Frankenpurse
I research many things on the Internets. This is not one of them. But I found it and could not stop laughing. And it gives me an opportunity to kick off the “Post-modernism” category.
Via Manolo’s Shoe Blog, which itself comes to me via Mr. Flibbertigibbet, the Louis Vitton Frankenpurse:
Apparently, it costs $52,500 and they’re only making two dozen. Beyoncé Knowles and the current Mrs. Rudy Giuliani are rumored to be among the elite few purchasers. Witness the Post-modernism at work here. Rather than make a new, classy, stylish bag that a beautiful woman wouldn’t have to compete with for attention, they just cut up their leftovers from seasons past, slap them together haphazardly, and claim to have created the pinnacle of high purse fashion. Being elegant, simple, understated, compact, or functional isn’t important any more. Everything that can be done has been done. Everything old is new again, if we just mix it up a bit. And now there’s a purse that perfectly articulates the aesthetics that follow therefrom.
I neglected to source the photograph. It is from a Louis Vitton press kit.
My mother-in-law likes to call purses “pocketbooks”. If I were made of money and really well-connected, I’d buy one of these just to give it to her to see what she’d call it!
Louis Vuitton has been making huge, tacky, dumpy purses for years now, while they actually lead the fashion world in purse trends. Their creations trickle down in knock-offs to stores like TJ Maxx for years.
You so rightfully identify this as a side-effect of postmodernism. I really thought Louis Vuitton could sink no lower, but they found a way. Similarly, the most popular music, the current version of “hip-hop,” follows the same pattern of just getting worse. Clearly postmodernism cannot be stopped by getting bad “enough.”
So what do you think will be the catalyst to swing esthetics in the other direction?