Pop culture treasure, high culture trash.

Sunday, October 21, 2007

Retail oddity

For shame, Target! If you're going to encourage the youth of America to emulate David Bowie, mustn't you hawk wigs and frocks and codpieces and no-budge Crimson Obsession liquid eyeliner alongside fedoras and skinny ties? (For the record, P-Fork said it first). Or at least include a helpful male cosmetics sidebar sponsored by L'Oreal? The narcissism and commercialism are well aligned, certainly, but there's more to the man than the trench coat from The Man Who Fell to Earth and the hoodie from the cover of Low (itself a still from TMWFtE). And when did Bowie wear a parka vest? Show me Bowie wearing a parka vest and I'll show you Lawrence Welk in a dashiki.

What we're dealing with here isn't so much Keanan Duffty inspired by David Bowie as it is Keanan Duffty ripping off the bits of Hedi Slimane that were emulating pretty London hustlers who were inspired by David Bowie. Although speaking of, it was brave of Target to have its web site stream Jean Genie, a song that is clearly about a hustler/Jean Genet/something more than the corporate heterosexuality tacitly endorsed by the ghosts of Target lines' past.

2 comments:

Anjanette said...

But you still want to wear all of those clothes, right?

Lizzie Pogo said...

And how! I am a big fan of the three piece suit vest. The shrunken Patti Smith vest, though, not the oversized Annie Hall one. I'm thinking 12 year-old boy attending formal tea party in 1885. Vintage Victorian young gentleman's wear is my fashion fantasy of choice.