Re: from the news (fwd)

Kathleen Rout (rout@pilot.msu.edu)
Thu, 25 Apr 1996 08:09:26 -0400

Renny's example reminds me of all the sorority girls that wore painter pants
in the 80's and couldn't figure out what the little loops were for! I guess
it's no worse than deliberately ripped blue jeans, in spirit. It's all in bad
taste. Thereis a greater insensitivity to the Vietnam cashmere, though. How
about the people raising money for the grape strikers at benefits where they
drank champagne made by underpaid Europeans?

> > > >From today's San Francisco
Chronicle:
> "British designer Alexander McQueen showed sweaters emblazoned with
> photographic images of the Vietnam War at recent Fashion Week festivities
> in Manhattan. 'It gives a hard edge to the cashmere,' the designer told
> New York magazine."
>
> This strikes me as a spectacular example of the commercialization of images
> of the war. John Baky has a great collection ways in which images of the
> war are used to market items like hunting knives, clocks, and so forth, but
> this moves images of the war into high fashion. The irony of a war fought
> largely by working class Americans against Vietnamese peasants being used
> by a haute couture designer is pretty great.
>
> Renny Christopher
> rchristo@toto.csustan.edu
>
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