The What Are You Wearing Today (WAYWT) Discussion Thread, Part II

[nahneun]

There are a lot of homophones in Asia because of how the languages are constructed.

The number 4 is considered unlucky because it's a homophone for death.

The number 9 is also considered unlucky because it sounds very similar to suffering.

The number 8 is also considered auspicious because of its symmetry, both as an Arabic numeral and as a Chinese character.

THE MORE YOU KNOW~~~

 

[DLester]



I thought this was timely to note here. A few things that dropped today at Union. Two different brands, one of which is a US brand from California.

My impressions:

First one looks like surfer culture to me. locals only = get off my beach

Spoiler: Warning: Spoiler!

Looks like lucky number 88

Spoiler: Warning: Spoiler!

Ironic redneck? Would be offensive if paired with confederate ball cap

Spoiler: Warning: Spoiler!

More lucky 88

Spoiler: Warning: Spoiler!

Johnny Depp-type pirate symbol

Spoiler: Warning: Spoiler!

 

[psydle]

There are a lot of homophones in Asia because of how the languages are constructed.

The number 4 is considered unlucky because it's a homophone for death.

The number 9 is also considered unlucky because it sounds very similar to suffering.

The number 8 is also considered auspicious because of its symmetry, both as an Arabic numeral and as a Chinese character.

THE MORE YOU KNOW~~~

oh great, racist AND homophonic

 

[nahneun]



oh great, racist AND homophonic  

that's how i roll, baby. born hater. :foo:

 

[Bam!ChairDance]

Death + Death = Luck

A new line of logo t-shirts and hoodies for today's casual male. Be sure to keep an eye out for the launch of our Official Spam Thread. It'll be so great.

 

[cyc wid it]

Trying something on. Schneider (I avoided SS abbreviation)/ Uniqlo/ JE/ CP.

 

[Baron]



My impressions:

First one looks like surfer culture to me. locals only = get off my beach

Yeah, but with the same neo nazi imagery. As a guy that grew up in a socal beach town in the 80's, that surfer culture was pretty toxic back then. Super homophobic, kinda racist, violent toward outsiders. There was a big skinhead punk scene in socal at that time too. Not cool, not worth glorifying, especially in the context of the rest of that collection. To try and say it's about chinese lucky numbers with all the preponderance of other evidence is just silly. It's a stupid, ugly collection, it's an embarrassment to the stores carrying it.

 

[dieworkwear]



Yeah, but with the same neo nazi imagery. As a guy that grew up in a socal beach town in the 80's, that surfer culture was pretty toxic back then. Super homophobic, kinda racist, violent toward outsiders. There was a big skinhead punk scene in socal at that time too. Not cool, not worth glorifying, especially in the context of the rest of that collection. To try and say it's about chinese lucky numbers with all the preponderance of other evidence is just silly. It's a stupid, ugly collection, it's an embarrassment to the stores carrying it.

I think we grew up in the same town (Laguna Beach?). I was in a car chase with the OC Skins once cause I insulted one of their members. They guys who chased me weren't surfers, but they hung with that crowd. A lot of those guys had 14/ 88 tattoos to represent David Lane and Heil Hitler.

 

[jet]

Thought we were talking about huntington.

 

[in stitches]

Before now I never had heard of any this nazi/white power 14/88 business. Weird stuff. I strongly believe that swaztikas, the ss sig runes, and the like, have no place anywhere, but to ostracize the use of certain numbers because some white supremacist pulled some catch phrase out of his ass using them is a bit much for me.

88 is a cool number, and it looks cool. If the designers purpose was to hint at or pay homage to the Lane phrase, thats one thing, but if its just there to look cool, I dont see an issue. Granted, based on what has been presented, the context of this particular clothing line does seem to be pretty intentionally referencing these things, in which case I agree with Baron 100%, but in cases where thats not true, I cant buy into banishing these numbers from clothing without exception.

 

[nahneun]

stitchy, where have you been lately?

 

[conceptual 4est]

I want to preface with saying I think the use of propagation of imagery with hateful connotations is unnecessary and inexcusable, not to mention crass. When it comes to clothing, at least you can easily speak with your dollars as well as our words in the context of something like this discussion that has been going on.

That said, I think there is a very important thing being overlooked, and it's a specific type of ignorance that most of us are, well, ignorant to, as meta as that sounds.

This interview quote posted earlier by VitaTimH brings it up very well:

Quote:

These Japanese designers don't share the same ideas on subversion or ironic repurposing that we or Western designers do. When they repurpose symbols or themes like what we're talking about, it's literally (yes, literally) because they think it looks cool, and nothing more than that. You can see that being admitted in the above quote. They see something cool, and design garments around it only because they thought it would make cool looking clothes. It's how we end up with stuff like the other items being discussed - a Japanese designers sees a series of some pictures of some skinheads mingling with surf punks, and while completely ignoring the societal significance of this, adopts symbols and ideas from it into their own designs, thinking nothing more than "the things I saw in these photos from America look cute and cool."

I'm not trying to excuse this type of design, as I mentioned I won't support it and encourage others not to, but I want to make sure people see more of the full picture on how this happens, specifically with Japanese designers.

When MMM, or Raf Simons, or whoever, subvert fashion trends, design tropes, cultural signifiers, etc., something that is much easier for us to digest, it's a completely different, and specifically Western, type of design than what we're seeing here.



A more innocent, personal examples that might illuminate this is the Monitaly "5-zip" varsity. I've called this an Americana bastardization of Margiela's iconic 5-zip leather before, but that isn't entirely true. Yuki Matsuda wasn't trying to subvert Margiela's high-fashion design and make his own exaggerated Americana version of it, he just thought the diagonal zippers looked cool and wanted to incorporate them in his own design. It was just my choice to interpret it and wear it as such.

Another example might be my F/W 2010 White Mountaineering boots. These came out at peak Moc Toe Boots With White Christy Sole On Every Moderately Trendy Guy time, and once again, they're an exaggerated, clownish version of that cliche, which is why I latched onto them. I was sick of seeing every guy walk around NYC in endless permutations of the same red-wing style boot, so I was eager to embrace these abominations as a sort of ironic personal revolt against them. Once again, despite my interpretation and adoption, this was not the designers intention, and you can be sure that they just took what was a very popular style of footwear at the time and did their own twist on it, that I'm sure they just thought was cute and not in any way subversive.


I'm not disagreeing with conclusions drawn by other posters above me about the unacceptability of these designs, I just want to give a reminder that certain values regarding subversion, appropriation and irony don't translate 1:1 across oceans or cultures. It's still foolish and in bad taste to stock, buy, or wear these sort of designs, though.

 

[druid420]

Great post but -1 for unironically using appropriation, and -1 for attempting to limit art based on ambiguous interpretations of what is and isn't 'acceptable'

There are American clothing lines that use the n word on them, but that's nothing compared to the number 88, right? Idiots

 

[Para]

Alright, enough of this appropriation crap. Let's get back to pictures of clothes!!!



This is a redux of a recent outfit. Took the advice of @spacepope with the buttons and I think it looks good. Got some new stuff coming in so I promise I won't be so repetitive.

CCP/In Aisce/BBS/CCP

 

[nicelynice]

Got really cold lately

Bergfabel
SNS herning
Abasi + Rosborough
Guidi