Christian Audigier's Tees make me cry at Night
Since the sixties, mainstream casual fashion has taken cues from subcultures...some ten to twenty years after
they first popped-up. (It all started with the anti-fashion jeans and tees of the fifties.)
It's nothing new. Well over the last 30 years, clothiers have turned the equation around; appropriating counter-culture fashion icons and selling them back to customers at inflated prices. (This dates back all the way to Vivienne Westwood's SEX store.) There is the fantasy that the consumer can purchase a lifestyle, and therefore gain entrance into the desirable mythos of a subculture through symbolism...without the daily consequences. For $75 kids in the suburbs can buy all the perceived toughness, danger, and sex they want. When they get changed after a day of flaunting their extravagant tee, they're not just taking off the shirt. They're removing the entire culture and persona they think they've purchased...and trading it in for a popped-collar.
What's the difference between a corner tattoo shop's tee and Christian Augdier's tee besides the heavy price? Ed Hardy is a legitimate and talented tattoo artist after all. The difference is that the consumer has to actually visit
the corner tattoo shop to pick up one of their tees. Christian's tees can be purchased in the suburban anonymity and comfort of any mall, or online.
I'd like to think that a tattoo shop is more than just the Flash and artists' books on the walls. There's a trust and respect for the artist. There's the organic community life and friendships that grow around and through the shop. It's not surprising that early tattoo shops were also barber shops-often an epicenter of urban communities.
Audigier offers suburbanites the opportunity to purchase the idea of this community without the permanence or consequence of actually getting a tattoo...or even saying hello.
they first popped-up. (It all started with the anti-fashion jeans and tees of the fifties.)
It's nothing new. Well over the last 30 years, clothiers have turned the equation around; appropriating counter-culture fashion icons and selling them back to customers at inflated prices. (This dates back all the way to Vivienne Westwood's SEX store.) There is the fantasy that the consumer can purchase a lifestyle, and therefore gain entrance into the desirable mythos of a subculture through symbolism...without the daily consequences. For $75 kids in the suburbs can buy all the perceived toughness, danger, and sex they want. When they get changed after a day of flaunting their extravagant tee, they're not just taking off the shirt. They're removing the entire culture and persona they think they've purchased...and trading it in for a popped-collar.
What's the difference between a corner tattoo shop's tee and Christian Augdier's tee besides the heavy price? Ed Hardy is a legitimate and talented tattoo artist after all. The difference is that the consumer has to actually visit
the corner tattoo shop to pick up one of their tees. Christian's tees can be purchased in the suburban anonymity and comfort of any mall, or online.
I'd like to think that a tattoo shop is more than just the Flash and artists' books on the walls. There's a trust and respect for the artist. There's the organic community life and friendships that grow around and through the shop. It's not surprising that early tattoo shops were also barber shops-often an epicenter of urban communities.
Audigier offers suburbanites the opportunity to purchase the idea of this community without the permanence or consequence of actually getting a tattoo...or even saying hello.