The new Spring 2009 DKNY ads have hit the glossies (as well as street signs, cabs and sides of buildings throughout the Big Apple I presume) and I have to say I'm a bit disappointed. Why would Scott Schuman, whose strikingly simple portraits of dashing pedestrians sell out and go commercial? Well yes, money for one. But the pure beauty of capturing the fashionable elite in their own haute habitats of the Tuileries Gardens and the Carousel du Louvre is so sacred, to mimic it for DKNY, well just cheapens it.
As the line between reality and faux-ality becomes more blurred every day, it's hard to tell where real life ends and make believe begins (I'm still stumped at the sordid so-called plots of MTV's The City, which is why I tune in religiously- are they REALLY having a lovers' tete a tete at Extra Virgin? Did the non-working model with diamond-studded ears REALLY pull together in art show in the LES and cheat on his model girlfriend with a typical Tenjune sycophante?)
The truth is, I am sick of art imitating life. Where is the inspiration? Where is the fantasy? Are we suffering such a cultural malaise that even fashion, supposedly the most inventive industry of all, is turning to dreaded reality for inspiration? The only thing that comes close to a dreamworld is the beloved Gossip Girl which allows post-private schoolers to get lost in the sick, twisted plots of their past and even more lost in the disheartening transformation of Jenny Humphrey from cute Brooklyn alternista to Goth rebellista with too much eyeliner.
Final Word: Based on history the best work was created during times of squalor (Read: Hemmingway, Sinclair, Steinbeck...need I go on?) so enough of this creative coma...vive la vie boheme!
1 comment:
I agree, Jenny has way too much eyeliner! We need more creativity! Although, I'm sure DKNY offered Scott a fee he couldn't refuse and in these troubled times, he'd be a fool not to accept it. I'm sure he's made peace with it.
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