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COMMENTARY: Runway comedy: When high-end brands become inspired by everyday things
Because who knows, maybe we’ll see Nasi Padang Bungkus-inspired clutches or maybe Rinso-inspired backpack in the future. Will we laugh, though? I have a feeling we’ll be proud instead.
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Mothercare bag by Anya Hindmarch (Anya Hindmarch/File)
T
witterverse has been poking fun at Jean-Paul Gaultier’s creation for Hermés that was featured at the Paris Haute Couture Week 2010. The creation in question features a clutch resembling “nasi lemak” banana leaf package, a Malay delicacy that is known to be a very simple and cheap meal.
The whole brouhaha took me back to earlier this year, when in March 2016, Balenciaga released its Bazar handbag series that resemble Thai (and Indonesian) shopping bags commonly used by traditional market vendors and buyers. Twitter exploded with retweets of images of the said bags, Instagram was full of comparisons of Balenciaga’s new creation against the real thing along with comments criticizing the fashion house for stealing intellectual property of the Thai people.
The controversy continued up to the point where the Thai government had to make a statement about the real difference of the two products and that no intellectual property had been stolen from the Southeast Asian nation.
Maybe it’s 2016 and its mercury retrograde that creates confusion and chaos, but I wonder why almost nobody said a word about 2014 and 2015 where some really big names in fashion attempted to “get fresh” with their hilarious interpretation of “everyday things” and managed to get away with the comedic collections? Sure, not being Asian enough is a reason to dismiss the hilarity, however, let’s take another look.
It seems like the Paris design directives in 2014 pointed out to grocery stores, hence a name as big as Chanel sucked it up and dared to come up with this fancied-up grocery basket priced at US$12,500.
I have mixed feelings about this particular piece, but who am I to argue with Karl Lagerfeld.
(Read also: Soon, we'll be checking in hotel Karl Lagerfeld)
However, I seriously think Lagerfeld predicted that the world is filled with people such as I am who would laugh at such high-fashion monstrosity, he decided to keep Chanel’s signature elegance in the form of mini-milk-carton-inspired minaudière emblazoned with “Lait de Coco” on its body, plus it’s only priced at $4,800.
The year 2014 also seemed to be a good time for brand-designer collaborations. British designer, Anya Hindmarch, joined forces with household-name cereal brand, Kellogg’s. Hindmarch applied Kellogg’s iconographies Tony the Tiger from the famous Kellogg’s Frosted Flakes product and the chicken logo from the classic Kellogg’s Corn Flakes on to Anya Hindmarch’s handbags.
Of course, the stark contrast is the price of Frosted Flakes at $4.12 per box to one of Anya Hindmarch’s genuine-leather bags featuring the same orange tiger from the box, which goes for $1,700.
Still in 2014, Moschino paid homage to American fast food chain, McDonald’s. As Moschino has the reputation of inserting fun elements in its products, it was no surprise seeing the brand, under the direction of designer Jeremy Scott, made an ode to McDonald’s Happy Meal box into something to strut around with on fashion runways—or in hipster parties.
The main handbag featured a bright-red Chanel-inspired quilt style with the re-styled golden arches logo in the middle of the front flap, and for a price of $1,265, can still be yours today as it’s still available at most high-end e-commerce stores.
Interestingly enough, the fun collection sparked controversy when McDonald’s US-based employees criticized the collaboration as insensitive to their minimum wage of $7.25 per hour, which tallies up to about $400 to $600 per month. Another interesting part of this so-called ode to the iconography, McDonald’s claimed to be unaware of the Moschino collection and the fashion house remained tight-lipped about the use and re-styling of the famous golden arches.
For its Spring/Summer 2016 collection, Anya Hindmarch stole the show again with a collaboration with French supermarket giant Carrefour and kidswear brand Mothercare, by stamping both brands’ logos unashamedly on its bags. Priced at $2,250 each, these bags will immediately catch anyone’s attention when worn.
The question is: would you prefer to spend your hard-earned cash indirectly promoting brands that would give you free shopping bags anyway? Most people would shake their heads in disagreement, however if you think about it, this iconography trend might become the next “classic” collectible in the future, so it might be a good idea to look at them as future investments.
Aside from the (sometimes) hilarious interpretations, I applaud these high-end designers for their creativity in taking inspirations from everyday iconography and objects as simple as “nasi lemak”. However, not to be a party pooper here, but I really think young Indonesian designers should start taking inspiration from these creations and immortalize our own iconic local iconographies and traditional everyday things into their own designs.
Because who knows, maybe we’ll see Nasi Padang Bungkus-inspired clutches or maybe Rinso-inspired backpack in the future. Will we laugh, though? I have a feeling we’ll be proud instead.
Indonesian brands, are you listening?
