Anchorage, Alaska's largest city, has been accused of being the worst dressed city in the nation, but it's also been named among the hippest. The two concepts seem at odds, but on occasion they're one in the same.
Take, for example, the suspender, an accessory that used to be associated with nerds like TV's Steven Urkel, but is now a legitimate fashion statement. According to the Tucson Citizen, the suspender's biggest fans may very well reside in Anchorage.
Suspender businessman Sal Herman, an Israeli immigrant now living in the states, created his first Internet based store in 1997. By 1998, Herman's store moved into the wholesale business, and by this year Herman's Hold-Up Suspenders Co. was supplying suspenders to 2,400 stores nationwide. The Tucson Citizen writes:
Stallone's, a men's store in Anchorage, Alaska ... according to Herman's records, sells more suspenders than most of the hardware, sporting goods and clothing stores stocking them.
Mindy Gustin, a sales associate at Stallone's Anchorage store, told the Citizen she sells a pair a day, adding:
I think a lot of it has to do with our utilitarian perspective, living in Alaska. We are not a fashion forward kind of state. Most of our guys wear flannels and jeans.
Strangely enough, flannels and jeans are now fashion forward, just ask Portland.
Read more about Herman's Hold-Up Suspenders Co. and about fashion in Alaska.