February 10, 2004
Gibson on Hilfiger
I'm reading Pattern Recognition by William Gibson right now. I came a cross a passage I liked, a commentary on Tommy Hilfiger. The main character is a "coolhunter", a dowser for steet cred, with an almost allergic sensitivity to trademark. The passage goes like this:
"This stuff is simulacra of simulacra of simulacra. A diluted tincture of Ralph Lauren, who had himself diluted the glory days of Brooks Brothers, who themselves had steppend on the product of Jermyn Street and Savile Row, flavoring their ready-to-wear with liberal lashings of polo kit and regimental stripes. But Tommy Hilfiger surely is the null point, the black hole. There must be some Tommy Hilfiger event horizon, beyond which it is impossible to be more derivative, more removed from the source, more devoid of soul. Or so she hopes, and doesn't know, but suspects in her heart that this fact is what accounts for his long ubiquity."
I'm not actually allergic to branding like that, but I do avoid having visible marks on the things I wear. I just don't like it.
