MURKETING

Your stereotype is ready

Ever wonder how other people see you? What quick shorthand mental category they put you into? Here’s how the server at Jerry’s on Division in Chicago, IL, apparently summed up one customer yesterday, on what I assume was the order ticket for the kitchen, which ended up being given to the customer with his check. That’s my guess anyway. I mean, was the customer actually supposed to see that he’d been reduced to “hippie guy”? I kind of doubt it. (Though hippie guy was chagrined to learn that he was evidently not projecting as contemporary an image as he’d thought, he was also amused, and didn’t let the incident affect his tip.)

Coincidentally, I’m in Chicago for the next day or two and as they say, “posting will be light.”

Bring me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses … because their outfits are totally on-trend!

E pointed out to me this magazine ad. This project seems to come from Arrow, the apparel brand, and involves “saving” Ellis Island. Here’s the related Web site.

I don’t know what the threats are to Ellis Island, but saving it sounds like a good idea. What’s a little surprising about this ad is that line at the top of it: “Where the world came together and American style began.”

Yeah? Is that what we’re supposed to think of when we think of why Ellis Island should be “saved”? Its role in the history of American style? What’s that even supposed to mean? And isn’t Ellis Island kind of where the world came together and was instructed to assimilate ASAP? Maybe that’s why everybody in the ad is sporting the same blandly WASP aesthetic. Anyway, the United States certainly benefited from the generations of immigrants it attracted, but I kind of think the contributions weren’t really so much about style.

Blame Gwyneth

Anya Hindmarch, designer of the cotton tote with the words “I am not a plastic bag” printed on it, which has inspired some consumers to stand in line and in a few cases knock each other down to acquire it, is sticking with her story that if the fabulous people in her customer base blare their eco-concern, the rest of us will fall in line. “There was a time when what was cool was drinking coffee and smoking cigarettes,” she tells Time Magazine. “Now it’s all healthy living, and I think fashion had a part in that–people seeing photos of models and celebrities–Gwyneth Paltrow walking around carrying yoga mats and bottled water.”

Bottled water? Wait a minute. I thought that the taste-maker set was against bottled water these days, having figured out that, among other things, discarded water bottles clog up landfills and take ages to degrade. (Just like plastic bags!) In San Francisco, ground zero of anti-plastic government efforts, the mayor has moved from banning plastic bags to barring the use of city funds to buy water in plastic bottles. And according to something I read, some restaurants there no longer sell bottled water, etc. Various articles in the press — such as this much-linked Fast Company piece — have railed against the foolishness of plastic water bottles. And so on.

Despite this, bottled water sales are robust, and now I know why. Because of Gwyneth Paltrow! Those of us down in here in, you know, the herd, we’re looking for signals from her, and last time we saw her she was loaded down with all those yoga mats and — I remember now — bottled water! She looked great, too. That’s when I gave up coffee and cigarettes and decided to get healthy. I bet you did, too.

Anyway, I guess the problem is that there’s nobody like Anya Hindmarch making really fashionable alternatives to bottled water. The Time piece mentions that Stella McCartney has a $495 cotton shopping bag on offer, and LV has one for a little over $1,700.

But who is making the high-end Nalgene alternative that celebrities can brandish? Apparently nobody.

One of these trend-leading designers needs to get it together and offer reusable water bottle that’s made of, say, platinum, and get it into some award-show goodie bags ASAP. To make sure the rest of us get the message, make sure it says, “I Am Not a Plastic Water Bottle,” on the side. Preferably in diamonds.

Related (and possibly useful, as opposed to a mere rant like the above) links:

1. Greener Penny overview of reusable plastic bottles.

2. Craftzine.com post on things to do with plastic bags.

[Time story via Agenda Inc.]

No-time watch time

So, this is sort of what I had in mind when I suggested that the time has come for watches that don’t tell time. This is not a bracelet. It’s clearly a watch. Or rather, it is something that uses the watch form, to be a not-watch.

I’m personally not drawn to the gimmick of the giant word “NOW,” which strikes me as ham-handed design at best. Really, how many times could you wear this $50 item? It’s more of a gag than idea. (I’m also not a fan of these Hercules-style watchband that certain phad-leaders seem to favor these days, but that’s another story.) Even something like “TOO LATE” would have been funnier — or more my taste, anyway.

Still, it’s a start, and it’s making use of the watch face for a graphic idea, not the old and mundane business of hours, minutes and seconds, which none of us have time for anymore. That’s what I’ll say in favor of this item: It’s very now.

Liz Claiborne

I was surprised to see the obituary for Liz Claiborne this morning. The piece says that the company that bears her name (which she basically hasn’t been involved in for more than 15 years) is not doing particularly well right now. Nevertheless, one way of measuring cultural significance is whether or not a given figure becomes the basis of notorious (false) rumor, and Claiborne is central to a particularly famous one.

Anyway, the obit doesn’t mention that, but does have the more practical facts about her actual impact:

Ms. Claiborne correctly anticipated a market for affordable business-like clothes that women could wear to compete with men in professional workplaces. In her no-nonsense way, she became a role model — and her label an inspiration — to those who were looking to break through glass ceilings, as she had done.

As a designer, Ms. Claiborne did not care to be considered a trendsetter. She placed practical concerns over the glamour of the catwalks and the prestige of designer prices. Her arrival as a fashion brand was well timed, catching the beginning of a great change in American society as women headed to the workplace in large numbers.

She created a new foundation for a modern working woman’s wardrobe, which had begun, she once acknowledged irritably, as the bland reinterpretation for women of a man’s navy blue suit and tie. Blouses that closed with frilly bows did not appeal to Ms. Claiborne. Her creative expressions were made of colorful tailored separates that could be mixed with other pieces to create many outfits.

As women made headway in corporate America, Ms. Claiborne expanded with office-friendly sportswear that conveyed a potent blend of intelligence, strength and femininity. It eventually transcended the workplace, becoming a lifestyle brand. One of her first designs was a velour peasant blouse; she sold 15,000 pieces in one season.

It’s hard out there for a primper

Robin Givhan of the Washington Post addresses the standout items in the recently disclosed expenses of John Edwards’ presidential campaign:

They are the ones incurred at Designworks Salon in Dubuque, Iowa, Torrenueva Hair Designs in Beverly Hills, Calif., and the Pink Sapphire salon and spa in Manchester, N.H.

The campaign paid $800 for two haircuts from the Torrenueva salon. Designworks provided $248 worth of camera-ready makeup. And Pink Sapphire was called on two occasions for Edwards’s makeup needs at $150 and $75 a visit. Together they account for $1,273 worth of professional grooming, from trims to foundation.

Edwards has a bit of an image problem in this area. His campaign is supposed to be all about “the two Americas,” not about him being the “Breck Girl” candidate, or YouTube videos of his pre-interview makeup sessions.

Givhan isn’t terribly sympathetic:

Edwards considers triple-digit grooming expenses a part of campaigning. He listed his salon and spa bills under “consulting/events,” after all. And the truth is that audiences expect politicians to look polished on television. They don’t want to see some washed-out guy with a shiny nose waxing on about his call to public service. And politicians are only human. They want to make the best impression.

But there is a line between grooming and primping. Brushing your teeth is grooming. Giving yourself a big Chiclet smile with veneers is primping. Having an adept barber come around to the hotel to give a busy candidate a trim is grooming. Getting the owner of an expensive Beverly Hills salon to come over, knowing full well that the cost is going to be 10 times what the average Joe is likely to pay for a haircut . . . that’s a Breck girl move.

“Turban pride”

As someone who has some experience with disapproving parental views regarding haircuts, I was interested in today’s NYT article about young Sikhs annoying their elders — by getting their hair cut.

Sikh spiritual leaders express dismay at the rapidity with which a new generation of young men are trimming their hair and abandoning the turban, the most conspicuous emblem of the Sikh faith….

Since 1699, about two centuries after the founding of the religion, Sikh leaders have prohibited their members from cutting their hair, saying long hair is a symbol of Sikh pride. The turban was conceived to manage the long hair and intended to make Sikhs easily identifiable in a crowd.

Apparently the problem isn’t so much a decline in faith as increased exposure to “Westernization,” via media images, etc. “It was a question of fashion,” one young man who has had his hair cut and ditched his turban tells the Times. “I felt smarter without it.”

While that’s somewhat interesting — the “feeling smarter” part, I mean — what’s even better is the countering, “turban pride” movement, which seems to be fighting fashion with fashion:

Standing before full-length mirrors, an instructor shows teenage boys in baggy jeans and sports shoes how to twist the cloth into neatly layered folds on one side and smooth the pleats into sharp lines with a hooked silver pin, which is then concealed beneath the hair at the back.

A “Smart Turban 1.0” CD-ROM offers step-by-step instructions to create fashionable looks and guides new turban wearers on how to choose the most flattering style according to face shape.

To promote the turban as a fashion item, Sikh leaders have also started holding Mr. Singh International pageants. Contestants are judged by looks, moral character, personality, knowledge of Sikh history and principles, and turban tying skills. The sixth World Turban Day will be celebrated on April 13 with a march through Amritsar by thousands of turban-wearing Sikhs.

A book about “Streetwear”

The title is, in fact: Streetwear.

I don’t know anything about it beyond what’s here, at the author’s site. Could be interesting.

On a possibly related note, We Make Money Not Art has an interview with “a PhD-candidate in critical fashion design,” partly about a project that “engages with social and subversive fashion design. [The project] takes a critical and political look on design and in particular on the fashion system and its networks. By organizing workshops and distributing booklets, the project tries to demonstrate in a very approachable way how to critically hack and re-form the operating system of modernity and the industrial modes of production.

I don’t really know what any of that means. But, again, could be interesting.

Earth Cover

In Consumed: Bare Escentuals: How a cosmetics company replaced romance with the glow of rationality.

For a glimpse of what cosmetics marketing used to look like, flip through the recent book “Hello Gorgeous!” a collection of beauty-product advertising images from the 1940s, 50s, and 60s. “Glamour for You!” squeals one such ad for something called Stadium Girl Cake Makeup, featuring an apple-cheeked young woman and a promise to make the user’s complexion “more romantic than ever.” Elsewhere, a presumably satisfied cosmetics customer in a bridal gown is literally hauled off by a handsome man.

Whether you see such images as being shot through with optimism or just naïvete, it seems a long way from the sort of pitch used by Bare Escentuals, a cosmetics brand whose revenues for 2006 topped $300 million — more than double the figure from 2004.

Continue reading at the NYT Magazine site via this no-registration-required link.

Prada ideas

In the WSJ today, there’s an interview with Miuccia Prada, on the subject of why so many women are “squeamish about fashion.” Prada claims that at one time she thought fashion was “stupid” but eventually changed her mind.

Ms. Prada has come to terms with her profession only of late. “I’ve recently re-evaluated my job,” she said. “I’ve realized that fashion is a very powerful instrument that…allows you to transmit ideas and shape opinion.” ….

Ms. Prada doesn’t have a signature style, like Tom Ford’s dripping-in-sex-appeal look or Valentino Garavani’s Oscar-night elegance. But her attitude is clear: I think therefore I wear.

That’s why she scoffs at those who fall victim to logos instead of developing their own styles. “Buying a $5,000 handbag just because it’s a status symbol is a sign of weakness,” Ms. Prada said. “Daring to wear something different takes effort. And being elegant isn’t easy. You have to study it, like cuisine, music and art.”

Well, a couple of things. I’ve read this point before, that fashion can “transmit ideas.” I wish the interviewer would have asked what seems like the obvious follow-up question: Like what?

At one point there’s some discussion of ideas about beauty (“I want to reintroduce the concept of beauty — a new sense of beauty”), which is fine, but is that it?

I’m prepared to accept that beauty is a reasonable thing about which to have ideas. But the implication that there’s some kind of intellectual bravery in this, and that somehow beauty is a concept that society just doesn’t think about enough, strikes me as absurd. But I guess the whole premise of the interview strikes me as absurd. I don’t see a big crisis out there in fashion being underrated, and not being focused on enough. As you go through your day today, see if anything makes you think, “Wow, this society is just way too focused on science, economic policy, and civic engagement. People really should spend more time thinking about fashion.” See how often it strikes you that fashion is really underrated.
To be clear, I’m not attacking anybody for thinking about fashion. What I’m questioning is whether, say, Prada fans are some kind of embattled underdogs who need defending.

Finally, I’m amused by Prada’s comment that: “Buying a $5,000 handbag just because it’s a status symbol is a sign of weakness.” Keep that in mind next time you’re spending $5,000 on a Prada handbag (or perhaps buying a brand-new Prada phone). Make sure you’re not doing it because you’re a brand weakling. Make sure you’re doing it because of how hard you’re thinking.

Achival Consumed: Street Couture

The relationship between high fashion and street wear goes back a long way. In a recent book called “The Essence of Style,” by Joan DeJean, there is an anecdote from the spring of 1677, when “an inexpensive gray serge cloth” worn by Parisian shopgirls was adapted by “ladies of the court” who liked the fabric’s look and incorporated it into their elegant wardrobes. This is how it has seemed to work ever since — right up through the archetypal example of the “grunge” style associated with the Seattle music scene appearing on the runways, courtesy of the designer Marc Jacobs (then working for Perry Ellis) in the early 1990’s. In other words, the streets are raided for ideas and inspiration that get reworked in a couture context — “the aura of wealth and luxury,” as DeJean wrote of the 17th-century version of the high-low mash-up.

All of this implies tension between street populism and couture exclusivity. But in the last few years, as some sneaker shops have come to resemble highfalutin art galleries, it has been a little less clear who is borrowing what from whom. Consider, for example, Supreme. Read more