Occupy Wall Street and its detritus may have left our city squares but our cultural propagandists are doing their best to resurrect their imprint.
Mercedes-Benz Fashion week , a twice-yearly event showcasing new fashions for the upcoming seasons, presented the latest collection from a series of new designers who are taking the helm of the eponymous Marc by Marc Jacobs fashion line. The two new designers brought on to invigorate the line have a unique vision for us women in their Fall ready-to-wear collection.
Making headlines yesterday, their February 11 fashion show had the New York Times writing that it showcased “a new feistiness” and Style.com that it was “sensational” and “fiercely Ninja-pop militant.”
What did it feature? Women’s faces covered with black bana, Cold-War-esque uniforms, and “Revolution” bumper stickers affixed to our pants:
Edward Bernays’s 1928 classic Propaganda sums up what is less than subtle already:
In some departments of our daily life, in which we imagine ourselves free agents, we are ruled by dictators exercising great power. A man buying a suit of clothes imagines that he is choosing, according to his taste and his personality, the kind of garment which he prefers. In reality, he may be obeying the orders of an anonymous gentleman tailor in London….the fashionable men in New York, Chicago, Boston, and Philadelphia wear them. And the Topeka man, recognizing this leadership, does the same.
The elements showcased in the Marc by Marc Jacobs are more than style choices, they’re symbols of the values his line embraces–and would have us take on. Judging by the breathless excitement the dark, militaristic, angry show evoked from the New York Times and other style columnists, they’re ready to jump on board.
As someone who spent quite a bit of time amongst truly black-bandana-wearing anarchists, running through Chicago’s streets kicking over trash cans and trying to inspire fear among the regular citizens in the poverty-riddled neighborhoods they marched through, forgive me for not embracing Marc Jacobs’s vision. Remember this?
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