Sanctified

There's a great article in today's Tribune (off the NYTimes News Sercvice) by Guy Trebay about the upper end of the fashion market. WIth a number of people revealing that (duh!) price is no longer an issue for them.

The Creative Director for Barneys (!!) even says "I'm shocked there's no price resistance anymore." (Interesting that the gatekeepers don't even necessarily believe).

Now if those folks could just find what they're really interested in: a mature culture; meaning; someone who gives a shit and is ruthlessly committed; a book, movie or album that speaks TO (not down at, not up to) them. Even the journalist brings his tired old class politics to the piece. How 1930 Socialst-Realism. How Adbusters, yo.

YAWN!

We're rich people. This is what's happening. And we're getting richer. I know at least 16 millionaires my own age. A lot more my parent's.

We're also getting more creative. A bunch of these folks made their scrilla off culture. By singing. Or software. (Or they inherited it and are artists).

To ignore it is to asinine. To hide it is bullshit. Especially when we're all doing yoga to find/be ourselves. If your art ain't got money (and probably the color of your ass) up front, then what is it? Reallly? Is it something that shares or tries to hide and be cool? Is it warm or cool? Does it want to be with or alone?

I, for one, am going to make culture for us. For me. I ain't got nothing to hide. I'm not pissing in people's fireplaces like Pollock or screwing their wives like Krishnamurti.

And I"m not going to pretend that I've got some blue-collar roots. (I already grew out that dye-job). Bruce "The Boss" already has that nailed anyway. And if you think that gives me less access to the truth, to god, to being real--well, come spend a day with me. Write a book more revealing than mine. Have more fun than me without drinking booze or coffee. Make a better song than me. Make more money more enjoyably. Do more of what you want more often and interestingly. And I'll pay you to know what's happening.

The one part of the article that rankled me is where he says "For most Americans, the idea of buying a $500 pair of Manolo Blahnik shoes is so far outside the realm of the possible that it is not so much an aspiration as a delusion." That's bullshit. Absolute Bullshit. I own a pair of $500 shoes and I haven't had a job in 8 years. College kids get credit cards as a matter of course. Where does this notion of the richest, most powerful country in the history of the world, with the richest, most powerful citizens in the history of the world, who are all impoverished come from? Any house on our block would sell for at least $600,000. And we're 5 miles from downtown in one city. Who the hell do we think we are? raggety Anne and Andy? I was even surprised at the number of houses shown on the Katrina footage that had been recently remodled. We're like the guy on Oprah the other day, who despite being quite handsome, believed himself horribly ugly and disfigured. (Interestingly, he was a repressed artist: a dancer who didn't dance).

In his own article he describes the daughter of a former hippy who doesn't look at price tags (and seems to be worth a couple hundred million). Her father invented Celestial Seasonings herbal teas. Her husband is the heir to some cable TV fortune.

He also talks to Simmon Doonan, the Barney's CD, who grew up working class in England. If those aren't two people who have gone from probably walking (or on the bus) to driving and flying whatever and wherever they want in one lifetime, then who is? And they both did it in America. We seem to have this perpetual idea of ourselves as poor and helpless. In my town there are scores of Mexican families who don't even speak fluent english but drive $30,000 trucks. If a pair of $500 shoes was a priority to them, they could easily find a way to buy them. I love that. And I'm not going to let my liberal leanings, past, present or future front on that truth.

The irony of course, is that us liberals want to stop sweatshops, unfair working conditions, and provide decent wages perhaps more than anything. But do we spare a dime to do so? We may donate to a non-profit to stop whatever we're against, but buy the shoes that have enough labor and care--enough love--to provide it? Not without ridicule, guilt, shame and much fear.

Anyways. The good news is that the market is ready and waiting. With nothing much else to do. And I've got product. I've just got to order the books and find out which one of my wonderful star friends in NY knows Simon Doonan well enough to arrange a sit-down. In five years we can have the foundation of a real culture completely laid. It's gonna be like filet mignon, oysters and a nice salad after surviving off of Bubble Yum for ten years.

ps: I'll sell two more books at the $40 price. The rest I'm keeping to sell to collectors after they go big. After these two it'll be $120 and up. Same with T-shirts. I'll try to post a pic of them soon. I already yanked my book from Quimby's. No brand synergy there.