Chain Caters to Youths’ Alternative Fashion Sense

It’s a slow weekday morning at the Northridge Fashion Center, even at Hot Topic, the store that scares your parents. This is the place to go for Goth-style clothing and other items that make mothers shake their heads and fathers reach for the Maalox.

The spirit of the place is summed up nicely by one of its T-shirts--black, needless to say--bearing the message: “I dress this way to bother you.”

In short, most of the people who pine for a Marilyn Manson T-shirt or a “Barbie is a slut” bumper sticker are sitting in classrooms, not cruising the mall.

A young woman dressed entirely in black and wearing bruise-colored lipstick looks at a studded collar, but decides not to buy it and moves on to the next store.

When approached by a reporter, the much-pierced young woman behind the counter at the Northridge store explains, very politely, that the staff cannot give interviews or allow the shop to be photographed.

I suspect the chain is going through a rough patch now, since the school slayings in Littleton, Colo., have stigmatized all things Goth and prompted nervous school officials to send kids home to change out of their vampire chic.

Sharon Liveten, in the chain’s public relations department in Pomona, admits she was wary when I called to ask a few questions about the alternative retailer. She thinks the company’s merchandise is cool and not the least bit dangerous.

“Nutty, freaked-out horrible people are nutty, freaked-out horrible people,” Liveten observes. “It’s tragic, but it doesn’t have anything to do with what they’re wearing.”

Liveten, who lives in North Hollywood, explains that the first Hot Topic opened in 1987 in Montclair, east of Pomona. The chain now has 10 stores in Southern California, including Thousand Oaks, Palmdale and Valencia.

The chain has stayed out of areas such as Melrose, where similar merchandise can be found. Instead, it has expanded into areas where its stock is distinctive.

“We have three stores in Texas,” Liveten says. If you’re a hip kid in Midland, Texas, it’s hard to get this stuff.

Hot Topic also has an Internet store.

“Everything is music-influenced,” she says of the firm’s merchandise, which is pitched to fans of Korn and other neo-metal bands that make Tipper Gore nervous.

It’s not all Goth or punk, Liveten points out. Some of the items feature popular cartoon characters that border on the treacly. You can get Strawberry Shortcake-themed items, for instance, if you are so inclined.

“Somebody find something wrong with Strawberry Shortcake or Grumpy Bear,” she challenges with a laugh.

Clearly, fans of Anne Rice can find lots to choose from at Hot Topic. There’s a long black skirt covered with red spiders and webs. Or there are red vinyl pants and “Boys Lie” T-shirts.

One woman clearly isn’t here shopping for herself. Marilee Mellon is not unduly pierced nor is she dressed in anything too funereal. The Northridge woman has come to buy her 13-year-old daughter a Marilyn Manson T-shirt, she admits a little sheepishly.

Daughter Mary-Catherine is a Manson fan, but she also likes Elvis Presley. A Catholic school student, Mary-Catherine is wonderful, according to her mother.

“She gets great grades, she keeps her room clean,” Mellon says.

She hopes Mary-Catherine won’t dress all in black for the upcoming open house at her brother’s school, but Mellon knows “she’s not off the deep end.”

Mellon knows that forbidding Mary-Catherine from shopping in her favorite store would only make it more attractive. So Mellon keeps an eye on what her daughter buys (nothing that slutty Barbie would choose), but allows her to exercise her own fashion sense.

A painter, Mellon remembers when she chose things to wear that would have unsettled her mother. As a student in Paris, she once wore an antique slip with a pair of jeans. It was an eye-catching look that eventually showed up in the French fashion magazines.

With that in mind, Mellon indulges Mary-Catherine’s taste for Hot Topic merchandise, within reason.

“I bought her black-and-white striped tights,” she says, “but I’m not going to buy her ones with skulls on them.”