I think I stopped caring about stylistic sects when I realised they were based on the more general concept that people constantly strive towards an ideal of themselves in life (basically a projection of who/what they could potentially be). And since teenagers are quite impressionable, cliquey and relatively free from commitments, their ideals tend to take on more aesthetic values influenced by other people. Stylistic sects are the teenage form of ideals.
I've come to think that the extent to which a person strives towards these ideals is more telling about the person than the ideals themselves; i.e. superficially, a bling adorned rap fanatic turning into a leather and spikes metalhead is a drastic change/evolution. However, underneath, the zebra stripes probably are still the same - different ideals, same attitude/commitment towards the ideals. Ask most people what they think of their past selves and there's a good chance they'll be critical with a response like "I was an idiot back then"... and quite often the reason is that their ideals have changed drastically since then. Less often, the reason is that they realise they've been pigeonholing themselves by even attaching themselves so diligently to these ideals in the first place.
Sorry if I'm babbling... I've been awake for far too long
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