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Lynn Yaeger blasts LV/Murakami exhibit, and the copyright laws with them

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  • Faust
    kitsch killer
    • Sep 2006
    • 37852

    Lynn Yaeger blasts LV/Murakami exhibit, and the copyright laws with them

    My hero! Hilarious article, loved it.

    Instead try Canal Street.
    by Lynn Yaeger
    April 15th, 2008 12:00 AM















    Make it till you fake it: the author's own "Murakami."
    Staci Schwartz





















    " Guess what, Max? Mommy is going to take you to see a great big
    sculpture!" "Emma, don't bother the nice elevator lady!" "No, Caitlin,
    we are not going to see any more art unless you get back in your
    stroller right now!" This cacophony of fake enthusiasm, finger-wagging,
    and veiled threats follows me as I make my way through the day-care
    center that is the Brooklyn Museum on a spring Sunday.





    Like the hundred thousand toddlers all around me, I am here to take
    in the Takashi Murakami exhibit. OK, so I never heard of this guy until
    he started collaborating with Marc Jacobs on a series of cutesy-poo
    Louis Vuitton handbags?now I want to see for myself the in-museum
    Vuitton boutique, much maligned in its previous incarnation at MOCA in
    L.A., where you can actually buy $2,000 handbags, not the usual boring
    books and scarves that dominate gallery shops.





    As it turns out, I missed the real retail action, which took place
    at the opening-night gala a few days earlier, where attendees entered
    the show through a mock Canal Street. According to a spokesperson for
    the museum: "[Vuitton] created it in our sculpture garden at the rear
    of the museum. It resembled Canal Street, with shops that appeared to
    be selling bootlegged goods, some with their gates down, or with signs
    that said something like 'Closed by order of . . .' They were selling
    what at first glance appeared to be knockoffs, except the bags were
    real?the vendors were actors, and so were the buyers."





    Actors impersonating impoverished illegal immigrants trying to make
    a living? Who came up with this swell idea? Not since Marie Antoinette
    dressed as a shepherdess has such blatant bad taste, such revolting
    hauteur infected a social gathering. (Maybe it's a French thing?) In
    any case, this grotesque Potemkin Village is torn down by the time I
    visit, so instead of expressing my outrage at fake fake-bag booths, I'm
    battling toddlers to get a look at Murakami's cartoon films.





    No dice?the rug rats rule the screening room. So I wander over to a
    trio of the artist's lascivious pixies, who remind me of the talking
    animatronics (hey, they're sculptures, too) at Caesars Palace in Vegas.
    These creepy fairies pale in comparison to the larger-than-life nude
    wrangler entitled My Lonesome Cowboy, who has some kind of
    disgusting gray effluvia shooting out of his wiener. The same repulsive
    substance is emanating from the engorged titty of his companion. Stand
    and stare as long as you like, but don't attempt to take these wastrels
    home?"No pictures!" a guard says sharply. Well, maybe they're in the
    show's $65 catalog, if you must own a photo of them.





    As for me, I'd rather own a handbag. In fact, as I pass a huge mural
    of mushrooms covered with eyes and realize I am approaching the Vuitton
    shop, my heart begins to flutter with excitement, an involuntary reflex
    that in this case is accompanied by just a little shame.





    It's not like I don't have a long history with Murakami Vuittons, a
    sad saga that I have chronicled many times in print and in person to
    anyone who would listen. Because I am a pathetic victim, when these
    bags were first introduced several years ago, I put myself on a list
    for a stupid overpriced satchel decorated with pink smiley-face
    flowers. Just the fact that you couldn't buy the damn thing made me?and
    thousands of other suckers around the world?troop to their local LV
    outlet and give not just our names but an imprint of our credit cards
    to a snotty salesperson who promised to call the very day the bag
    arrived, which in my case was the 12th. Of never.





    In the end, I went down to Canal Street, the same ratty Canal Street
    that Vuitton thought was so witty to make fun of. And there I found a
    wonderful fake flowered satchel for $35, which I thought a cool guy
    like Murakami would probably get a kick out of, since the nameless
    third-world artisan who made it added some flourishes that LV hadn't
    thought of, like silver faux-snakeskin trim and mirror studs. But it
    turns out I am wrong about Murakami, as I am about so many things. A
    wall text at the museum announces that "the concept of copyright itself
    holds an exalted position within Murakami's practice, rooted in the
    acknowledgement of his work as simultaneously interweaving deeply
    personal expression, high art, mass culture and commerce."





    What care I about the concept of copyright? All I know is, it's a
    good thing I got this Murakami-bag business out of my system before I
    visit the museum Vuitton store, where the whole panoply of
    Murakami-Vuitton collaborations over the years?the cheery cherries, the
    inane flowers?are ensconced in glass showcases. I point to a jewelry
    box with a Murakami spaceman painted on it and ask the salesman, who is
    wearing a white suit and white loafers with little gold LVs on them,
    how much it costs. In a repetition of my humiliation at the Vuitton
    store years ago, Mr. White Suit tells me the stuff in the case is not
    for sale, it's part of the exhibit.





    Not for sale? Isn't this a store? I skulk away and eavesdrop on
    another White Suiter who is explaining to a well-heeled customer that
    the three canvases on the wall, all printed with LVs, are in fact up
    for grabs, at around $6,000 for three, though the price varies
    according to whether the canvases are signed, or bear a particular
    number, or some such. "It's the same denim that Vuitton uses for their
    clothes," the salesman says reverently, and I want to yell: "So?" But
    instead I wander over to the cashier's counter, where there are some
    purses you can actually buy, including one hideously glommed-up gold
    number called the Marilyn. (I like to think that that poor girl, with
    her deep inferiority complex, her famous vulnerability, her longing to
    be taken seriously as an actress, would never have spent $1,500 on a
    bag, even one that bears her name.)





    The spirit of Marilyn, and of all the working girls trying to make a
    buck and look nice and have everything the rich girls have, is with me
    a few days later, when I decide to return to Canal Street to see what
    kind of fake Vuittons are on tap. The company has become famous for
    cracking down on fakes, and it certainly got results: I walk from the
    Bowery to West Broadway, and though I see lots of derivative Dolce
    & Gabbana, false Fendis, bad Balenciagas, and even a convincing
    replica of that impossible-to-find chopped-off Hermès Birkin bag, there
    is a nary a Vuitton in sight. The guys who used to hang around the
    subway stops holding cards with pix of Vuittons (you'd point to the one
    you wanted and they'd dispense a runner to get it for you) are nowhere
    to be seen. I try eBay, just for research purposes (I already have my
    fake bag), and that's pretty dire, too?there are only three or four
    suspiciously low-priced items.





    You'd think this would be enough to satisfy Vuitton, but no. Just by
    chance, the same week that I go to Brooklyn, the students at NYU's
    Stern School of Business are staging a Vuitton-funded event with the
    lame name "Knowledge Is Change" that is part of something called the
    International Anti-Counterfeiting Coalition's College Initiative.





    "Is this where the free shit is?" a student asks, lining up for the
    sandwiches and Doritos provided to entice callow youth to boycott the
    bogus bags. On a wall behind the food, there's a blue cardboard sign on
    which an earnest business student has written in pink Magic Marker,
    "Facts on Fake," which includes: "Counterfeiters do not pay their
    employees fair wages or benefits." (Like every other business does?) A
    coed who is the spitting image of Paris Geller on Gilmore Girls
    is bossing everyone around, unloading a raft of the saddest, least
    convincing knockoffs I have ever seen?a cheesy NBA cap, a pair of
    flimsy Chanel earrings, a pitiful pink metallic Gucci card case. At the
    end of the sandwich line, next to a heap of Hershey's Kisses, students
    are asked to sign a wishy-washy form that says: "By signing this
    petition I pledge to think twice before buying a counterfeit good."





    OK, I thought twice. I'm going back to Canal for that Hermès bag.

    Fashion is a form of ugliness so intolerable that we have to alter it every six months - Oscar Wilde

    StyleZeitgeist Magazine
  • sbw4224
    Senior Member
    • Sep 2006
    • 571

    #2
    Re: Lynn Yaeger blasts LV/Murakami exhibit, and the copyright laws with them



    This is great - probably the funniest/truest article I've read in a while! I love her referencing the fake Canal street to Marie Antoinette. What's really sad, though,is the reality that Louis Vitton has managed to enter the spaces of museum's and probably convinced some consumers that they can, or should, equate handbags with art.






    Comment

    • Chinorlz
      Senior Member
      • Sep 2006
      • 6422

      #3
      Re: Lynn Yaeger blasts LV/Murakami exhibit, and the copyright laws with them

      i love it. I no longer care how Ms. Yaeger dresses. Her writing is pure genius!!!!
      www.AlbertHuangMD.com - Digital Portfolio Of Projects & Designs

      Merz (5/22/09):"i'm a firm believer that the ultimate prevailing logic in design is 'does shit look sick as fuck' "

      Comment

      • Faust
        kitsch killer
        • Sep 2006
        • 37852

        #4
        Re: Lynn Yaeger blasts LV/Murakami exhibit, and the copyright laws with them

        Yep, I love it how she doesn't give a shit about what LV wants - not many people who work in fashion can give them the finger. I was saying just yesterday that the best writing on fashion comes from newspapers and not fashion magazines, and here is a good example.
        Fashion is a form of ugliness so intolerable that we have to alter it every six months - Oscar Wilde

        StyleZeitgeist Magazine

        Comment

        • Fuuma
          Senior Member
          • Sep 2006
          • 4050

          #5
          Re: Lynn Yaeger blasts LV/Murakami exhibit, and the copyright laws with them

          Hahahaha, as a principle I'm against knockoffs because counterfeiters don't discriminate between Vuitton bad taste (that stuff is for asians and butchers who won the lotto-sorry to our asian friends or resident butchers[79]) and creative releases from 6 people fashion labels. However I can see the humour in what she wrote.
          Selling CCP, Harnden, Raf, Rick etc.
          http://www.stylezeitgeist.com/forums...me-other-stuff

          Comment

          • Faust
            kitsch killer
            • Sep 2006
            • 37852

            #6
            Re: Lynn Yaeger blasts LV/Murakami exhibit, and the copyright laws with them

            I love counterfeiters in a masochistic way. They are the truest testament to how the brand has overshadowed the actual product.
            Fashion is a form of ugliness so intolerable that we have to alter it every six months - Oscar Wilde

            StyleZeitgeist Magazine

            Comment

            • Fuuma
              Senior Member
              • Sep 2006
              • 4050

              #7
              Re: Lynn Yaeger blasts LV/Murakami exhibit, and the copyright laws with them



              [quote user="Faust"]I love counterfeiters in a masochistic way. They are the truest testament to how the brand has overshadowed the actual product.
              [/quote]




              But does it have to? I have little doubt that it is the primary motivations for most shoppers but what if you really liked the design but could not afford the original, isn't that what blackscissors clients mostly do? I mean I'm pretty sure GG isn't looking to get a CCP repro as a status symbol, because even a CCP original is an epic failure as such an item,outside of a very small circle. Can we say that, in that case, the product has overshadowed the brand?


              Selling CCP, Harnden, Raf, Rick etc.
              http://www.stylezeitgeist.com/forums...me-other-stuff

              Comment

              • Faust
                kitsch killer
                • Sep 2006
                • 37852

                #8
                Re: Lynn Yaeger blasts LV/Murakami exhibit, and the copyright laws with them



                We can, and I've discussed that in the thread on copying, when I posted the Guy Trebay article on copying in fashion. I said something to the extent that it's pretty cool for a designer to have means to resurrect a certain design he/she liked. [Y]



                It's different in the case of the Canal St. counterfeiters - they sell the logo, and that's what people are there to buy.



                BTW, I haven't handled any Black Scissors stuff, but everything looks really crappy in all the pictures I've seen. Honestly, I'd rather admire a Poell jacket from afar, rather than receiving an ill-made copy.

                Fashion is a form of ugliness so intolerable that we have to alter it every six months - Oscar Wilde

                StyleZeitgeist Magazine

                Comment

                • philip nod
                  Senior Member
                  • Aug 2007
                  • 5903

                  #9
                  Re: Lynn Yaeger blasts LV/Murakami exhibit, and the copyright laws with them

                  fuck murakami. traded his talent for fucking handbags.
                  One wonders where it will end, when everything has become gay.

                  Comment

                  • Faust
                    kitsch killer
                    • Sep 2006
                    • 37852

                    #10
                    Re: Lynn Yaeger blasts LV/Murakami exhibit, and the copyright laws with them

                    /\ hmmm, definitely a potential signature.
                    Fashion is a form of ugliness so intolerable that we have to alter it every six months - Oscar Wilde

                    StyleZeitgeist Magazine

                    Comment

                    • matthewhk
                      Senior Member
                      • Jan 2007
                      • 1049

                      #11
                      Re: Lynn Yaeger blasts LV/Murakami exhibit, and the copyright laws with them

                      great article, and i was kinda wowed at the idea of them putting up a fake canal street show at the exhibit...that reeks of corporate smugness at its nastiest.

                      Comment

                      • ionn26
                        Senior Member
                        • Feb 2007
                        • 488

                        #12
                        Re: Lynn Yaeger blasts LV/Murakami exhibit, and the copyright laws with them



                        You know.. credos to Lynn.. thanks Faust...




                        I wholeheartedly agree with Lynn.. it is so sad to see the students protesting(funded by LV) for conterfeit.. It used to be student protest for human right and good cause rather than portest FOR big corporations. IT is truly sad to see it.. and Lynn gives a good point.. who fricking pays their worker well these days...




                        I am against counterfeit and all.. but when it becomes extreme that you eradicate any and all counterfeit.. then do yu get 'revolution' . this is proven throughout history.. and how are the big corporations different from the communist government suppressing what they don't like.. or believe is harming them??? Afterall.. how are they much better.. there were also talk of the counterfeit that are produced to fund the terrorist actions, so one wonders, are bigcorporations such as LV and Dior and others aretheir own evil as well?

                        Comment

                        • Faust
                          kitsch killer
                          • Sep 2006
                          • 37852

                          #13
                          Re: Lynn Yaeger blasts LV/Murakami exhibit, and the copyright laws with them

                          they aren't any different. governments and big corporations are the biggest mafia, and the only things that justifies their crimes is the law. and law and morality don't always intersect (and often run counter to each other).
                          Fashion is a form of ugliness so intolerable that we have to alter it every six months - Oscar Wilde

                          StyleZeitgeist Magazine

                          Comment

                          • Faust
                            kitsch killer
                            • Sep 2006
                            • 37852

                            #14
                            Re: Lynn Yaeger blasts LV/Murakami exhibit, and the copyright laws with them

                            [quote user="new_dawn_fades"]

                            [quote user="philip nod"]fuck murakami. traded his talent for fucking handbags.
                            [/quote]



                            id take the other murakami(haruki) any day tho :)



                            [/quote]



                            meh. he gets tiresome quickly. too schematic. that is not to say he's not worth reading, but he ain't no kafka (on the beach or elsewhere)

                            Fashion is a form of ugliness so intolerable that we have to alter it every six months - Oscar Wilde

                            StyleZeitgeist Magazine

                            Comment

                            • mizzar
                              Senior Member
                              • Mar 2008
                              • 219

                              #15
                              Re: Lynn Yaeger blasts LV/Murakami exhibit, and the copyright laws with them



                              Sorry for crappy english. I learned it from the book




                              Fakes and thrift storesin Ukraine,are maybe the only way to have good fit with so-so quality. Stores charging to much for anyclothes. As an example- levi's 501 cost about $156 in crappy quality, made in Poland or Turkey. We have no h&m, topshop or american apparel, neither we do have any national clothing company. Zara opened it first store about a week ago. So i just buy some china fakes(wich very hard to find for a proper price) and rip any brand or logo-in sum=having some h&m quality and good fit for about 2xh&m prices. Saving some money for education and painting lessons.





                              about Black Scissors.I got jacket from them for a $ 200. some old Hedi designs rip-off. And i'm happy. It's not CCPor even dior homme quality. But still good. The fit is good too. and yes their picturesare realy ugly.

                              ____
                              sorry for my bad english, i learned it from the book.

                              I too am inspired by homeless people when I buy a $1,000 jacket. Why don't we just shit on them? Oh, fashion, sometimes I wonder why I bother...(Faust)

                              Comment

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