domenica 8 febbraio 2009

Handbags Anarchy

Supposing I can afford one (!) I'm pretty sure I wouldn't buy an original designer bag. I feel guilty everytime I buy a thing for a fraction of the price of a designer item, I can't imagine what would happen with a real fill-with-the-name-of-your-favorite-designer piece.

On the other hand, I've never bought a fake designer bag as well. Beyond all the legas implications of buying a fake, I really think there are so many good quality, well made unbranded or vintage products at affordable prices that I really don't need to buy a cheapy copy of something a poor child had sewn somewhere just to please a broke I-would-but-I-can't fashionista.

I mean, I can covet a certain design, but in the end...it's only a bag, I can live without it!

Starting from questions like "could I hand crochet a designer bag?" and "would people - in a weird way - believe it is real because it had the logo on it?", in 2006 San Francisco based artist Stephanie Syjuco created the Counterfeit Crochet Project website.


Stephanie had already worked on issues of piracy and bootlegging as they apply to today's globalized economy; the Counterfeit Crochet Project started both as a critique of a political economy and a mere crochet project, with the purpose of solicite crocheters to hand counterfeiting designer handbags.
She declares:

It seems to me that ingenuity and inventiveness lays at the heart of those who decide to make things for themselves. Crafting is overlooked, even denigrated as a viable "vernacular" form of expression. I view the impetus to handmake something in an era of mass production a personal and perhaps even political act, a way to give yourself agency to create and produce in an age of standardization and retail.

and again

most of us "ordinary people" can't afford such things, and some even knowingly buy knock-off products to sublimate our desires. If you take the logic one step further, and actually make the item yourself, you are in a sense taking the situation into your own hands without giving a single penny to the company brand. They have excluded you anyway, by keeping their prices astronomically high.

She calls all this "handbag anarchy": the final results are both homages and lumpy mutations made by different people with a different sense of creativity. Definitely something totally different from a classic knock-off product!



15 commenti:

Anonimo ha detto...

Sono d'accordissimo con te! Da una parte, le borse firmate mi sembrano un segno esteriore di ricchezza e quindi li considero volgari per forza. Le imitazioni... sono trash, senza parlare del fatto che il solo interesse di una borsa firmata è la qualità, che non c'è nel fake. Questo significa che il possessore dell'imitazione ha pagato solo per la (falsa) sigla, cosa che la dice lunga su di lui!

Invece le borse di marche un po' meno conosciute o vintage, o meglio ancora uniche, sono spesso una meraviglia! Il tuo titolo "Handbags anarchy" è molto azzeccato!

Anonimo ha detto...

I love the concept of her work....she's right on quite a few accounts...

MOUSEVOX VINTAGE ha detto...

this is amazing!

i own so many bags and all of them except for 2 are vintage/thrifted. it's ironic too, as an authnetic chanel bag was gifted to me for my birthday 2 years ago and it spends more time in my closet than on my shoulder. something about huge logos rubs me wrong, for some reason.

Greetz from Tiz ha detto...

che forza!x

FELICITY [!] ha detto...

yayy for cupcakes! xo
those bags are cute :)

Anonimo ha detto...

Crochet handbags is definitely a nice concept..I like the idea of "handbag anarchy" !

Anonimo ha detto...

Great post!! I couldn't have said it better myself!!

Super Noodle Rach ha detto...

Ooo I saw this yesterday and boy is she getting popular and a lot of blog lovin alot of oher things ahve sold out! she needs to knit faster!!

Anonimo ha detto...

That's so nice !

Eri ha detto...

Veru cute!

Rebecca, A Clothes Horse ha detto...

Those are amazing! They're hilarious and wonderful.

Gerry ha detto...

Those bags are so cute and ironic. It totally doesn't fall into any copyright issues either as it's technically a parody.

Thanks for sharing :)

Gerry ha detto...

On another note, you can always buy things secondhand. My all-time favorite bag is from Costume National (I've used it to death) and only cost $2 because Costume National doesn't have too much name recognition.

I like it that way. I feel pretentious and statusy with anything logoed.

Unknown ha detto...

Hi!
I think your blog is very, very intersting and I already follow you. I'm waiting your visit.
http://amigadamoda.blogspot.com

ashley ha detto...

omg is it weird that I like those. I really love crochet things.

parlo italiano. un po'.