Fashion gone awry (or "THAT'S RACIST")- a serious post.

Okay. So I thought it was pretty lame when American Apparel started carrying real live vintage items in their stores. I already have enough frustration in my life for the overpriced "thrift" stores that snatch up the best bets from the Salvation Armies and Goodwills of the world and resell them for more than it would cost to buy the brand new equivalent. I am all for nostalgia, but I am not going to pay more than I would for a new shirt for one that smells like my dead grandmother's closet. I also just think it is lazy design to literally repackage old stuff as your own. All I ever do as an artist/designer is steal from other people, but at least I have the courtesy to filter it through my own lens and make something new.

When I walked into the Scoop Men location in the meatpacking district (430 W. 14th St., New York, NY 10014) yesterday, I saw the sort of retro hipster stuff I have come to expect as the norm for NYC fashion. But Scoop Men is also selling used leather belts with new lacquered belt buckles featuring album covers and logos of 70's greats. I have been fixating on Out Of The Blue lately, so it caught my eye from a mile away and I had to investigate. At first I just thought it was a crime that Scoop was using the novelty of "vintage" to sell a shitty old belt for $300 to some dweeb who would probably only be able to name "Mr. Blue Sky" out of the ELO catalog and only under duress. And then I took a closer look at the belt itself:






Seriously, Scoop? Did no one in the process of this belt making it into the store kind of notice the Confederate flags all over it? This is New York, not Alabama, and I would have hoped that someone would have thought this was maybe a faux pas. I figured the odds of such an obscenely priced FAIL being sold were slim, so I came back today with a camera to document the disaster. Amirite?