top 50 city in the US!

This survey, like so many others, ignorantly assumes that all of fashion can be captured by consumer activity with respect to "top designers." Presumably, these top designers are the commercially successful Louis Vuitton and John Varvatos of the world. Almost every "top designer" gets their start in obscurity as a pattern maker for another designer, a boutique owner, etc. I suppose then, according to this survey, even "top designers" are unfashionable until they become sufficiently commercially successful to be a benchmark in a survey.

I'm gonna take the blame on this one, guys. I wore white after Labor Day.

They are blaming this on the snow yet winter fashion is one of the most forward looking fashion sectors. Have they not noticed this? The slopes are some of the most fashionalble places you can be or you could be on a Miami Beach looking at fat guys in speedos

there are so many logic leaps in this study's design that is really isn't worth our time. their finding could just as easily have been city least controlled by major fashion retailers....

I'm ok with this stupid ranking. Buffalo is the city of no illusions and no pretense.

I really enjoy the lack of vanity in this great city.

"their data on retail transactions" might mean that a good percentage of this ranking comes from cross-border shoppers and Niagara Falls tourists.

This is about where (not even what) people buy, and not at all about how they wear it. Some people can put together a better outfit at a Goodwill for $5 than some of the made-in-China crap others will pay $5,000 for at Barneys.

And blaming it on the snow is BS. I'd prefer to see someone in a smart winter ensemble any day over the hoochie mamas in the south whose idea of 'office attire' is flip-flops and a tube top.

This list should be "Most Victim to Fashion", not "Most Fashionable".

Who cares. Outside of NYC and Los Angeles where the real fashion trends are, most people dress alike in all other cities. I live in San francisco and it is not that fashionable. There are hordes of annoying hipsters that all dress alike and wear salvaged clothes and then the rest that are wearing the same banana republic clothing you get anywhere.
Buffalo is at the low? I say good. No reason to waste money on and give in to the over priced retailers.

Whatever, but that is a great shot of STEEL in his Zumbaz up top.

A fashion study based on retail purchases finds the 3rd poorest city in the country (and one that makes a lot of cold weather based, practical purchases) made the fewest purchases at high end clothing stores. Should I replace my wardrobe immediately? Why is this news?

don't ever confuse fashion with style. sometimes they barely nodding acquaintances.

think of the aging blueblood who goes to the 20th century club in a chanel suit that she has had for 40 years. fashionable? not at all. stylish? hell, yes.

at the other end of the spectrum, we can dress really well on a dime, thanks to our great thrift shops, consignment shops, and vintage boutiques. being a slave to the trend of the nanosecond is nothing to brag about.

to our everlasting credit, we are low on fashion but high on style.

What a surprise all the thin-skinned Buffalonians are all defensive again. just to go over a couple of your ludicrous points:
-tjmaxx and other discount stores have name-brand stuff, but not while it is in fashion at the name brand stores. ie, low on the fashion scale.
-if you have ever been to any big city outside wny, you would realize how behind the times people dress here.

Lego1981 is the only one who hit it on the head.

What nonsense, so WNY residents don't waste money on overpriced crap sold by high end retailers, that is a good thing, says something about our values and lack of pretense. Chasing after the latest trends is shallow and demonstrates a lack of understanding of the things that really matter in life. Fashion is so objective and quality clothing doesn't have to cost a fortune or be of the latest design.

That said there is no reason a person should look like a slob, it is not really that difficult or expensive to look decent and presentable.

"Perhaps Buffalo's lack of fashion can be chalked up to its abundance of snow days."

What a pitifully stupid comment. I did laugh, though. It's not worth being thin skinned but it is funny how the world views Buffalo as nothing but snow. Good. I'll take it. I like getting drunk because there's a driving ban. It sure beats my house falling into the earth because of yet another CA earthquake, or being blown to bits because of yet another midwest tornado, or being consumed by yet another MS flood, or losing my life possessions to a storm named Irene. How about a study on best places to live because you're least likely to have mother nature destroy everything you own? I'd love to hear the quip they come up with for Buffalo for that study.

WE'RE #1! WE'RE #1!
But seriously, we are. When I moved back to Buffalo from NYC, I thought I went back it time (and bad fashion land). It's not just the clothing, it's the hair. I made a comment about the out-dated hairstyles in Buffalo to my hairdresser, and she said she understood that Buff was 5-10 yrs. behind everyone else in hairstyles.

I'm waiting to hear about the top 20 list of cities that are most obsessed about where their city ranks on useless magazine/website lists.

Buffalo will certainly be #1 there too.

Any way you slice it, too many people wear Bills and
Sabres jerseys down town. Feather hair and mustaches went
out of style longtime ago. It's no big secret that Buffalo
is stuck in the 80's.

The big joke is in airports. The Buffalo gate is always the easiest to find. Just look for PJ's a pillow or ancient Bills sweats.

I was all ready to be offended by this, but after reading the article, this is actually a back-handed compliment.

It shows:
- Buffalonians are frugal ie. not big believers that buying expensive things gives you status. This could have something to do with it being a poor city, but note that Cleveland is poorer and is more "fashionable". Maybe we look at all the Canadians that come over and buy expensive crap at the Galleria and are inspired not to be like them...

- Buffalo doesn't have many high-end national retailers to start with. It does have high-end retailers, but they are all local businesses on Elmwood and Hertel. So, any high-end transactions that happen in Buffalo won't be counted into the ranking. Thus, when people do buy high-end things here, the money goes back into the local economy, which is a very good thing.

I would be offended if there weren't people with good fashion sense in Buffalo, but there are, as you can witness from a walk down Elmwood.

I don't know about you, but Janet Snyder and I are at The Walker Center just about everyday buying sweatsuits with Juicy on the butt, ugg boots, northface jackets and a whole lotta designer jeans — take that unfashionable Buffalo... at least we look good.

Buffalo ranks at the bottom of a list.

Response from BR posters: "They're wrong! The methodology is flawed! These lists are stupid! Who cares? I'd rather be here than in (insert name of growing Sunbelt city here)!"

Buffalo ranks at the top of a list.

Response from BR posters: "The secret is finally out! Buffalo is #1! This is just one more sign of the region's renaissance!"

Can't have it both ways, where the lists, flawed as they might be, are right when Buffalo is presented in a favorable light, and wring when Buffalo ranks towards the bottom.

If wearing zubazz is wrong, I don't want to be right.

Some likely reasons behind the numbers. My apologies if others have mentioned some of these.

1) Lack of high-end national clothing chains compared to peer cities. Hard to judge sales at high-end boutiques when there aren't any of the kind being tabulated.

2) Large elderly population compared to peer cities. Lime green polyester pants ordered from the Blair catalog is considered high fashion among that crowd.

3) Buffalo still has a good-sized blue-collar workforce, where fashion is mostly irrelevant. Carhartt, Red Wing, Dehner, Oshkosh, and other workwear brands are big sellers in the area.

4) Sports fanaticism. When I lived in Denver, during a time when the Broncs were winning Super Bowls, and the Avs and Rockies were having good seasons, I saw very few people wear Broncos/Rockies/Avalanche/Nuggets gear outside of playoff season. In Buffalo, you'll see clothing with Bills logos year 'round.

5) Hairstyles are 5-15 years behind the times in Buffalo, although with the Internet, things are catching up. As a test, I scanned photos from my 1984 high school yearbook (Buffalo Public Schools), and a 1984 yearbook somewhere else in the country, and asked people to guess the year the photos were taken. For the other school, most people guessed mid-1980s. For photos from my 1984 yearbook, mid-to-late 1970s. Whenever I return home, I'm surprised to see as many mustaches and feathered hair as I do among those in their 30s and 40s.

As another poster said, at airports in other cities, I've noticed it's easy to pick out the gate with a departing flight to Buffalo. Some of it is fashion (Bills logos, sweatshirts and sweatpants, etc), but there tends to be a much larger number of senior and elderly passengers.

That being said, Buffalo is known as a fashion mecca among a niche crowd into "trad" or classic Ivy League style, thanks to the presence of O'Connell's.

http://img49.imageshack.us/img49/6669/whydoyouhatebuffalomugou7.jpg

Being fashionable or stylish or what-have-you, is simply a state of mind. Either you embrace it, or you don't. So what if Buffalo isn't perceived as a fashionable city. I will say that I was at the airport in Tampa Bay recently, and I crossed paths with the Canisius High School Baseball team heading home after a tournament. Every single member of the team was in a shirt/tie with a sportcoat, carrying their equipment bags branded with Buffalo, NY. They looked sharp, and people took notice.

I wonder if not being fashion conscious makes Buffalonians more grounded and real and perhaps some depth.... and less superficial and shallow that we typically associate with fashion types.

Seriously, who the f**k cares?

There's a sale at the Chess King in Boulevard Mall, right next to Sibley's. Half off Z. Cavaricci and Members Only!

This ranking is about as pointless as the attention we're giving it. What's the point? If you write an article like this, you expect reactions to it, but are the reactions you're getting worth the reputation you're helping to fortify? Give it a rest with the 'Buffalo sucks at this, Buffalo is inferior at that, Buffalo is a bunch of unfashionable pigs' jargon and just let people move on. It really gets old.

This list seems fundamentally flawed. Since when is having fashion sense only equivalent to shopping at high-end retailers? You can shop at Saks Fifth Avenue or Neiman Marcus and still look awful. Fashion catalogs are riddled with 'worst dressed' celebrities who are wearing designer outfits that cost thousands of dollars. Being fashionable has a lot more to do with what you buy than where you buy it or how much you spent.

I also find the assumption that cold = unfashionable very odd. Cold weather allows for all kinds of clothing options that are impossible in warmers climes; scarves, boots, sweaters, hats, etc. It snows in New York City, Paris and Milan after all.

Fashion is a construct.

I dont think Buffalo has more snow or is colder than Minnesota. Thats just ridiculous.

Maybe I havent traveled to the appropriate parts of the city to see people dress like this but I have never seen these half T-Shirts and Zebra pants that everyone keeps talking about.

True Buffalo is not a wealthy city ... and in many ways ... Im kind of greatful Buffalo has never been that shallow snobby kind of city (like our wealthier neighbor Rochester for example).

Buffalonians are still quite an attractive lot with alotta heart. Id rather have the heart than the designer luggage.

I guess its different for guys than girls. Guys that are outta shape and wear sweatpants and T-Shirts and unshaven can still look pretty darn attractive.

Outta shape girls...no makeup...uncombed hair...spandex tights that went out with flashdance in the 80s...well not so much.

This article brings to mind my pretenious cousin from Atlanta who is always whining about how lame Buffalo is when she visits. At the age of 36 she still feels the need to pump her chest and play the "i'm cool and you're not" game while her Buffalo family just sits around, rolls our eyes, and enjoys our greasy fish fry and 16 ounce beer. All the while, she sits there in her ematiated body, leather coat in the summer because its too "cold" here (note fashion diss), eating her iceberg lettuce salad. Who would you rather be? Us or her? Case closed.

Isn't it interesting that when it comes to the issue of Buffalo and snow, we are always dismissing it as bunk. Yet, in this instance, we are using it as a defense.

These people need to go to hell. with their overrated football team and their LOSER ways. its way to cold in this crappy city, no jobs, no money and a race problem that u wouldnt believe. FUK BUFFALO. dont waste ur time or LIFE going there.

this city is 25yrs behind everyone else. no sense of style, im originally from maryland. and wish i wouldve never left. This city should burn down and start all over again.