Fashion moguls are taking their inspiration these days from the bike messenger whose baggy cut-offs, T-shirts and scraggly hair now adorn the billboards and kiosks of trendy shopping neighborhoods. Bikers themselves aren't too thrilled about having their styles go upscale. PNS commentator A. Clay Thompson, a one-time messenger, writes for YO! Youth Outlook, a publication by and about young people published by Pacific News Service.

The guy on the billboard looks like me: twentysomething; clad in baggy cut-offs, a T-shirt and tennies; scraggly hair hanging in his face. But he's not me. I'm a former bike messenger who has held onto the look but is trying to avoid the profession, due it its life-endangering aspects. He's a fashion model in a Calvin Klein ad, projecting a studied hip indifference while marketing upscale versions of my clothes that I couldn't possibly afford.

Maybe Calvin and his peers in the fashion industry have noticed that a large percentage of young people today have jobs, not careers, and are looking for comfy, utilitarian togs for our pursuit of service sector Nirvana. Or maybe the fashion industry is just moving on to the next slack thing, now that grunge is dead and flannel has been reclaimed by its traditional champions in agriculture and trucking.

But marketing thrift-store clothes as high priced high fashion is something of a paradox. Young folks who aren't proceeding directly to the boardroom don inexpensive apparel out of necessity rather than trendiness. Fifteen bucks for a white T-shirt that'll probably be stained with bike grease and spilled coffee within an hour? Calvin's gotta be kidding. Fifteen dollars is two or three hours work for the average bicycle delivery specialist or espresso jockey.

Bike messengers wear loose shorts because we need them to fit over those spandex biker pants (simply wearing those skimpy shorts is not cool -- I mean those things are revealing!). Furthermore, urban road warriors require semi-disposable clothing. When you've got a hot date with the pavement due to someone's unskilled motoring, you don't want to worry about ruining an $80 pair of shorts.

Has hipness improved the courier's lot? "It's the same," says Robert Fitzgerald, a rider for Western Messenger. "Some people like you; some people hate you." Many of the same professionals who are probably Calvin Klein's target market, notes eight-year veteran messenger Wiggy, "treat you like a thief who just happens to be coming into the building with a package."

Even the bike messenger's trademark -- the single strap shoulder bag used to haul documents through hordes of stressed-out motorists and oblivious pedestrians -- is no longer the symbol it once was. When I entered the bike delivery world several years ago, only messengers and ex-messengers sported Globe Canvas or Zoe bags The bag was a sure-fire way to spot a fellow courier even in a bike-less social situation, and two bike messengers always have plenty to talk about: good runs, bad dispatchers, and the ever-unpopular crazed bus driver. But today, the sturdy, spacious canvas sacks are ubiquitous among twentysomethings, diluting that sense of instant connection spotting a bag used to bring.

While much of the fashion world is dressing down, thrift store prices seem to be skyrocketing. It has become increasingly difficult to find an old-fashioned Goodwill or Purple Heart outlet. Meanwhile, recycled fashion boutiques -- the upscale offspring of the thrift store -- abound. While these used fashion stores have the durable, low-key clothing that appeals to the bike messenger set, they don't have the low prices and funky individuality that drove us to the Salvation Army.

Fashion designers may be capitalizing on the downward mobility and utilitarian attire of young people, but they must know that most of us can't afford to purchase the fashions we've inspired. Certainly the average bike messenger or coffee vendor isn't going to spend half a pay check on one outfit. But if we're not buying, who is? I guess the designers are hoping that teens still living in the comfort of the parental nest, or middle-aged yuppies looking for the fountain of youth, will plunk down big bucks for faux-casual apparel.

But what about those of us who actually need cheap, durable clothes for our day-to-day lives? Will we move on to a new look, now that our styles are going upscale and mainstream?

I don't think so. We'll probably just have to look further afield for reasonably priced work wear (I hear some of the less affluent suburbs still have giant thrift stores with killer deals). I don't see the bike messenger look undergoing a major overhaul any time soon. After all, the style is determined not by the whims of fashion, but by the demands of the road.