International Travelogue of Club Style : It’s Retro-Everything on New York Scene

If New York is a pulse for fashion, then surely its dance clubs set the beat. Parody and fantasy are the name of the game. So take a 100-year-old former meatpacking plant, add an “Afrotech” dance floor that combines leopard skins and a computer motif, and give the nightspot a far-out name--in this case, “Mars.”

Vintage clothes, recalling other eras, are the perfect foil.

“The clubs are all about retro-everything,” says fashion designer Dianne Brill. Important sightings include Jacqueline Kennedy pillbox hats and gloves, hippie love beads, boxy handbags with handles, and hairpieces. Clunky, chunky jewelry, be it Lucite or antique stone, is a look. Then there are ‘70s platform shoes.

Black leather motorcycle jackets with jeans are popular and abundant at Horatio 113. And many club kids are still kicking around in ripped jeans with air-conditioning at the knees, although party promoter Brinton Brewster cautions: “They’re so passe, the only reason they got in was because they had a reservation.”