This column is dedicated to all of those who have spent countless hours bargain hunting, dying fabrics and threading needles. The thrill of the chase is over. Spending a Saturday rummaging through musty thrift stores has lost the nostalgia and excitement that it once had. Corporate fashion giants once again rob the alternative scene and prevail.

Malls across America are housing glittered shirts with anarchy symbols in rhinestones, purses with the safety pins already included and – best of all – logos that read things like “punk chick” or, worse yet, “rock star.” It isn’t the sight of a prepubescent teen in an anarchy shirt that kills me; it’s the irony that does it. Since September 11th especially, the display of these shirts right next to the American flag T’s makes you wonder: Do they know what that big A with a circle around it even means? I am in no way a punk rock elitist, but don’t these people get it? This whole look originated as an anti-establishment movement. People made clothes like this as an alternative to supporting malls and department stores and here parents are giving their children credit cards and allowances to buy this stuff.

Even more perplexing than anarchist teens is the newest “faded” look that I like to call “thrift store chic.” Jeans that used to take years to break in can now be bought with that feel. T-shirts so old that they surprised you every time they made it through a washing cycle can now be purchased at The Gap. Worst of all, however, are the distressed pieces of furniture with paint peeling off that sit in the windows of The Pottery Barn and hide their ugliness behind terms like “shabby chic.”

Any way you look at it, the mainstream has once again robbed the unique and original of their style. Whichever end of the spectrum one is on, they will continue to help the cycle evolve, through supply and demand. The mainstream will spend their money to obtain the desired look, and the alternative side will as well – just for considerably less.