DPR London Concert: How community is formed through concert outfits
I’ve been lucky enough to attend a handful of Korean artists’ concerts and let me tell you, the lengths people go with their outfits is incredible.
The dedication and love shown to the artists via the extensive lore people express through the clothes they choose often leaves me stricken. They always look incredible. For me this creates a sense of community, never do I feel overdressed walking through the streets of London as a pirate or with bright pink hair adorned with butterflies; I know my fellow concert goers are doing the exact same. A small smile on the tube from someone equally as dressed up always settles the self-consciousness, the unspoken “your outfit looks great” and “thank you, so does yours” shared via mere eye contact.
The DPR concert also embodied this experience; Artic, Cream and Ian all having different styles that you could see scattered throughout crowd. At most concerts, but especially K-Pop concerts, queueing for practically the entire day is the norm if you have standing tickets and you want a good view. The extrovert in me always manages to befriend the people queueing near me, we talk for hours about the artists’ and the songs we love. Conversation always ends up on outfits though, which stage outfit are they going to wear? Which one is your favourite? Is that the inspiration behind your outfit? It’s so cute! Compliments are thrown around not dissimilar from the girls’ bathroom on a night out.
Whilst at DPR I asked some fellow dreamers in the queue the inspiration behind their outfits, because let me tell you the girls were going all out. Neon green body suits, exact replicas of previous outfits DPR Ian had worn in music videos, I felt underdressed and that’s not something I feel often as I’m usually planning my outfit for at least a couple weeks before hand. What was special for me was seeing how much the artist’s personally affected people, they weren’t just fans of the music the artists had clearly helped them through tough points in their life. They wanted to show gratitude by expressing their love for DPR through the attention to detail in the outfits.
One person I spoke to was dressed as Mito, whom is one of DPR Ian’s two other personas. From the fans I spoke to DPR Ian especially meant a lot to people as he openly shows his mental health issues and talks about them to fans. Ian has bipolar disorder and dissociative identity disorder. He has three personas that he channels through his music: Ian, Mito and Mr. Insanity. Each persona has a very different aesthetic that is clearly shown through the clothing he chooses, Mr. Insanity will always be wearing strikingly bright colours and makeup whilst Mito is very much the opposite usually styled in black with heavy eyeliner. Having an artist so open about his mental health and freely showing the world different sides of him clearly has gained him a lot of support and respect in the form of an adoring fanbase.
During the concert all the artists performed incredibly; Artic turned OVO Arena Wembley into a club, Cream got people grooving and Ian got us all singing along. DPR Ian also did some speeches throughout his set talking about how glad he was that his fanbase was a community that people felt safe to express themselves, he also said “Finding a sense of ground is always hard and I’ve come to realise you have to be your own ground, you can’t let your environment change you, you have to be the environment wherever you go” I personally felt this was very inspiring message to his fans about being an individual and being happy with. All in all, the concert was incredible, and I’ve personally taken a lot away from it creatively, but the fans I interacted with and their messages will also stay with me and I wanted to be able to share them.
