In my entire raving career—which has spanned approximately from when dinosaurs roamed the Earth and the TV show Friends was deeply relevant to the present day—rave fashion has deeply evolved. Back in the early '90s, we all looked like we had raided Dr. Seuss' closet and I was mostly interested in wearing the baggiest pants that money could buy. (Like, literally yards and yards of fabric. So deeply impractical for rain, muddy fields, and people feeling on my bootay. Sigh.)I guess around the mid-'90s, making kandi bracelets became a "thing." Someone—probably a bored and high someone—came up with the idea of taking plastic neon beads from the craft store, stringing them together on elastic thread, and wearing them. Though Cat in the Hat hats and pacifiers may have come and gone, kandi has stayed and gotten crazier and more evolved each year. Now partygoers turn kandi into 3-D cuffs, masks, hoods, bras and probably thongs and codpieces for all I know. And along with kandi kid kulture evolving, so has the rallying cry of PLUR (Peace.Love.Unity.Respect), which used to be a much-joked-about slogan you'd see on rave flyers and in zines and it now so true and real that even it has its own handshake. Anyway, I was at Electric Zoo dressed like a flying pig (not really sure why, tbh) and I decided to interview some kandi kids about all the new developments in kandyville. Then the wonderful Penelope Gazin stepped in and added rainbow poop and fish tails. I Want Kandi!
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