article:
The Rebel Sell - Joseph Heath and Andrew Potter I had to read this article for my english class and it's pretty interesting. It talks about American consumerism, how we're all SO tired of it but we still add and add to the problem. It mentions that, in the 1990s,
Anti-consumerism has become one of the most important cultural forces in millennial North American life, across every social class and demographic... [But look at] the non-fiction bestseller lists. For years they’ve been dominated by books that are deeply critical of consumerism: No Logo, Culture Jam, Luxury Fever and Fast Food Nation.
It uses examples from Fight Club and American Beauty. I didn't read all of it before class, so when my teacher asked "Who here doesn't care about brands?" and I was the only one who put up my hand, I knew something was wrong. He went into discussing a part of the article that says:
Of course, most sophisticated people claim that they don’t care about brands—a transparent falsehood. Most people who consider themselves “anti-consumerist” are extremely brand-conscious. They are able to fool themselves into believing that they don’t care because their preferences are primarily negative. They would never be caught dead driving a Chrysler or listening to Celine Dion.
And immediately I knew he was right. Not that I consider myself 'sophisticated' by any means but I
know about brands, ones that are "good" and ones that are "bad," which are subjective to how I see them and the people around me impact that too. I know which are typical American designers and how to pronounce the European ones so I don't accidentally make a fool of myself.. I have a fixation on Betsey Johnson clothes and think they're some of the best, most eclectic things I've ever seen, besides couture things that aren't made to be worn in real life. Especially in vintage or second-hand store situations, I know what labels shouldn't be there and don't qualify as vintage. I know what 'kind' of people wear Ed Hardy and my friends and I joke about never being caught in such ugly things.
But it's interesting that this week that I've been learning and thinking about this, I also got a new assignment for my 2D design class loosely based on the history of Don Ed Hardy. I'll be honest- I never knew it was a real guy. What do you expect in a world where Ruehl 925, a Abercrombie sister store, makes up a story about the store's name stemming from a fictional German family living in Greenwich Village, NY? Anyway, we watched a video on the history of this SoCal guy that included drawings he did as a child, pen tattoos on he did on neighborhood kids, that he turned down a full art scholarship to yale (yeah, YALE), how he became famous for bringing Japanese tattoo ideas to America (at a time only sailors and I guess hookers were getting them) such as full back art, and he's now retired from tattoo art to focus on fine art and in 2000 completed a FIVE HUNDRED foot long painting called
2000 Dragons. Needless to say I was impressed by this guy and it changed my impression of the brand, the label Ed Hardy. So what if a certain KIND of people wear his clothes and maybe don't know who he is either. They don't reflect the artist behind it.
Basically, this week I've been thinking about 'labels,' may it be on clothing or people. They're useful for identifying things but they don't define them.
If you want to watch the video on Don Ed Hardy, who's a pretty cool guy, here's the one I saw:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K9gGbJ9J-cA
