Skulls

[faust]

I was reading this NY Times article, and I felt kind of sad about consumerism overtaking the last bastions of cool. What do you guys think about the whole skull overload lately with Paris Hiltons and teeny boppers rockin' it without any underlying theme?

From NY times.

The Heyday of the Dead

By DAVID COLMAN

YES, it’s July. The sun’s shining. People are heading to the beach or just out, to catch some UV, drink some Mountain Dew and indulge in some good clean summer fun.

But what is that little black cloud drifting across the sun? Will it ruin our picnic, like ants or a motorcycle gang? Heaven protect us ... a skull? Not one, but a sea of them! Ah, but ere it comes near, it is clear: it will barely cast a pall.

If it was not clear a year or two ago, when the skull motif cropped up on battered Herman-Melville-meets-Edgar-Allan-Poe T-shirts made by Rogues Gallery, on costly cashmere sweaters by Lucien Pellat-Finet, on the perforated uppers of the wingtips made by the men’s wear line Barker Black, it is now. What only recently seemed clever and stylish — I’m wearing a skull! I’m baaaaad! — has shifted into overdrive, if not overkill.

Beyond the sea of skull wear — belts, T-shirts, ties — there are umbrellas, sneakers, swimsuits, packing tape, party lights, even a skull-branded line of hand tools. One company has made a skull toilet brush and caddy (with a molded-plastic femur bone for a handle). This summer Damien Hirst announced that he will make a life-size skull, cast in platinum and adorned with 8,000 diamonds.

If it seems harmless, well, there you have it. With the full force of the American consumer marketing establishment behind it, the skull has lost virtually all of its fearsome outsider meaning. It has become the Happy Face of the 2000’s. When the mid-1980’s proto-Goth group the Ministry sang “Every Day Is Halloween,†this was not quite what they had in mind.

“This is such a huge gripe of mine,†said Voltaire, a musician in New York and the author of “What is Goth?†(Weiser Books, 2004), a kind of “Preppy Handbook†for the living dead. “Throughout hundreds of years of history, what the skull has communicated is, ‘I am dangerous.’ That’s where the irony is. You can buy dangerous for $11.99 at Kmart.â€

For years Voltaire was the happy owner of several skull-motif sweaters hand-knit by an eccentric Englishwoman. He recounted that a woman stopped him the other day on an East Village street to admire the one he was wearing. “She said: ‘I love your sweater. Is it Ralph Lauren?’ Then I found out that Ralph Lauren has a whole store that sells skull stuff.â€

Well, not for long he doesn’t. At Rugby, the chain of collegiate-style stores Mr. Lauren rolled out only last year, the shirts are embroidered not with a polo player but a skull. However, the logo is already being scaled back (though not dropped entirely), a spokesman said.

“It’s a pity it’s so commercial now,†Mr. Pellat-Finet said. For more than five years, he has splashed oversize skull graphics — sporting, say, Mickey Mouse ears — on his sweaters. “Maybe Wal-Mart will replace their smiley-face with a tête de mort,†he added, using the French term for skull. “It’s lost its meaning.â€

Well, it still has one meaning for Mr. Pellat-Finet, whose latest skull sweaters are embellished with Afros and top hats, among other images. Asked if he will stop using the motif, he responded with a chuckle: “No, no, no. It’s my best seller!â€

Other designers appear to have similarly mixed feelings: on one hand, they are confronted with skull saturation; on the other, skulls are ringing the dinner bell louder than ever. Alexander McQueen’s fall men’s wear show did not play up skull imagery on the runway — surely the critics would be bored — but there are plenty back in the showroom, on sports coats, polo shirts and trousers. His $210 skull-print silk scarf is one of the best-selling items on the men’s designer floor at Barneys New York.

“We’ve sold 400 since May,†said Timothy Elliott, a Barneys spokesman. “We sell them as fast as they come in.â€

Many people point to the “Pirates of the Caribbean†franchise as fuel for skullmania. But the skull’s ascent to the logo throne has more to it and behind it than a Disney marketing campaign. Reminiscent of the vogue for angels a decade or more ago — remember how the little winged creatures were everywhere? — the skull neatly encapsulates a cultural moment in terms both precise and vague.

It is also the product of potent economic forces. The proliferation of skulls has paralleled the rise of the Hot Topic clothing chain. Begun 17 years ago in Southern California, Hot Topic is a 680-stores-in-50-states phenomenon based on the simple idea of selling music-related clothing and accessories — punk studded wristbands, heavy-metal T-shirts and lately, lots and lots of skulls — to suburban teenagers who would otherwise have to visit an urban clothing boutique for such goodies.

“Have we brought skulls to the mall?†said Cindy Levitt, the vice president for marketing at Hot Topic. “Absolutely. But skulls are a rock icon. We’ve always had them. We see this as more of a fashion trend.â€

Still, Ms. Levitt agreed that the skull is not what it used to be. “It’s no longer threatening,†she said. “Anyone will wear a skull now.â€

The inventory at Hot Topic, which caters to music fans of all stripes, points up another facet of the skull’s allure, its vagueness. Cherished as an icon by several rock genres, it communicates many potential meanings without specifying any single one: the skull as style hedge.

“The skull is all-purpose,†said Sasha Frere-Jones, a music critic at The New Yorker. “It simultaneously refers to horror movies, to the Misfits and, by extension, all punk rock, and to a generalized culture of blackness and spookiness and the larger, mall-Goth culture.†So, he said, “if you’re really at heart a Goth, but you have friends who are into metal and punk, you can rock the skulls and be friends with all of them.â€

Or in fashionspeak: skulls — fun, flexible, easy, breezy!

It is a different way of thinking of one of history’s most formidable images, seen in thousands of years of art and a symbol integral to Mexican culture. Robert Rosenblum, a professor of fine arts at New York University, explained that the skull is central to the vanitas, a genre of still-life painting in which temporal pleasures are juxtaposed with a skull. “The vanitas includes the skull as a reminder that death is everywhere,†he said, “as a cutting edge to too much contentment with the here and now.â€

Perhaps the Manhattan hostess who bought a $4,140 set of 12 sterling-silver skull place-card holders by the jeweler Douglas Little wanted to convey that message to her guests. (Supercute touch: the place cards are clenched between the hinged jaws.) Or maybe not; she declined to be interviewed.

The skull as memento mori is important to Philip Crangi, a fashionable jeweler in Manhattan known for a pared-down modernized take on 19th-century morbidity. “I use it in a Victorian or Latin sense,†he said, “where it meant that life is short and death is the great equalizer, so stop your whining and get on with it.â€

In his view skulls are not less threatening because a chic jeweler is casting them in precious metal but because, in an age when slasher films are top grossers, death itself has become less threatening. “In the 19th century, when people died, they were laid out in the living room,†he said. “I think we’ve lost that connection to death.â€

For others, the skull is about youth, not death, losing its sting. Banks Violette, an artist whose fascination with heavy metal imagery won him a show at the Whitney Museum last summer, is never happy to see cherished symbols of teen angst treated blithely.

“It’s always an inward flinch,†he said. “People create this little world where they try to negotiate their own sense of alienation, then it gets pulled apart.†He added that because such symbols are associated with youth culture, they are often viewed as superficial and treated cynically by companies that market to young people.

Yet as consumers young and old tire of being marketed to, the skull appears to offer a kind of antidote: the ultimate unbrand, one that belongs to no one. Curiously, then, what began as an outlaw anti-logo may as well be viewed as the death rattle of an underground aesthetic.

“The skull was one of the last frontiers,†said Rick Owens, the designer known for his glamorized Goth style. “There’s no way to make yourself edgy anymore.â€

Even so, he is planning on selling skulls — real ones — in “natural and black†in his new Paris boutique. “Skulls are kind of timeless,†he said, deadpan as it gets.

Ah, well. Eat, drink and be trendy. Tomorrow we die.

[djrajio]

It reminds me of when Surface to Air came out with the large print portrait shirts and coat of arms shirts and then the look slowly filtered into other labels. Or the drip effect\graffiti look. I guess a good barometer would be to see if the look is sold in Urban Outfitters or any Limited\mall related stores...personally skulls has been iconic in fashion for so long, so I dont see it going away anytime soon, but youll surely see it fade away from main stream retailing outlets after it hits critical mass...

[Morningstar]

I'm really not sure what I think about this. I have loved skulls, black clothing, and things sort of dark/goth for much of my life, but I would never call myself "gothic". I don't listen to "gothic" bands or do anything else I imagine people who subscribe to the subculture do.

I've never given my love for skulls (or any of the things listed above) much analytical thought as some of the people interviewed other than thinking they simply looked cool. In the end I guess it doesn't matter. When the new trend roles around I'm sure Paris and Lohan will be rocking it and the world of skull wears will beable to breathe easy.

[Fuuma]

I was reading this NY Times article, and I felt kind of sad about consumerism overtaking the last bastions of cool. What do you guys think about the whole skull overload lately with Paris Hiltons and teeny boppers rockin' it without any underlying theme?

From NY times.

Not that it was any less consumerist when it hadn't trinkled down to mainstream and only super-expensive fashion designers where pushing it...

[macuser3of5]

Skulls are cheesy.

[artificialsky]

the weird thing about this is that skulls were actually an up-filtered thing whereupon high-end designers "coutured-up" skulls from places like hot topic and stuff.

is this really news? hot topic has been around forever.

but i guess now that Lucien Pellat-Finet says they're played....

[jwill]

the worst is a skull with wings

[r_mutt]

whats the name of that store again? oh yea hot topic.

[masuerte]

I was reading this NY Times article, and I felt kind of sad about consumerism overtaking the last bastions of cool. What do you guys think about the whole skull overload lately with Paris Hiltons and teeny boppers rockin' it without any underlying theme?

You know faust it's kinda ironic you saying that here. You and I support how consumerism overtakes the bastions of cool. Or at least we support it's most powerful tool nowadays: the internet. Internet blogs and fashion... man it makes it that much more easy to spread underground and local consumer-trends and such to the rest of the world.

I remember reading in the "fashion mag" thread about how street wear has become less unique from one city to another, how global fashion trends have become... I'm thinking it's gotta be cause of them fashion-blogs/boards.

[CitySparrow]

Nice thread!

Skulls and Anchors- two things to avoid this season.

I don't think it's necessarily the internet that is to blame for globalisation of trends.

MTV anyone? TV in general?

We might think we are the uber elite, but main line designers are paying attention to magazines first, television second (or vice versa, depending on their target market),.

The internet is more of a tool for trend forecasters/ edge fringe crowds.

Point - crezy Japanese fashion fruits were a magazine phenom before they hit the internet (as magazine scans, may I remind you).

And lo and behold, 8 years later, Finland and Russia have caught on...

But their kids saw it in magazines and on tv, not the web.

Oh, and the mall. Hooray hot topic.